MBTI and Fandom

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See also: Alignment Chart, Hogwarts Houses, Personality Tests
Fanart by ZiYiDraws depicting the INFP character from 16Personalities.com.
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The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality typology developed in 1943. There are sixteen types consisting of a combination of one trait from four binary sets: introversion/extroversion (I/E), intuition/sensing (N/S), thinking/feeling (T/F), and judging/perceiving (J/P). This system is widely popular but has faced criticism from the scientific community as pseudoscience.

MBTI types have attained prominence in fannish spaces alongside more whimsical fiction-based systems such as Hogwarts Houses and the Dungeons & Dragons alignment system. Typing characters and celebrities is a common activity, inspiring memes, metas, and dedicated blogs. Some acafans have conducted demographic surveys and found that introverted-intuitive MBTI types – less common in the general population – have more representation in fandom.

The MBTI-inspired website 16Personalities.com has generated a fandom centered on the anthromorphized characters it uses to represent each of the types.

Explaining the MBTI system

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was developed by Katharine Cook Briggs (1875-1968) and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers (1897-1980) in 1943 based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung.[1] Official versions of the test are only available for a fee through the Myers-Briggs Company and its certified testers.[1] Free personality tests based on the MBTI are available through sites such as 16Personalities.com.[1]

MBTI types consist of four letters representing one trait from four binary sets:

  • Introvert/extrovert (I/E): In broadest terms, introverts enjoy solitary activities and find socialization difficult, while extroverts enjoy group activities and find socialization energizing.
  • Intuition/sensing (N/S): Intuitors are introspective and more interested in abstract, philosophical ideas and possibility. Sensors are practical and more focused on the present, sensory experiences, and concrete ideas.
  • Thinking/feeling (T/F): Thinkers tend to reach thoughts, assessments, and decisions through logic or rationalization. Feelers tend to base these same things on emotional responses or emotion-centered reasoning.
  • Judging/perceiving (J/P): Judgers are reliable, organized, but somewhat inflexible people who prefer order, routine, and sometimes tradition. Perceivers are adaptable, open-minded, but somewhat less reliable people who prefer freedom, variability, and sometimes spontaneity.

Though represented by these letters, many have the misconception that MBTI is based on the application of a singular letter being more representative of one's personality. However, MBTI was established more to organize the Jungian cognitive functions through specific combinations of extraverted/introverted intuition, extraverted/introverted sensing, extraverted/introverted feeling, and extraverted/introverted thinking.

Alternative systems using the same 16 types include the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) and Socionics. The KTS divides the types into four "temperaments" that have been replicated by online sites such as 16Personalities.com: Artisans (ISFP, ISTP, ESFP, ESTP), Guardians (ISTJ, ISFJ, ESFJ, ESTJ), Idealists (ENFP, INFJ, INFP, ENFJ), and Rationals (INTP, ENTJ, ENTP, INTJ).[2][3]

Criticism

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has long faced criticism due to lacking supporting scientific evidence, and for producing results viewed as inconsistent, inaccurate, and vague, with common problems including inconsistent outcomes and the lack of a bimodal distribution that would be expected if this corresponded to actual personality types.[4][5][6][7] The scientific community deems it to be pseudoscience on par with astrology or enneagrams.[6][7]

MBTI has gotten further criticism on grounds of eugenics, with claims particularly referencing Briggs' second novel, Give Me Death that has a "virulently racist plot"[8].

Fannish critics have cited the prevalence of the system as an example of a divisive "labelling culture."

This is the fundamental question of critiquing fandom. I definitely think that labeling culture within fandom on Tumblr contributes to trivializing actual identity categories, whether it's race, sexuality, able-bodiedness, etc., with people talking about their Myers-Briggs results and their Hogwarts houses.

Elizabeth Minkel (2018)[9]

Fan Demographics

Demographic surveys have found that MBTI types that are less common in the general population may have greater representation in fannish spaces. Acafan Gayle Stever conducted multiple fandom surveys in the early-to-mid 1990s and found that introverted-intuitive types (INFP, INFJ, INTP, INTJ) were "heavily overrepresented" in her samples.[10] IN types collectively accounted for 43% of Star Trek fans and 38% of Michael Jackson fans in Stever's research.[10] These types would've been expected to account for only 11% of a general sample according to her.[10]

Access to MBTI typing was limited to paper tests administered by certified testers before the rise of free online alternatives.[11] Stever obtained official qualification and personally tested research participants.[11] This means that there are less demographic data from the period before fans were able to freely and easily type themselves through online tests.

  • Homestuck: INFP was found to be the most common type in a 2015 survey of over 3,000 fans.[15]
  • Harry Potter: A 2016 survey of 511 fans found that INFJ was the average type among the sample.[16] This survey sought to correlate MBTI types with Hogwarts Houses, concluding that Gryffindors were more likely to be ESFPs, Ravenclaws to be INTPs, Hufflepuffs to be ISFJs, and Slytherins to be ENTJs.[17] Gryffindor had the "highest extrovert-to-introvert ratio" of all houses.[18]
  • Dream Team (MCYT): A 2020 survey of 449 fans found that INFPs accounted for 40.9% of respondents while INTJs and INFJs individually accounted for 8.9%.[19]
  • Wheel of Time: In the 2022 Wheel of Time Ajah Survey of 1,077 fans, 65% of respondents reported being introverted-intuitive types while 77% of respondents overall were introverted.[20] Individually, INFP was the most common type (18.8%), followed by INTJ (16.9%), INFJ (15.9%), and INTP (13.7%).[20] The survey asked with which Ajah (the seven orders of the Aes Sedai) fans most identified.[20] Two Ajahs accounted for 60% of respondents, with the learning-focused Brown Ajah representing 35%, while the justice-focused Blue Ajah represented 25%.[20] INFJ was the most common type among Blue Ajah.[20] INFP was the most common type among Brown Ajah and healing-focused Yellow Ajah.[20] INTJ was the most common type among Green (Aes Sedai military), Grey (politics-focused), and Red Ajah (Aes Sedai police). Philosophy-focused White Ajah were overwhelmingly INTPs (35.5%) and INTJs (25.8%).[20]
  • Avatar: The 2023 Na'vi Nation Census similarly found that INFP was the most common type (27.9%), followed by INFJ (13.9%), INTJ (12.3%), and INTP (11.9%).[21]

Typing Characters & Celebs

Assigning MBTI types to fictional characters and celebrities is a relatively common fannish activity. Discussions with this focus occurred on Usenet in the 1990s.[22][23][24][25] Wider fannish interest in MBTI during this period may have been limited by reduced accessibility to typing. In the 2000s, message boards devoted to discussion of personality typologies were established, including Personality Cafe (founded 2008[26]) and Typology Central (c. 2008[27]). Websites devoted to typing celebrities and characters such as Celebrity Types (c. 2011[28]) and Personality Database (c. 2020[29]) have also emerged. In the 2010s, the rise of Tumblr as a fannish hub included blogs centered on typing characters,[30][31] as well as ones more generally focused on the system itself.[32][33]

Early examples of chart-format MBTI character memes on DeviantArt date between 2007 and 2012.[34][35][36][37] These may have been influenced by the Hogwarts House and demotivational posters that were common around the same time. The format seems to have reached its peak in the mid-2010s. It may have been popularized by Tumblr user Simbaga creating versions for Harry Potter,[38] Adventure Time,[39] Avatar: The Last Airbender,[40] and other fandoms which garnered thousands of likes and reblogs.

Certain MBTI types have developed associations with specific character archetypes. Calculating (usually villainous) masterminds are often typed as INTJs.[41][42] Idealistic dreamers like Belle, Luke Skywalker, and Luna Lovegood are frequently stereotyped as INFPs.[43][44][45] "Mother hens" such as Dr. McCoy, Effie Trinket, and Molly Weasley are usually typed as ESFJs.[46][47] Charming rogues like Loki,[48] River Song,[49] and Astarion[50] are commonly typed as ENTJs or ENTPs.

Chart Examples

16 Personalities Fandom

The original 16 Personalities character art from 2014.

16 Personalities (16Personalities.com) is a website that offers a personality test based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. In 2014, the site commissioned artwork of personifications of each type, which were created by Piotr Antkowiak for Zeda Labs.[51][52] An animated set of character art was later produced for the site by Sofiya Voznaya.[53] This new art was based on Antkowiak's designs but changed the gender and appearance of some characters.[53] A fandom centered on the 16 Personalities characters – complete with fanart and shipping – emerged in the early 2020s.

The site divides the types into four groups influenced by the Keirsey Temperament Sorter.[3] These are the purple-coded Analysts (equivalent to Keirsey's Rationals), green-coded Diplomats (Idealists), blue-coded Sentinels (Guardians), and yellow-coded Explorers (Artisans).[3] Fanart based on the 16 Personalities characters generally follows this colour scheme. It often preserves traits from the 16 Personalities art, such as gender, clothing, and hairstyle. For example, INFJ is generally depicted as a bearded Gandalf-type wizard, INFP as a flower crown-wearing hippie woman, and INTP as a female scientist with a ponytail and labcoat based on Voznaya's updated character designs. Depictions of Analyst and Diplomat characters seem more common than depictions of Sentinels and Explorers. This apparent trend is consistent with the type distributions that have been found in demographic surveys of fandom.

Fanworks

Fanart

7HRang

Asterycat

chaotika_art

CollaineArts

cookiezncatz

FEIKNAMAE

Hui Tzu Liu

JaxPerson

Kerkikerk

lireii

marmmmm

saku-chann

Seis-art

vollogo

Yasmine S

Gallery

  • Ship art by AlexBraixen of ISFP and INFP. ‎

  • INTJ by GoldenYakStudios

  • Fanart by Hiniha of Biker Mice from Mars OCs as INFP and ESFJ.

  • ENFP by KaylanneSaraiva15 ‎

  • INFJ by mihar34‎

  • INFP by moxvyo

  • Analyst characters by nyaninai0

  • Diplomat characters by nyaninai0 ‎

  • Explorer characters by nyaninai0 ‎

  • INFP by Andrea Revilla ‎

  • ISFJ by SerenityDarknesss

  • A genderswapped INTP by TonyWasKing.

  • A genderswapped INTJ by vicksdorito. ‎

References

  1. ^ a b c Elle Version, "What personality are you? How the Myers-Briggs test took over the world", The Guardian, 30 August 2021
  2. ^ "Keirsey Temperament Sorter" on Wikipedia
  3. ^ a b c "Personality Types" from 16 Personalities
  4. ^ Dean Burnett, "Nothing personal: The questionable Myers-Briggs test", The Guardian, 19 March 2013
  5. ^ Joseph Stromberg & Estelle Caswell, "Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless", Vox, 8 October 2015
  6. ^ a b Angus Chen, "How Accurate Are Personality Tests?", Scientific American, 10 October 2018
  7. ^ a b Jim Edwards, "How thousands of companies ended up using a bogus psychology test on their staff", The Independent, 12 October 2022
  8. ^ Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs, Emre, Merve. Digg. October 1, 2015. Accessed March 1, 2024.
  9. ^ Lori Morimoto (host), "Roundtable: Tumblr and fandom", Transformative Works and Cultures, volume 27 (2018)
  10. ^ a b c Gayle Stever, "PSRs in Adults and Older Adults", in The Oxford Handbook of Parasocial Experiences, page 213 (2023)
  11. ^ a b Gayle S. Stever, "Fan studies in psychology: A road less traveled", Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 30 (2019)
  12. ^ a b Sean Sporman, "Online 'Brony Herd Census' Reveals Facts, Stats About Adult My Little Pony Fans", WTVY, 25 March 2016
  13. ^ a b Pavol Kosnáč, "The Development of Spirituality in the Brony Community", in Fiction, Invention and Hyper-reality: From Popular Culture to Religion (2016)
  14. ^ a b "Herd Census 2013 State of the Herd Report from Equestria Daily
  15. ^ "Survey Results #1" from homestuck-arts on Tumblr (reblog by classesandaspects)
  16. ^ "Harry Potter and MBTI, Part 1: Introduction" by Joaquin Garcia
  17. ^ "Harry Potter and MBTI, Part 6: The Combinations of Gryffindor (I)" by Joaquin Garcia
  18. ^ "Harry Potter and MBTI, Part 2: The Houses of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw" by Joaquin Garcia
  19. ^ "DTeam Tumblr Demographics Survey Results (Part 1): The Gifted Child Syndrome is Real with this One…" by lightns881 on Tumblr
  20. ^ a b c d e f g RationalNerd, "A Tale of Seven Ajahs", TheGreatBlight.com, 17 March 2022
  21. ^ "2023 Na'vi Nation Census (Demographics Survey)" on r/Avatar on Reddit (results in linked Google Doc)
  22. ^ "What MBTI types are these fictional characters?", thread on alt.psychology.personality, 12 March 1996
  23. ^ "Meyer Briggs type of famous detective", thread on alt.psychology.personality, first post dated 31 March 1996
  24. ^ "Capt. Picard Character Type (yes, mundane question)", thread on alt.psychology.personality, first post dated 10 February 1998
  25. ^ "Meyers Briggs & due South", thread on alt.tv.due-south, first post dated 26 April 1999
  26. ^ "Personality Cafe" entry on LinkedIn
  27. ^ The earliest Wayback Machine capture of TypologyCentral.com dates from 17 December 2008.
  28. ^ The earliest Wayback Machine capture of CelebrityTypes.com dates from 22 June 2011.
  29. ^ The earliest Wayback Machine captures of Personality-Database.com date from 2020.
  30. ^ fictionalcharactersmbti on Tumblr
  31. ^ characters-mbti on Tumblr
  32. ^ mbti-everything on Tumblr
  33. ^ mbti-resources on Tumblr
  34. ^ "Avatar Myer-Briggs Chart" by bobangeba on DeviantArt (2007)
  35. ^ "Myers-Briggs Star Trek Edition" by loqutor on DeviantArt (2010)
  36. ^ "Avatar MBTi Test Result Chart" by Ph0x3h on DeviantArt (2012)
  37. ^ "Adventure Time MBTI Chart" by Ivan2294 on DeviantArt (2012)
  38. ^ Chart by Simbaga on Tumblr (reblog by thesixteentypes)
  39. ^ Chart by Simbaga on Tumblr (reblog fictionalcharactermbti)
  40. ^ Chart by Simbaga on Tumblr (reblog from smallsasuke)
  41. ^ Veronique Hoebeke, "We Really Need to Stop Depicting INTJs as Villains", Introvert, Dear, 7 March 2017
  42. ^ Jena Brown, "Anatomy of a Villain: Dissecting the Personality Types of Characters We All Love to Hate", Truity, 14 May 2020
  43. ^ "The INFP Archetypes" from mbtiblogfun on Tumblr
  44. ^ Star Wars Girl, "Luke Skywalker on the MBTI Chart", 19 April 2018
  45. ^ "DAE hate being stereotyped as the 'loopy hippy' dreamer?" thread on r/infp on Reddit
  46. ^ Simone Torn, "MBTI: Disney Characters Who Represent ESFJ Traits", Screen Rant, Screen Rant, 28 February 2020
  47. ^ The Nerd Book Nook, "Personality Typing Some of Our Favorite Literary Characters"
  48. ^ Mara & Ryan, "MCU: Loki Laufeyson (ENTP)", Practical Typing, 24 March 2023
  49. ^ "River Song" on Personality Database
  50. ^ "Astarion on Personality Database
  51. ^ "16 Personality" from Quinn Zeda on Behance
  52. ^ "16 Personalities" from Piotr Antkowiak's online portfolio
  53. ^ a b "16Personalities (Animation)" by Sofiya Voznaya
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