I can’t send you to a direct link, so here are the results. Some of the results need to be crunched by me unfortunately. But here’s a sample (yes, I didn’t do much more than the basic R density plot).
#3, basically the reason i blog and many of my readers just read is that i am an ENTJ and they are INTJ’s sux 2 b shy!
AG
Introversion seems majority. Fits the world of intellectuals.
As matter of degree, high level of introversion might even avoid commenting here. The goal of introverts is to avoid conflict and seek autonomy. They are more likely to buy a house as far as possible from other people if financially able. Yes, upper class out of sight.
Finns are considered most introverted people.
FINN JOKE: Finnish Extroverts
How can you tell the difference between a Finnish introvert and a Finnish extrovert?
When he’s talking to you a Finnish introvert looks at his feet.
A Finnish extrovert looks at yours.
zach
Can you explain the x-axis of the political distribution chart?
anon anon
Especially for those who said MBTI is pseudoscience the breakdown was interesting.
27% of us population are N and 90% of respondents.
In general, it seems that the J/P axis is the only one which is pretty representative of the U.S. population as whole. Otherwise we’re tilted severely toward introversion, intuitiveness, and thinking. None of this is surprising to me other than the N/S breakdown. While in general S’s tend to be less intellectually curious, ISTJ’s are stereotypical engineers, and I know we have more than a few engineers who are commenters.
Ed
Especially for those who said MBTI is pseudoscience the breakdown was interesting.
27% of us population are N and 90% of respondents.
% BLOG % US POP
INTJ 41.2 2.1
INTP 26.7 3.3
ENTJ 9.6 1.8
ENTP 5.3 3.2
INFP 5.9 4.4
ISTP 3.2 3.3
INFJ 1.1 1.5
ISTJ 3.2 11.6
ISFP 2.1 8.8
ESTP 0.5 4.3
ENFP 0.5 8.1
ISFJ 0.5 13.8
So INTJ are vastly over-represented.
(Full disclosure: i am an intj female)
Wow, are extroverted people really that rare?
Neuro-conservative
I am surprised that 96% believe in animal sentience. What am I missing here? (I mean, about the readership and the connection between interest in genetics and belief in animal sentience — I am not looking to be convinced about animal sentience).
Is it simply that biologically-minded thinkers do not tend to find a satisfying alternative to religous-based support for a belief in human exceptionalism? I am aware of many available alternatives, with considerable empirical support. (Also, common sense, but that tends to be in rare supply amongst us INTJ’s!)
Brian
I score INTP or INTJ consistently. I am also a socially liberal white male atheist with a graduate degree. It looks like I am with my people on this site. I generally think of Myers-Briggs as pseudoscience, but it seems to capture important regularities. I would be interested to learn what other behavioral/belief patterns match “NTs.”
Chris_T_T
I wonder how many respondents have actually taken a Myers Brigg.
Even given the leanings of Razib and this site’s subject matter, the number identifying as INTs (68%!) is suspiciously high given the actual distribution in the population.
anon anon
@ Ed.
Extroverts are rare on this site:
in the USA population they are 73%: on this blog they are 10%. The table which didn’t come out well shows among respondents to the survey a massive over-representation of INTJ, a moderate over-representation of other NTs, and a shocking under-represenation of the E and S (E= noisy, shallow, extroverts) and (S= dumbs (remember N=iNtelligent and S = stupid).
@ neuro-conservative
Animal sentience = awareness, emotions, feeling, ability to suffer, to be happy. You know, dogs are basically extroverts only even less intelligence (but more loyalty). Cats on the other had have tendencies to I and N…
Schrödinger’s Hat
My favorite response was the one which replied that Myers-Briggs was pseudoscience, and then misspelled it.
Also, I’m not sure if the responses to ‘desired children’ that were really large (one was 80, the other 100) were from trolls, or guys who are REALLY concerned with leaving descendants.
Karl Zimmerman
13 -
I’m not sure I’d argue that S’s are stupid, merely incurious. ISTJ is the stereotypical engineer after all.
pconroy
@11, Neuro
Well that question asked is animals were sentient and could feel pain – which is kind of a twofer – so I ignored the first part.
I do not think animals are conscious – the way most modern humans are. In fact if you read Jaynes, most of the classics written by the Ancients show clearly that they too were not conscious the way we moderns in the West would define it.
pconroy
@15, Karl
INTJ is the typical enginer
Karl Zimmerman
17 -
*sigh* You’re right of course. I’ve barely looked at Myers-Briggs since college, and didn’t care about much besides my own personality type (INTP) anyway.
As to consciousness, I think it’s pretty clear that:
1. At least all craniates feel pain.
2. A wide range of animals appear to engage in problem solving which seems to involve some sort of volition
3. Great Apes (and occasionally a few other animals) pass the mirror test, and thus are self-aware.
4. All Eutherian mammals, IIRC, dream. One could draw the conclusion that if animals can experience dreams, they must have qualia when awake as well.
5. A wide array of mammals, and even birds, appear to have emotions – not just simple ones like anger and fear, but more complicated ones, like maternal love and grief.
That said, it’s pretty clear that animals do not have a “theory of mind” which encompasses other beings. And without language, it’s hard to say how animal thought itself would work. They clearly are not flesh robots, but we can’t use our own qualia to draw conclusions.
Ed
My girlfriend’s personality type is ENFJ:
Introverted Thinking is least apparent and most enigmatic in this type. In fact, it often appears only when summoned by Feeling. At times only in jest, but in earnest if need be, Thinking entertains as logical only those conclusions which support Feeling’s values. Other scenarios can be shown invalid or at best significantly inferior. Such “Thinking in the service of Feeling” has the appearance of logic, but somehow it never quite adds up.
Sounds about right.
I got ENTJ, but only mildly expressed extrovert ~ 52/48.
pconroy
@20, Ed,
I’m similar, I usually score slightly more ENTJ than INTJ, though in reality I’m an anti-social extrovert – which is hard to categorize I guess.
I usually say I’m: xNTJ
Jim R
I’m not surprised to find myself as one of the 5% with the least education, but I am surprised to find that 4% of people reject non environmental *individual* differences in height. Maybe Skee-Lo should have blamed his parents for not raising him a little bit taller
Chris_T_T
Actually, Karl’s initial classification of engineers as typically ISTJ was correct (though sensing is only slightly preferred in the first study):
Pigs are the smartest of farm animals – way smarter than horses and even smarter than dogs. This is all the more heroic when you realize that pigs make terrible swimmers – they have sharp, pointy hooves and a tendency to slash their own throats when swimming for any length of time. I grew up on a farm…
I’d say we should assume animals have consciousness, since our selfish bias is to assume otherwise (so we feel less guilty when we kill them and eat them.)
Jokah Macpherson
#20 & #21
I am an “anti-social extrovert” ENTJ as well. I guess a lot of the extroverts who read this blog are only mildly extroverted.
INTJ represent! Like many others commenting, the I/E metric is not strong. It’s not shy, rather it comes down to “do you recharge your batteries in public or alone.* The labels are misleading. I think there are plenty of Is that are not “an introvert” and can easily be read by others as extremely extroverted (leaders, public speakers, etc.).
Similarly one might ask “does your locus of identity lie within or externally to one’s self.”
Even though INTJs are a very small percent of the population, it never ceases to amaze me how many blogs I read and how many of my own blog’s readership are INTJ or one degree removed (NT is universal, which makes sense given the manner in which one argues and debates (as on a blog) is more tied to those two axes than either of the other two.
Sandgroper
@28 – Thanks, that’s a very helpful explanation.
Grey
“Also, I’m not sure if the responses to ‘desired children’ that were really large (one was 80, the other 100) were from trolls, or guys who are REALLY concerned with leaving descendants.”
I’m just so pleased with how my two turned out i wish i’d had more – 40 copies of each basically.
AG
For people want to understand introverts, here is a good video
Just took the survey – hope I’m not messing up the # of children graph. Put 1 1/2 cause I’m pregnant. (Though at this point, more like 1 7/9ths, in the home stretch…)
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Gene Expression
Human evolution, genetics, genomics and their interstices.
About Razib Khan
I have degrees in biology and biochemistry, a passion for genetics, history, and philosophy, and shrimp is my favorite food. In relation to nationality I'm a American Northwesterner, in politics I'm a reactionary, and as for religion I have none (I'm an atheist). If you want to know more, see the links at http://www.razib.com
