#mbpti

[kingofthewilderwest]

I was wondering, do you think that certain personality types work better with certain species of dragons? Like, I see how the riders' personalities and temperaments work with their dragons, and while some combos seem very volatile and chaotic, it still works out for them. What do you think the dragons MBTI is compared to their riders? I'm an ENFP and I've got a thing for Monstrous Nightmares.

Amusingly, I’m an INTJ and I’ve got a thing for Monstrous Nightmares (and Thunderdrums and Whispering Deaths) myself, and you and I seem to have a pretty different Myers-Briggs Types!

I could imagine certain general personality traits working better with certain species of dragons, though I don’t know that Myers-Briggs would be the best manner to determine what sorts of personalities would meld. For instance, individuals who like Gronckles are probably the same sorts of individuals who love dogs - and people might cherish dogs in turn for their loyalty, their energy, their eagerness, their lovingness, even their goofiness. While technically it is a personality trait - someone liking dogs or not for certain reasons - it can’t line up to something like Introversion versus Extroversion, or Thinking versus Feeling. Someone who is an introvert or an extrovert or a thinker or a feeler could adore Gronckles for the traits mentioned above, or other traits that I didn’t bring up.

There are a number of challenges with the MBPTI. While it can be very useful to help one understand how they think and process information in the world, it is, like all personality tests, fairly limited in usefulness and informativeness. It only provides limited, self-fed information about ourselves in certain topics for manufactured discrete categories. We human beings are a lot more nuanced and not limited to such strict categories in our actions (there’s a gradient of thinking and feeling, for instance). For this reason, I’m going to sneak out of Myers-Briggs and talk about general personality traits I imagine might work between dragon and rider, rather than talking about Types. I think that might land at some ideas a little bit better!

Though since you are interested in the Myers-Briggs alignment between dragon and rider, I have given my own analyses about what Type I think each dragon and rider have, and will quickly plop them in below:

Hiccup: INFP –> Toothless: ESFJ (0 of 4 preferences in common)Astrid: ESFJ –> Stormfly: ESTJ (3 of 4 preferences in common)Fishlegs: ISFJ –> Meatlug: ISFP (3 of 4 preferences in common)Ruffnut and Tuffnut: ESTP –> Barf and Belch: ISTP (3 of 4 preferences in common)Snotlout: ESTJ –> Hookfang: ISTP (2 of 4 preferences in common)

It is interesting to note that, between the riders and dragons, all except Hiccup and Toothless share at least two preferences in common. I’d be careful extrapolating generalizations from that, though. It’s a really small sample set, looking at only one dragon species per rider; it’s to note that different personality types might end up riding different species outside of this one group of teenagers. And it’s also to consider that regular friendships probably tend to have people who are similar gravitating to one another… I have lots of introverted friends… so it’s nothing specific about human-dragon bonds here.

Now, I do think it’s likely that certain personality traits do align with a person being more likely to bond with a certain dragon, and vice versa. I don’t think the personality traits are based upon how we prefer to use perception and judgment, which is what MB is about. Here are some things that I do, nevertheless, think might be likely in certain human riders for different dragons:

Someone who gets along with Monstrous Nightmares probably has to have a bit of a strong, set personality: they can’t waffle around the dragon. Monstrous Nightmares by and large seem strong-willed. A human who is unsure in their actions would not meld well with a Monstrous Nightmare because the dragon would take center stage and plow all the way through doing whatever they want. While Snotlout and Hookfang have some dysfunction in their relationship, the fact that they both have strong heads perhaps overall betters their relationship. They’re both able to be firm with one another without upsetting the other, they’re both able to stubbornly voice their opinions without being trod down, and… for what it matters… they can relate to how the other feels. So strong-willed personalities are probably those that interact best with Monstrous Nightmares.

It’s the same sort of thing with Stoick and Thornado. The Thunderdrum is another high-strung dragon with a lot of will. Someone like Stoick greatly appreciates that personality type and is able to match it.

I could imagine Hideous Zipplebacks and Deadly Nadders having a variety of personality types. But one thing that might make a relationship good between a rider and a Nadder is a mutual regard for loyalty. Nadders are very loyal - and obedient - dragons, so a rider who is going to attend to that dedication in turn will likely grow the best bond.

People who are perhaps less aggressive and more desiring of a companion are likely going to be interested in a Gronckle. There’s even one episode where Stoick grumbles that he doesn’t want a “pet” like a Gronckle. Gronckles are very sweet in temperament, so someone who wishes to share affection with their dragon will work with them best. It is to note, however, that generalizations are hard to come by… Dagur and Shattermaster end up melding very well, and we originally might have thought that Dagur would be “better” with a more high-strung dragon.

I feel like it’s complicated. There are going to be some personality traits probably more common for certain human-dragon pairs. There’s also going to be a lot of variation. I like Monstrous Nightmares, Whispering Deaths, and Thunderdrums, but would never be good around them because I wouldn’t be strong-willed enough to handle them. And personalities as divergent as Dagur and Fishlegs might both find themselves adoring the same species.

It’s the same sort of thing with any relationship, I suppose. I’ve got the tendency to be friends with people who have certain traits - they’re nerdy, like geek culture, are introverted, cosplay, things like that. But then I also meld well with some talkative, sports-loving extroverts or people who have no interest in the nerd subculture. So many factors! It’s really interesting.

[subliminal-daze]

Nothing makes me cringe more than when people refer to themselves as an “introverted extrovert” 🥴

There’s no such thing! You’re either more introverted or extroverted! And if you’re in the middle/ don’t identify as either then you’re an ambivert!!

Ahh it just grinds my gears 😵

[lostinmywonderland]

I'm dating an ENTP with BPD,,,,I'm going to save him from Bowser's dungeon. Then we will travel the multiverse and take back our minds.

7/12/18

[gabsmarie123]

Which one are you?

[kingofthewilderwest]

So is toothless an ESTJ or ESFJ that kinda confused me.

I am guessing you are responding to this old post right here where I discuss the possible MBPTI of the HTTYD dragons. Thank you for bringing this up, because I realize now I made an inconsistency! Here is my inconsistency:

I called Toothless an ESTJ in that analysis in the title headings but I also said, “Toothless is hard for me to decide between an “F” and a “T.” Granted, I’m having a hard time applying MBTI to dragons, but this is a little more challenging than others. I think I’m going to settle with “feeling.””

I think what happened was that I was wrestling so hard between ESTJ and ESFJ in the analysis that, when I finally decided Toothless was slightly more “feeling” than “thinking,” I forgot to go back and make the appropriate changes and label Toothless as an ESFJ elsewhere. I’ll go fix that now! Thanks!

If there was anything else confusing about that post, I’ll talk in depth about my thoughts on the matter below:

There are a number of challenges to the MBPTI. Because it divides personalities into one of sixteen categories, it means that some precision is lost describing a character, and looking at one of the personality types might not be 100% accurate to an individual. It’s very fun to look at personality tests like the Myers-Briggs, and it’s a fun way to categorize and conceptualize individuals - but what I’m getting at here is that maybe Toothless is a little challenging to classify because he’s not in one clear category over another!

The big difference you’re looking at is T versus F, which is Thinking versus Feeling. With Thinking versus Feeling, what is being analyzed is whether or not an individual makes choices based upon basic logical truths or principles, or whether they make choices based upon the emotions of those around them.

It’s a little challenging to talk about Toothless, who is a completely different species than humans and thus doesn’t align very well to human personality tests besides, but we can try our best to determine if Toothless is more of a T or an F.

I believe that Toothless only slightly prefers F over T. Good Myers-Briggs personality tests give you a percentage of preference for each category. For instance, I personally am about 70% Introverted over Extroverted, which means that I am a very “strong I”. Someone else might answer the Myers-Briggs test and be only 15% I, meaning that they are less introverted than me, but that they are still slightly more introverted than extroverted. A person who is 15% Introverted will demonstrate a lot of extroverted characteristics, too, even if they are “overall” an introvert. I imagine that Toothless is someone who is only slightly inclined toward Feeling over Thinking. 

Toothless legitimately demonstrates some characteristics of both T and F. There are times that Toothless reacts with a T. For instance, when Hiccup decides he wants to test out the flight suit again in HTTYD 2, Toothless immediate reaction is alarm. He’s thinking logically about the fact that Hiccup’s past experiences with the flight suit have been dangerous, and Toothless concludes that another such accident might occur. That shows some Thinking elements in Toothless’ decision-making processes. In truth, watching Toothless’ decision-making, one can tell that Toothless is more cautious and thoughtful about his decisions than someone like Hiccup, and that Toothless seems to think through some logical principles before sticking to a choice.

However, Toothless is not a strong T. Thinking can mean looking at truths and principles over people, and it can result in sticking to the truth over being tactful. Toothless isn’t like that, but on the contrary does make choices with concern to how others feel. So Toothless might demonstrate some T characteristics, but he also definitely has some F.

I think that Toothless’ heart is a little more F than T. The biggest choices Toothless makes are based upon ideas consistent with Feeling - looking for what is important with others. Some of the biggest choices Toothless make in the franchise are aligned more along an F spectrum. When Toothless decides to fight the Bewilderbeast at the end of HTTYD 2, that is because he cares about Hiccup and what Hiccup needs. Toothless is doing something that does not look to a lot of important facts - the Bewilderbeast is bigger than him, the Bewilderbeast can control his mind, etc. Toothless is acting on a feeling. When Toothless decides to search for Hiccup’s helmet in GOTNF, that is not logical… the cold, hard truth would be that the helmet is at the bottom of the ocean and gone for good. But instead, Toothless spends hours and hours searching for it… because he thinks about how much it means to Hiccup.

I wouldn’t say that Toothless is a strong F either because he’s also not idealistic, which is something that someone with a high F preference can be like. A strong F person also might sometimes skip expressing or noticing the cold, hard truth, but I don’t think Toothless does that, either. I think that Toothless is more F than T because, where it really counts, and where Toothless really seems to make his most important decisions (such as fighting the Bewilderbeast) are aligned with Feeling.

Looking at MBPTI with nuance and looking at the degree of preference can help. I’m sorry if I made it a long jumble of confusingness, but TL;DR: Toothless is F. He’s only slightly more F than T, but I do think Toothless is a little better typed as an ESFJ.

But, again, since Myers-Briggs isn’t perfect, and in fact has a lot of problems based on how it’s set up, it’s hard to plop Toothless solely into one perfect category.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hi Haddock! Would you happen to know any good/reliable/accurate sites for the 4 letter personality test thing? Because my results constantly change (from ISTJ, to ISFP, and now apparently, I'm ESFJ) so I wanted to get a final verdict of sorts..

The most accurate sites would be the ones straight from Myers-Briggs itself or other affiliated associations... where you have to pay to take the test. Unfortunately, it isn’t cheap, so I would suspect that isn’t an option. I’m trying to find the one that I am comfortable taking which comes from a reliable source, but for some reason it’s not popping up on my Google search results tonight. I can send you a PM if/when I find it.

One thing to consider is that some people do change type for multiple reasons so maybe your personality is such you can’t get a final verdict. :) One thing is that maybe you have changed over the years (though I suspect from the way your describing your various results, that all these were taken semi-recently). Another possibility could be that you aren’t highly preferenced for I/E or J/P. The tests tend to give you a percent preference - for example, 42% S preference, etc. I don’t know what your preference scores are, but it could be the case that you are “borderline” between an I and E (that is, you’re an ambivert) If that is the case, you don’t have a high preference for Introversion or Extroversion, and you sometimes get one or the other on the test. 

[notcutenotsorry]

this person who has held my most recent fancy is an ENFP so i'm going to read all about those

are ENFP's compatible with INTP's?