The Most and Least Empathetic MBTI Personality
Kevin Price, Editor at Large for USA Business Radio and Host of the Price of Business Show, has recently become hooked on Quora. In addition to daily hosting the Price of Business, Kevin has numerous writing obligations on this and other sites for which he serves as an editor and with his syndicated column, so we decided that if he’s going to write at Quora, he is going to share that content on this website. If you are on Quora, make sure to follow Kevin. You can check out his page here: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kevin-Price-67.
Kevin’s hot topics on Quora are history, free market economics, philosophy, and Myers Briggs typology, and many others. The following is one of his recent answers to the question, “Which MBTI type is the most empathetic and least empathetic?” Here’s that answer…
Let’s start with defining terms, because that will provide clarification as to which type is most empathetic.
Sympathy is feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for the hardships that another person encounters, while empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another. They have similar purposes, but they are profoundly different. For most people, empathy requires actually having had gone through a similar experience as the person he or she is relating to. That is where we get expressions such as “been there, done that.”
To me, it is pretty easy to find the type that is the least empathetic. That would be my own, INTJ. A breakdown of the 4 essential ingredients of the INTJ shows why is is so hard for them to be empathetic. They are introverted, intuitive, thinkers, and judging. INTJs are the only personality type where every part of their personality is about themselves, pointing inward. Think about it, in I vs. E, Introvert is about me and Extrovert is about others. In N/S, the iNtuitive is about me. Same goes with the T (combined with the IN) and the Judging (combined with the INT). It is incredibly difficult, and I say this from first hand experience, for the INTJ to get out of his or her own head.
The most empathetic, ironically, has very similar letters to the INTJ. In fact, one letter makes all the difference in the world… (read more)
