At the suggestion of a wise friend on Twitter, I decided to try to find the most frequently occuring MBTI preference on Twitter.
I started by asking all of my Twitter followers to DM me their self-reported Myers-Briggs type.
Then, I did a quick search of anyone on Twitter who put their MBTI preferences in their bio.
Finally, I used search.twitter.com to find people who reported their preferences in a twitter to others.
In my unscientific survey of the MBTI preferences of English speaking Twitterers (286 as of this post), here's what I found....INFP's rule Twitter!!! Contrary to their representation in he general population, INFP's and INTJ's are heafily represented in the Twitter community. Again, contrary to the general population, ISTJ, ESFJ, and ISFJ, and ESFP's are all under-represented in the Twitter Community.
Here is a breakdown of the statistics:
ISTJ
% of General Population: 11.6%
% in Twitter Sample: 2.8%
ISFJ
% of General Population: 13.8%
% in Twitter Sample: 2.1%
INFJ
% of General Population: 1.5%
% in Twitter Sample: 9.8%
INTJ
% of General Population: 2.1%
% in Twitter Sample: 17.5%
ISTP
% of General Population: 5.4%
% in Twitter Sample: 4.9%
ISFP
% of General Population: 8.8%
% in Twitter Sample: 1.4%
INFP
% of General Population: 4.4%
% in Twitter Sample: 14.7%
INTP
% of General Population: 3.3%
% in Twitter Sample: 12.6%
ESTP
% of General Population: 4.3%
% in Twitter Sample: 3.8%
ESFP
% of General Population: 8.5%
% in Twitter Sample: 0.7%
ENFP
% of General Population: 8.1%
% in Twitter Sample: 9.4%
ENTP
% of General Population: 3.2%
% in Twitter Sample: 8.7%
ESTJ
% of General Population: 8.7%
% in Twitter Sample: 1.4%
ESFJ
% of General Population: 12.3%
% in Twitter Sample: 0.3%
ENFJ
% of General Population: 2.5%
% in Twitter Sample: 3.1%
ENTJ
% of General Population: 1.8%
% in Twitter Sample: 6.6%
So, what do you think? Are you surprised by any of the results?
I will continue to gather additional data and will post updates as the Twitter community grows and diversifies.
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Results are In: The Most Common Myers-Briggs Type on Twitter is...
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19 comments:
Interesting to see that all the subgroups that had a lower % on Twitter than in the general population were Sensing groups.
That's because most Sensing types tend to discount social networking as a useless fad. I'm engineer, and most of my colleagues see blogs/Facebook/MySpace/etc as distractions more than tools. BTW, I'm an ESTJ
Constant stream of emotes is INFP heaven. :)
@Diane- excellent observation! i missed that!
@Diane- ISTJ here...I've heard the same thing from other S's. Great point!
@Krist- I wonder if following so many INFP's is broadening my ISTJ horizon?!
"ISTJ, ESFJ, and ISFJ, and ESFP's are all under-represented in the Twitter Community."
Could it also be that any of these sensing groups are less likely to broadcast their MBTI in their profile?
I tweet. In 16 years, I've taken MB eight times: six on my own, twice at jobs as a fun "team building" task. On my own (in the privacy of my own home), I scored INFP decisively every time. The two times I was "forced" to take the test on the job, for "fun," in the heat of demands and deadlines and who was screaming the loudest? Both of those times ( I am a manager charged with the career development of my staff), I was just as decisively an ENTJ. It's all about context.
I've shared this story with a number of friends, a couple of whom reported similar results. I think MBTI is great. Great fun. Insightful. But it's also situational. I just wanted to state that point for clarity.
Consider me an INFP Twit by nature. But my alter ego relates to your number two as well.
Just throwing my hat in.
-wrytir
For the record, I'm really happy you did this passive survey. Interesting, if not surprising.
In Kansas City, many Twits have come to know each other personally and meet regularly to advance social media concepts.
I relate to many of these people on various levels, so your informal results do not surprise me. Thank you.
@wrytir- I have to correct you. The MBTI is not situational. The MBTI is based on the personality theory of Carl Jung. In the MBTI/Jung theory, your personality type is innate.
However, if you were under extreme stress, you would have perceived the questions differently. Do you as a person change your natural preferences in stress? No...but you do change your behaviors. The personality doesn't change (no moreso than you change preferring your right or left hand) but the situation may call for you to do something out of preference (use your non preferred hand for a specific task). Once the uncommon task/situation is over, you go back to your natural preferences.
So, the point is your personality does not change, your perception of yourself/the questions could be influenced by dramatic events.
Does that make sense?
hmm... yeah.. more N's than S's; more I's than E's... Fascinating. I'm somewhat surprised about the Is, though it sort of makes sense when I think about it. I wonder if this extends into people who join on-line communities in general?
One thing I'm a little puzzled about is the significance of Twitter...? I still have not figured out what it is yet. Call me slow. Can someone explain it to me?
I think any form of written anything is going to draw a lot of INFPs!
@linda the significance of Twitter on an individual basis is whatever you want to be. The guys who developed it just put a blank box with 140 characters available and asked 'what are you doing now?'
The significance of Twitter overall is still emerging, but it's stunningly powerful. People use it like a gossip network, a place to get instant news in accidents and emergencies, and to conduct mass conversations while sharing an event like a sports contest or a presidential debate.
Twitter aches with potential. And it drips with meaning for intuitive people (I'm an INFJ).
I just wrote a short post about this survey at my blog.
Awesome and fascinating survey! and thanks for finding and following me on twitter.
I am an INTP, and I am now wondering if that might explain why I always interpret twitter's "What are you doing?" more like "What are you thinking?"
Anyways, I would love to see this study continued! There is surely some interesting analysis possible here.
Just posting a correction: a whole lot of online testing and self-analysis later, I have come to the conclusion that I am actually an INxP. There is so much about me that seems to be defined by my dilemma of T vs F! I seem to have just enough of both to thoroughly confuse myself, which seriously hinders my attempts to make decisions...
I'm exploring this further in my blog, but it's taking quite some time to really work through it enough for it to be ready to post.
I recently posted on my blog an article hypothesising that the success of Twitter is due to early-adopters (who I proposed are mainly Introverts) flocking to a service that offers control like Twitter does.
Interesting to see that this survey reinforces that perception with the majority of those cited in the survey being I, although I didnt pick up on the N dominance.
I'm an INFP and have always found myself to be an early adopter of social media and internet in general as it enhances my ability (and preference) to express myself and communicate using images and words - an INFP talent - I think we are perfectly suited as a personality type to the extensions that digital technology and new media like social media are bringing to normal parts of our everyday life as the adoption of these tools come so naturally to INFP
Awesome Breanne. Not too big a surprise though in terms of the INs. We're leaders and see the big picture.
For those introverts, we have a twitter group: http://twittgroups.com/group/introverts
Come over to a quiet corner.
Patricia Weber
Business Sales Accelerator Coach
http://www.patricia-weber.com
I am an INTP. I believe it is because the introverted people have a more difficult time expressing themselves in everyday conversation, with that being the case we come to the social networking site in order to express ourselves. Our extroverted counterparts however generally openly express thier ideas in every day situations and may find no need for social banter online.
VERY interesting post. I'm an ENFP- but on the graph for Myers Briggs my E dot is very close to center. Not a strong E. My husband is an ISTJ and he could care less about social networking. He'd take a bullet before he would tweet. Good stuff.
As an INFP I can tell you that Twitter is now my preferred social media. I want to express myself, but not necessarily engage in an interchange with anyone. I like the brevity - an overview is enough, details are unwanted and bog the moment down. Twitter is perfect for me.
I wonder if the INxJs flock to Live Journal or Blogger. Those media would provide enough room for all their organized thinking.
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