• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Myers-Briggs

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
Free personality test | 16Personalities

It has been asked some years ago, but I'm once more curious what the average Myers Briggs types are on this forum. I'd imagine a majority of us would in the intuitive section, and would be very surprised if this were not the case, but besides this I have no expectations.

I personally score consistently as INFP and occassionally as INFJ. Strong imagination, focused on the feel of things over the substance, quick to fall in and out of passion, private and ... kind of terrible with critique. Feels accurate to me, and reading through the descriptions gives me chills from time to time due to the accuracy. These people are spying on me, I know it.

Finally, just to be certain, let me state that these tests are of course never perfect and your result can change depending on the mood you are in. As personality tests go, Myers-Briggs is reputable and has been used professionally, but you should never take the results for gospel.
 
Last edited:

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
I thought INTJ was called the architect.

Is this a scheme to give yourself a cooler title? Dastardly fire bird.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I've done these tests a number of times. Most often I draw INTJ-Mastermind. Today, I drew INFJ-Advocate. I think INTJ is more accurate, but occasionally I get a different result. I think these test are no longer useful (or accurately measuring) because I can now anticipate where the answers are going. Could be I have changed a little over time.

Reading through the Advocate Personality, very little of it rings true with me. I'll stick with Mastermind. That was my original result way back when anyway.


Devor only thinks he is a mastermind, but I can out mind him ;)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ban

Firefly

Troubadour
I'm also an INTJ.

I thought INTJ was called the architect.

Is this a scheme to give yourself a cooler title? Dastardly fire bird.

I think maybe they changed it and not all the pages for updated? Or something like that. I've also been tripped up by that before.
Shame. I agree, Mastermind was cooler.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
INTJ was the most popular one last time around as well I believe. I wonder if it is coïncidence, or if INTJ types are disproportionally attracted to fantasy writing.
 
Last edited:

Firefly

Troubadour
From other writer-discussions I've seen, it seems as though most of us are IN-somethings, but those were all general and not genre-specific. Any ideas on why thinking/judging would be more common in fantasy?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ban

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
Perhaps an analytical mindset is more tuned to stories with intricate detail and the need to be fully built?
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Introverted comes with the alone time required in writing.
INtuition comes with a sense of seeing something "hidden" and different that makes a good story.
Thinking comes with all the laborious thought work that goes into the planning and prose.
Judging comes with the millions of decisions you have to make in every sentence.

I could see how some of the others would have advantages as well, but I'll leave that to someone else.
 

Firefly

Troubadour
Introverted comes with the alone time required in writing.
INtuition comes with a sense of seeing something "hidden" and different that makes a good story.
Thinking comes with all the laborious thought work that goes into the planning and prose.
Judging comes with the millions of decisions you have to make in every sentence.

I could see how some of the others would have advantages as well, but I'll leave that to someone else.

Hmm. My explanation for all the intuitives was just that the Sensing types are not into the whole abstract/imaginary thing. Totally agree with all the others though.
 
INFJ-Advocate

I took this test maybe ten years ago and don't recall what I was then. . . but I do recall having many more extreme agree/disagree answers then compared to what I chose now. I've definitely eased off of my fanatical side. :) And I'll usually do the test for any main characters in my longer fiction too. It can help me get a framework sense of them to build upon and to turn to when I'm unsure how they might react in a complex situation.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
*shrug*
I resist being told I *am* any one thing. Humans are too shifty (and shiftless). I am both the same as I was when I was twenty, and not the same as I was yesterday.

At the same time, we do love naming things and categorizing things and seeing patterns everywhere. Hence the eternal attraction of astrology ... oh, pardon me, Myers-Briggs & Co. <wink>

It's like when people talk about being right-brained or left-brained. I prefer whole-brained, though sometimes I'm merely brained. Which means I have a whole in my head.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
Oh Skip, I knew someone would come around and say it, which is why I had added this portion to the initial post ;)

Finally, just to be certain, let me state that these tests are of course never perfect and your result can change depending on the mood you are in. As personality tests go, Myers-Briggs is reputable and has been used professionally, but you should never take the results for gospel.

Personality tests are of course nothing to base a life around, but if something feels eerily accurate to a lot of people, I think it is also silly to simply reject it as akin to astrology.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
But that phrase "personality test". It implies there is this thing called a personality and you can test for it, like a litmus test.

Of course people find it is eerily accurate. They (not necessarily the same individuals) have same reaction to a baker's dozen of other personality tests, and also to the four humors, to Tarot readings, numerology, and so on. This is what we do as humans, we put things--including ourselves--into categories. It helps us make sense of the world.

I don't reject any of it. I find the scientific stuff less interesting because it aims at objectivity. Palm reading, to grab an example at random, is fascinating because it involves human beings on both sides. But I also don't take them too seriously. Nor ought folks take me too seriously, either!
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
I'd disagree with that. If it were but a gimmick, I would be able to find myself in any of the other personality types presented to me. An astrology or humor reading is so vague and general that all types can fit all molds, with the user's own personal desire for the test to work being the determinant for its accuracy. This is simply not the case with this test, therefore the analogy is contrived.

And yes, it being a personality test does imply that it tests one's personality, which is exactly what it does, with surprising accuracy. That said there is no problem with people not caring for it, but placing it in the same category as your examples is disingenuous in my opinion.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I mean, these things are pretty straightforward. Identify a trait - extroversion - and then ask a bunch of questions that are just subtle ways of asking "How extroverted are you?" Give both ends of the spectrum a fancy name and roll with it. Take all the traits you test for and look what kind of person you have when you put them together.

It's true, it's not your entire personality. It's only a cursory look at the different combinations of four different traits. There are countless traits in a complete personality.

Myers-Brigg is a bit dated. It's main fault is that it strives to maintain an equilibrium between the personality types, which is fine for what it is, but severely limits the scope of what a personality test can tell you. A test that asked "Are you a hard worker?" - a trait known in psychology as conscientiousness - comes out with results like "You're a lazy bum who fails to live up to your potential." That's not as fun of a test.

I prefer the Strengthsfinder 2.0 test which produces a list of 5 different strengths. If you read carefully you can tell that some strengths are better versions of others, and there are too many combinations for them to try and produce a write up for the full combination. It's also positive without trying to praise both ends of the spectrum - if you take a test and there's nothing about how you interact with others in the result, well, you can figure out what that means. It's also geared more towards working styles. But overall it gives you a pretty accurate assessment of your abilities.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Totally agree that these tests are more of a curiosity than defining, I am a little concerned that perhaps they carry a danger along the lines of 'these should not be open to the general public and should be a tool of psychologists', but I would not really know. I think that they can serve a harmful purpose of defining one as a way of giving permission to an individual to behave a certain way because they found they identified with the results, and not continue to try to be their better selves (did that make sense). For me, I found the results interesting a long time ago, eye opening in adding more insight into things I knew were true but could not articulate as well, and educational about other personalities I come across. I had the same reaction with the strengths finder test.

Not that I would expect anyone here to know, but my most defined strength was identified as Strategy, or Strategic thinking (or something like that). I was not surprised, I am very strategic. I am very good at board games and almost never lose. But I also approach most problems that way, and sometimes it is quite limiting. I rarely have emotional reactions and more often approach things with the concept or what is the most likely outcome and which approach can most likely achieve the best outcome. That is great, but sometimes it needs to be turned off and I have trouble with that.

Knowing the label does not spare me the challenges. But its nice to have a label. It can help clarify things.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ban

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
I think there is great benefit in having tools like these to help identify yourself. While any such test will always be too simplistic to account for a full human, contradictions and all, I do believe we all have strong patterns that we can identify and use as an anchorage when needed. This brings the risk of people hiding behind these patterns as you say pmmg, but a healthy dose of scepticism should be able to mitigate that to my mind.

I also think that this test in specific is rather responsible in its analysis by telling people the downsides of their traits, and as such don't think it actually is trying to please all sides as Devor states. Each type is presented with positives and their respective negatives, and it is up to the individual to decide how much attention and care they lend to both.

And I also like labels when used responsibly. It's impossible to get to know all people in full, and likely impossible to fully get to know even one person who isn't you, so I'd say a convenient, balanced labeling system is a nice way to balance between individuality and understanding.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
'sfunny, but as a writer the main interest in these comes from helping me see faults and weaknesses I might otherwise overlook. Especially in thinking about faults for my protagonists.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ban
Top