intelligence, personality, politics, and happiness _ intj mbti meyers briggs

8/10/2019 Intelligence, Personality, Politics, And Happiness _ INTJ MBTI Meyers Briggs

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12/14/2014 Intelligence, Personality, Politics, and Happiness | POLITICS & PROSPERITY

http://politicsandpr osperity.com/2011/01/04/intelligence-personality-politics-and-happiness/

POLITICS & PROSPERITY

WHERE LIBERTARIANISM MEETS REALITY

Intelligence, Personality, Politics, and Happiness

REVISED 07/08/11

This post is a collection and refinement of related posts at my old blog, Liberty Corner(http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/). Each section of this post carries the same title as the original post aLiberty Corner. IQ and Personality is and has been, by far, the most popular of my Liberty Corner

posts, so I give the eponymous section the place of honor in this post.

Webpages that link to this post usually consist of a discussion thread whose participants views of the postvary from I told you so to that doesnt square with me/my experience or MBTI is all wet because.Those who take the former position tend to be persons of aboveaverage intelligence whose MBTI typescorrelate well with high intelligence. Those who take the latter two positions tend to be persons who are

defensive about their personality types, which do not correlate well with high intelligence. Such personsshould take a deep breath and remember that high intelligence (of the abstractreasoningbooklearning kind

easured by IQ tests) is widely distributed throughout the population. As I say below, I am not claimingthat a small subset of MBTI types accounts for all highIQ persons, nor am I claiming that a small subset o

MBTI types is populated entirely by highIQ persons. All I am saying is that the bits of ev idence which Ihavecompiled suggest that high intelligence is more likely but far from exclusively tobe found amon

persons with certain MBTI types.

The correlations between intelligence, political leanings, and happiness are admittedly moretenuous. Buttheyare plausible.

eftists who proclaim themselves to be more intelligent than persons of the right do so, in my observation, a way of reassuring themselves of the superiority of their views. They have no legitimate basis for claimingthat the ranks of highly intelligent persons are dominated by the left. Leftist intellectuals(http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/intellectualsandsocietyareview/) in academia,ournalism, the arts, and other traditional haunts of leftism are prominent because they are vocal. But

they comprise a small minority of the population and should not be mistaken for typical leftists, who seem
http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/intellectuals-and-society-a-review/http://politicsandprosperity.com/http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/


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ainly to populate the ranks of the civil service, labor unions, the teaching profession, and the

unemployed. (It is worth noting that publicschool teachers, on the whole, are notoriously dumber than moother college graduates.)

gain, I am talking about general relationships, to which there are many exceptions. If you happen to be anexception, dont take this post personally. Youre probably an exceptional person.

IQ AND PERSONALITY

A few years ago I came across some statistics about the personality traits of highIQ persons(those who are in the top 2 percent of the population).* The statistics pertain to a widely usedpersonality test called the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (http://www.myersbriggs.org/mymbtipersonalitytype/mbtibasics/) (MBTI), which I have taken twice. In the MBTI there are four pairsof complementary personality traits, called preferences: Extraverted/Introverted,

Sensing/iNtuitive, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. Thus, there are 16 possiblepersonality types in the MBTI: ESTJ, ENTJ, ESFJ, ESFP, and so on. (For an introduction to MBTI,summaries of types, criticisms of MBTI, and links to other sources, see this article

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator) at Wikipedia. A straightforwarddescription of the theory of MBTI and the personality traits can be found here(http://www.capt.org/takembtiassessment/mbtioverview.htm). Detailed descriptions of the 16types are given here (http://typelogic.com/).)

In summary, here is what the statistics indicate about the correlation between personality traitsand IQ:

Other personality traits being the same, an iNtuitive person (one who grasps patterns and seekspossibilities) is 25 times more likely to have a high IQ than a Sensing person (one who focuses on

sensory details and the hereandnow).

Again, other traits being the same, an Introverted person is 2.6 times more likely to have a high IQthan one who is Extraverted; a Thinking (logicoriented) person is 4.5 times more likely to have ahigh IQ than aFeeling (peopleoriented) person; and aJudging person (one who seeks closure) is 1.times as likely to have a high IQ than a Perceiving person (one who likes to keep his options open).

Moreover, if you encounter an INTJ, there is a 22% probability that his IQ places him in the top 2percent of the population. (Disclosure: I am an INTJ.) Next are INTP, at 14%; ENTJ, 8%; ENTP,5%; and INFJ, 5%. (The next highest type is the INFP at 3%.) The five types (INTJ, INTP, ENTJ,

ENTP, and INFJ) account for 78% of the highIQ population but only 15% of the total population.

Four of the five mostintelligent types are NTs, as one would expect, given the probabilities citedabove. Those same probabilities lead to the dominance of INTJs and INTPs, which account for 49%of the Mensa membership but only 5% of the general population.**

Persons with the S preference bring up the rear, when it comes to taking IQ tests.**
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.org.mensa/2007-01/msg00052.htmlhttp://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.org.mensa/2007-01/msg00052.htmlhttp://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/http://typelogic.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicatorhttp://www.capt.org/take-mbti-assessment/mbti-overview.htm


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A person who encountered this post when it was at Liberty Cornerclaims(http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.org.mensa/200701/msg00052.html) that onewould expect to see the whole spectrum of intelligences within each personality type. Well, onedoes see just that, but high intelligence is skewed toward the five types listed above. I am notclaiming that a small subset of MBTI types accounts for all highIQ persons, nor am I claiming thaa small subset of MBTI types is populated entirely by highIQ persons.

I acknowledge reservations about MBTI, such as those discussed(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#Criticism) in the Wikipediaarticle. Ainherent shortcoming of psychological tests (as opposed to intelligence tests) is that they rely onsubjective responses (e.g., my favorite color might be black today and blue tomorrow). But I donot accept this criticism:

[S]ome researchers expected that scores would show a bimodal distribution(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimodal_distribution) with peaks near the ends of the scales, but foundthat scores on the individual subscales were actually distributed in a centrally peaked manner similar toa normal distribution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution). A cutoff exists at the center

of the subscale such that a score on one side is classified as one type, and a score on the other side as theopposite type. This fails to support the concept of type: the norm is for people to lie near the middle of thsubscale.

Why was it was expected that scores on a subscale (E/I, S/N, T/F, J/P) would show a bimodaldistribution? How often does one encounter a person who is at the extreme end of any subscale?

Not often, I wager, except in places where such extremes are likely to be clustered (e.g., Extravertin acting classes, Introverts in monasteries). The cutoff at the center of each subscale is arbitrary;it simply affords a shorthand characterization of a persons dominant traits. But anyone who takean MBTI (or equivalent instrument) is given his scores on each of the subscales, so that he knowsthe strength (or weakness) of his tendencies.

Regarding other points of criticism: It is possible, of course, that a person who is familiar withMBTI tends to see in others the characteristics of their known MBTI types (i.e., confirmation bias(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias)). But has that tendency been confirmed byrigorous testing? Such testing would examine the contrary case, that is, the ability of a person to

predict the type of a person whom he knows well (e.g., a coworker or relative). The supposedvagueness of the descriptions of the 16 types arises from the complexity of human personality; buthere aredifferences among the descriptions, just as there aredifferences among individuals. Ifonly half (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#cite_noteCarskadon40) othe persons who take the MBTI are able to guess their types before taking it, does that invalidateMBTI or does it point to a more likely phenomenon, namely, that introspection is a personalityrelated trait, one that is more common among Introverts than Extraverts. A good MBTI

[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#cite_noteMcCrae5)[7](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#cite_noteStricker6)[8](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#cite_noteMatthews7)[33](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#cite_notePittenger32)[42](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyersBriggs_Type_Indicator#cite_noteharvey41)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimodal_distributionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#Criticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-Matthews-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-Stricker-6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-harvey-41http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distributionhttp://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.org.mensa/2007-01/msg00052.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_biashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-Pittenger-32http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-McCrae-5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-Carskadon-40


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instrument cuts through selfdeception and selfflattery by asking the same set of questions inmany different ways, and in ways that do not make any particular answer seem like the rightone.

My considerable exposure to highIQ scientists in 30 years of working with them is suggestive.Most of them seemed to exhibit the traits of INTJs and INTPs. And those who took an MBTI testwere found to be INTJs and INTPs.

IQ AND POLITICS

It is hard to find clear, concise analyses of the relationship between IQ and political leanings. Ioffer the following in evidence that very highIQ individuals lean strongly toward libertarianpositions.

The Triple Nine Society (TNS) limits its membership to persons with IQs in the top 0.1% of thepopulation. In an undated survey (probably conducted in 2000, given the questions about theperceived intelligence of certain presidential candidates), members of TNS gave their views onseveral topics (in addition to speculating about the candidates intelligence): subsidies, taxation,civil regulation, business regulation, health care, regulation of genetic engineering, data privacy,death penalty, and use of military force.

The results (http://www.triplenine.org/poll/index.html) speak for themselves. Those members ofTNS who took the survey clearly have strong (if not unanimous) libertarian leanings.

THE RIGHT IS SMARTER THAN THE LEFT

I count libertarians as part of the right because libertarians antistatist views are aligned with theviews of the traditional (smallgovernment) conservatives who are usually Republicans. Having

said that, the results reported in IQ and Politics lead me to suspect that the right is smarter thanthe left, leftwing propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding. There is additional evidence formy view.

A site called Personality Page(http://www.personalitypage.com/) offers some data(http://www.personalitypage.com/political_affil.html) about personality type and politicalaffiliation. The sample is not representative of the population as a whole; the average age ofrespondents is 25, and introverted personalities are overrepresented (as you might expect for atest that is apparently selfadministered through a web site). On the other hand, the results areprobably unbiased with respect to intelligence because the data about personality type were notcollected as part of a study that attempts to relate political views and intelligence, and there isnothing on the site to indicate a leftwing bias. (Psychologists, who tend toward leftism, have aknack for making conservatives look bad, as discussed here(http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/2006/02/conservatismlibertarianismand.html), here(http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/2007/12/fscalerevisited.html), and here(http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/thepsychologistwhoplayedgod/). Ifthere is a strong association between political views and intelligence, it is found among socalledintellectuals (http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/intellectualsandsocietyareview/), where the herd mentality reigns supreme.)
http://www.triplenine.org/poll/index.htmlhttp://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/the-psychologist-who-played-god/http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/2007/12/f-scale-revisited.htmlhttp://www.personalitypage.com/political_affil.htmlhttp://www.personalitypage.com/http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/2006/02/conservatism-libertarianism-and.htmlhttp://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/intellectuals-and-society-a-review/


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The data provided by Personality Pageare based on the responses of 1,222 individuals who took a60question personality test that determined their MBTI types (see IQ and Personality). The testakers were asked to state their political preferences, given these choices: Democrat, Republican,middle of the road, liberal, conservative, libertarian, not political, and other. Political selflabellinis an exercise in subjectivity. Nevertheless, individuals who call themselves Democrats or liberals(the left) are almost certainly distinct, politically, from individuals who call themselvesRepublicans, conservatives, or libertarians (the right).

Now, to the money question: Given the distribution of personality types on the left and right,which distribution is more likely to produce members of Mensa? The answer: Those who selfdentify as persons of the right are 15% more likely to qualify for membership in Mensa thanhose who selfidentify as persons of the left.This result is plausible because it is consistent with

the pronounced antigovernment tendencies of the veryhighIQ members of the Triple NineSociety (see IQ and Politics).

REPUBLICANS (AND LIBERTARIANS) ARE HAPPIER THAN DEMOCRATS

That statement follows from research by the Pew Research Center (http://pewresearch.org/) (ArWe Happy Yet? (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/arewehappyyet) February 13, 2006) andGallup (http://www.gallup.com/) (Republicans Report Much Better Health Than Others(http://www.gallup.com/poll/102943/RepublicansReportMuchBetterMentalHealthThanOthers.aspx), November 30, 2007).

Pew reports:

Some 45% of all Republicans report being very happy, compared with just 30% of Democrats and 29%of independents. This finding has also been around a long time; Republicans have been happier than

Democrats (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/?ChartID=39) every year since the General Social Surveybegan taking its measurements in 1972.

Of course, theres a more obvious explanation for the Republicans happiness edge. Republicans tend tohave more money than Democrats, and as weve already discovered people who have more moneytend to be happier.

But even this explanation only goes so far. If one controls for household income(http://pewresearch.org/pubs/?ChartID=8), Republicans still hold a significant edge: that is, poorRepublicans are happier than poor Democrats; middleincome Republicans are happier than middle

income Democrats, and rich Republicans are happier than rich Democrats.

Gallup adds this:

Republicans are significantly more likely to report excellent mental health than are independents orDemocrats among those making less than $50,000 a year, and among those making at least $50,000 a

year. Republicans are also more likely than independents and Democrats to report excellent mentalhealth within all four categories of educational attainment.

There is a lot more in both sources. Read them for yourself.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yethttp://pewresearch.org/http://www.gallup.com/http://www.gallup.com/poll/102943/Republicans-Report-Much-Better-Mental-Health-Than-Others.aspxhttp://pewresearch.org/pubs/?ChartID=39http://pewresearch.org/pubs/?ChartID=8


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Why would Republicans be happier than Democrats? Heres my thought, Republicans tend to beconservative or libertarian (at least with respect to minimizing governments role in economicaffairs). I refer you to a post (http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/2004/06/libertarianconservativesarefrom.html) in which I discussed Thomas SowellsA Conflict of Visions:

He posits two opposing visions: the unconstrained vision (I would call it the idealistic vision) and theconstrained vision (which I would call the realistic vision). As Sowell explains, at the end of chapter 2:

The dichotomy between constrained and unconstrained visions is based on whether or not inherentlimitations of man are among the key elements included in each vision. These different ways ofconceiving man and the world lead not merely to different conclusions but to sharply divergent,often diametrically opposed, conclusions on issues ranging from justice to war.

Idealists (liberals) are bound to be less happy than realists (conservatives and libertarians)because idealists expectations about human accomplishments (aided by government) are higherthan those of realists, and so idealists are doomed to disappointment.

All of this is consistent with findings reported by law professor James Lindgren:

[C]ompared to antiredistributionists, strong redistributionists have about two to three times higherodds of reporting that in the prior seven days they were angry, mad at someone, outraged, sad, lonely,and had trouble shaking the blues. Similarly, antiredistributionists had about two to four times higherodds of reporting being happy or at ease. Not only do redistributionists report more anger, but theyreport that their anger lasts longer. When asked about the last time they were angry, strongredistributionists were more than twice as likely as strong opponents of leveling to admit that theyresponded to their anger by plotting revenge. Last, both redistributionists and anticapitalists expressedlower overall happiness, less happy marriages, and lower satisfaction with their financial situations and

with their jobs or housework. (From the abstract of Northwestern Law and Economics Research Paper0629, What Drives Views on Government Redistribution and AntiCapitalism: Envy or a Desire forSocial Dominance? (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=945932), March 15, 2011.)

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you are very intelligent with an IQ that puts you in the top 2% of the population you aremost likely to be an INTJ, INTP, ENTJ, ENTP, or INFJ, in that order. Your politics will lean heaviltoward libertarianism or smallgovernment conservatism. You probably vote Republican most ofthe time because, even if you are not a cardcarrying Republican, you are a staunch anti

Democrat. And you are a happy person because your expectations are not constantly defeated byreality.

* * *

Related post: Intelligence as a Dirty Word(http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/intelligenceasadirtyword/)

* * *

Footnotes:
http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/intelligence-as-a-dirty-word/http://libertycorner.blogspot.com/2004/06/libertarian-conservatives-are-from.htmlhttp://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=945932


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* I apologize for not having documented the source of the statistics that I cite here. I dimly recallfinding them on or via the website (http://www.us.mensa.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Homeof American Mensa, but I am not certain of that. And I can no longer find the source by searchingthe web. I did transcribe the statistics to a spreadsheet, which I still have. So, the numbers are reaeven if their source is now lost to me.

** Estimates of the distribution of MBTI types in the U.S. population are given in two tables on

page 4 of Estimated Frequencies of the Types in the United States Population(http://www.capt.org/products/examples/20025HO.pdf), published by the Center forApplications of Psychological Type (http://www.capt.org/). One table gives estimates of thedistribution of the population by preference (E, I, N, S, etc.). The other table give estimates of thedistribution of the population among all 16 MBTI types. The statistics for members of Mensa wer

broken down by preferences, not by types; therefore I had to use the values for preferences toestimate the frequencies of the 16 types among members of Mensa. For consistency, I used thedistribution of the preferences among the U.S. population to estimate the frequencies of the 16types among the population, rather than use the frequencies provided for each type. For examplethe fraction of the population that is INTJ comes to 0.029 (2.9%) when the values for I (0.507), N

(0.267), T (0.402), and J (0.541) are multiplied. But the detailed table has INTJs as 2.1% of thepopulation. In sum, there are discrepancies between the computed and given values of the 16types in the population. The most striking discrepancy is for the INFJ type. When estimated fromthe frequencies of the four preferences, INFJs are 4.4% of the population; the table of values for al16 types gives the percentage of INFJs as 1.5%.

Using the distribution given for the 16 types leads to somewhat different results:

There is a 31% probability that an INTJs his IQ places him in the top 2 percent of thepopulation. Next are INFJ, at 14%; ENTJ, 13%; and INTP, 10%. (The next highest type is the

ENTP at 4%.) The four types (INTJ, INFJ, ENTJ, AND INTP) account for 72% of the highIQpopulation but only 9% of the total population. The top five types (including ENTPs) accountfor 78% of the highIQ population but only 12% of the total population.

Four of the five mostintelligent types are NTs, as one would expect, given the probabilitiescited earlier. But, in terms of the likelihood of having an IQ, this method moves INFJs intosecond place, a percentage point ahead of ENTJs.

In any event, the same five types dominate, and all five types have a preference for i Ntuitivethinking.

As before, persons with the S preference generally lag their peers when it comes to IQ tests.

* * *

Related posts:Intelligence as a Dirty Word (http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/intelligenceasadirtyword/)Intelligence and Intuition (http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/intelligenceandintuitio/)
http://www.us.mensa.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Homehttp://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/intelligence-as-a-dirty-word/http://politicsandprosperity.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/intelligence-and-intuitio/http://www.capt.org/products/examples/20025HO.pdfhttp://www.capt.org/


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Posted in Culture Language The Arts, Science and Understanding and tagged happiness,intelligence, iq, iq and personality, iq and politics, left, mbti, personality, politics, Republicans,right on January 4, 2011 by Thomas.

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