Hi, I've started reading your posts about Ateez and I intend to finish all of them but since I haven't there is a chance you've talked about what I'm going to ask about. If yes, take this as a cue to talk about it more.
For some time now, the MBTI has been popular and while there are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes I do belive that there is truth to those indicators. Apparently, MBTI is even more known/popular in Korea than here in the West (I'm European) and I would like to aks you about your perspective on it.
Additionally, I'm interested in someone else's opinion on the different MBTIs of the Ateez members. They have taken the test and there is even a YT video where they wear their types on shirts.
More recently, both Wooyoung and San have retaken the test and somehow, Wooyoung ended up with ISTJ instead of ESFJ which I'd say is rather unfitting for him. San got INTJ which contradicts his previous ISFP result. At least from my perspective as there is only so much I can observe of their real personality behind the carefully crafted Idol persona.
Ask sent September 20, 2025
What you are about to read is fanfiction, RPF varietal, made worse by applying the pseudo science of MBTI, and that application being done by someone who is not an expert at the pseudo science of MBTI.
Ok so this is another ask that I held on to because I got overly ambitious about how I wanted to answer it, and then got crushed by the scale of my outsize ambitions, so now I'm going to just wing it. (This is, I realize, a pattern with deep questions I get).
To answer your actual question first, and then go on a long rant after:
I am very surprised that San could get an INTJ result. I'm an INTJ and that result has never changed for me ever. I don't want to be an INTJ so I kept taking the test, from different sources, and even tried to alter my answers, but I always came out INTJ. The other Idol that has revealed she is INTJ is Ryujin of Itzy, and her, I believe. Having both T and I traits in there might cost me, so when we were asked for our MBTIs for a work 'fun' event I told everyone I was an ESFP, and fucked up all results, to my everlasting glee.
Wooyoung having stronger TJ traits - there's a right and wrong, there's a your side and a my side, and if you're wrong AND not on my side, then I kill you - is actually not surprising. I suspect that he was lightly an E and F, and the experience of becoming famous in the high-engagement way that Kpop Idols can't void may have pushed him into both I and T in recent years.
A rant you didn't ask for on MBTI follows.
OK so, I think that MBTI can be a useful tool in self-understanding, but I hate the way it has been used as a way to box people into categories. I don't know how true it is, but media in Korea has reported that HR departments were starting to use MBTI as a reason to discriminate against people in hiring practices, which I find absolutely appalling. The truest thing I ever heard said about MBTI is that it's horoscopes for white collar people - they're generic enough that whatever it is you get sorted into, you're likely to find that it does in fact apply or explain some part of reality to you.
Korean social commentators have also noticed that Koreans like the MBTI a little bit too much, and it has to do with the hardness and unforgiving qualities of S. Korean social life in general. This is the long arm reach and long term damage of having had a caste system for millennia, augmented by our fundamentalist brand of Confucianism: Everyone has a place in the hierarchy of the world, and each has a part to play in his assigned role in the world. So you know, women below men, the young below the old, the peasants below the nobles, illegitimately born below the legitimate etc etc. We were forced to modernize really violently, so while we have done away with much of the outward trappings, the fundamental cultural desire to know where you stand so I can know whether I'm superior or inferior to you (there is no equality possible, one person is always inferior) is still deeply rooted.
MBTI, because it's only 16 categories, sounds vaguely scientific, in 4 letters, and appears to explain everything is a way to push out and critique people you don't like (the people who are Fs do this to attack people they don't like, whom they call T, for example, and then feel superior). If someone appears to dislike you or avoid you, for example, then instead of accepting that maybe you're just not likable to everyone and therefore imperfect OR that maybe you've actually done something wrong to that person, you can give yourself airs about being an Extrovert who loves everyone and that person is a defective Introvert.
This is the most common way that I have seen MBTI used among Koreans - as a shorthand to win meaningless mental victories against people you dislike, at best, and at worst, a way to bully people who may simply be different from a socially powerful person.
OH AND BEFORE ANYONE GOES AWAY THINKING KOREA HAS AN ESPECIALLY HOSTILE SOCIAL SYSTEM YOU SHOULD KNOW I HAVE LIVED IN CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC AND RHODE ISLAND IN THE US, GERMANY, ENGLAND, AND SWITZERLAND, AND KNOW EXACTLY HOW FUCKED UP ALL THOSE PLACES ARE. DO NOT GIVE YOURSELF AIRS.
I've taken to telling people I am an Extrovert, I'm just surrounded by people I hate so I look like I'm an Introvert, for example. I may actually be a Judger, to take another example, or I may be a hypersensitive autist who can't really identify or cope with feelings that I feel extremely strongly in an overpowering way, so my coping mechanism has become to do J things to my emotions, which has hardened into a mannerism, hiding my true F traits. And so on.
I think my major issue with this system of categorizing people is that it doesn't take neurodivergent people, the mentally ill, and trauma-damaged or trauma-recovered people into consideration. It's deeply flawed for these lacunae.
i struggle so bad to understand MBTI, i just kinda match each letter to an adjective/random info in my mind, like E are extroverts, I are introverts, N are people with a crazy ass reasoning, S live in the moment, F are sensitive, T are logical, J are organised, P are... adaptable? impulsive? I'm not sure. and like... I'm absolutely aware that I'm wrong about all of these, but I can't understand it any other way, and believe me, I've tried
ohhhh duude i feel you the whole cognitive functions system is so crazy yk and like confusing, but also traits and even stereotypes are so useful too so yk what its okay.
ooooh also i would def say that N are sure people with a crazy reasoning, but S people aren't necessary live in the moment people? _S_P are live in the moment people, but overall i think S people are connected to reality type people (sometimes in the moment, sometimes the reality of the past). ALSO DID YOU JUST CALL ME SENSITVE *GASP*.
also my best advice is that it takes time for all the little bits of info to settle in ur brain yk? like its not something you can force into there. but the more stuff you read etc itll just settle in and make sense in the end i promise xxx
Do you think it's better to wait for an INTJ to ask you out or approach them yourselves? I'm in an odd spot where the INTJ I like knows that I used to have a crush on him and back then he didn't like me romantically because we weren't close friends. But now that I've stopped dating his friend, he seems to be trying to flirt, mayhaps. He's been walking me home, during class I'm the only one he talks to and we have good discussions that last a couple of hours.
Oh boy! I have no idea about romantic endeavours. I have never been in a relationship nor made an effort. My interest in relationships at present can't seem to go past fangirling over fictional characters. Dear followers, can you please help out this anon? I will reblog the answers.
I feel like having a detailed picture of your future is very Si, rather than Ni? I don’t really understand why Ni is associated with having a clear vision of their future, which is usually a grand vision. Like Ni is “future-oriented” and Si is “past-oriented”, but I wanna know why?
Here’s my attempt at answering this. Si processes by reflecting on past events to come up with a plan for how to react in the present. I guess that’s where the Si stereotype comes from? But they aren’t necessarily stuck in the past; they use the past! And I think that they do lots of planning for the future -- details and all -- by consciously drawing from past experiences. I think what people don’t realize is... Ni also draws from the past! Ni is not magic! The process is just semi-conscious (as I understand it). Ni processes by semi-consciously adding up known information to conclude how to react in the present. Of course, with both of these “in the present” descriptions, I’m talking about everyday decisions that everyone has to make quickly. So my conclusion about why Ni is widely-accepted as “future-oriented”, even though all it is is a way of perceiving information, is........ people just think that Ni is magic and mystical? and pose it against Si which is “past-oriented”? yeah I can’t even answer it. maybe I’m just having a dumb moment.
Oh man, this is hard!But if I have to be honest, I like INTPs the least because I used to be mistyped as one and acted super unhealthily have a lot of unhealthy INTP friends think they’re kinda boring tbh? No offence to y’all INTPs but your culture is a little too nerdy and InTeLLeCtUaL for me. Although that may be a tad bit hypocritical for me since I’m a fucking nerd™.
As for my favourite type? Hmm… I find ISFPs and ISTJs oddly endearing. Dunno what’s up with me and Fi users, but I think they’re smol beans I should protecc. Plus, I have a lot of OCs that have those types.
