MBTI Replacing Blood Types... "It's a Tool to Understand Others"

8 out of 10 Adults Have Experienced MBTI-Related Questions
Half of Experienced Users Say It’s a Tool to Enhance Understanding of Others
Also, 83% Warn Against Hasty Generalization Errors

Eight out of ten adult men and women have been asked the question, "What is your MBTI (personality type)?" and more than half of the respondents said they use MBTI as a tool to better understand themselves and others, according to a survey.

According to the "Self-Identity and MBTI Awareness Survey" conducted by Embrain Trend Monitor, a market research specialist company, on 1,000 adults aged 19 to 59 nationwide, 78.3% of all respondents said they had been asked about their MBTI type. The experience of asking others was also 48.0%.

'Interest in "Who am I?" leads to the MBTI craze

MBTI Type Chart

As MBTI has become a common greeting in daily life, 86.3% of respondents said they have taken or are willing to take the MBTI test. The reasons for taking (or intending to take) the test included curiosity about what kind of personality they actually have (50.4%, multiple responses) and what kind of person they are (41.3%).

Embrain analyzed this by saying, "It shows an attempt to understand oneself better by identifying one's personality and identity."

In fact, 64.4% of respondents said that taking the MBTI test was an opportunity to increase their understanding of themselves.

About half of the respondents asked themselves the question "Who am I?" (50.3%), but the same percentage (50.3%) said they had few opportunities to properly understand themselves throughout their lives. Embrain stated, "This suggests that concerns about self-identity have led to high interest in the MBTI test."

Those who received MBTI results generally answered that the test results often matched their actual personality (70.3%).

Used as a tool to build relationships with others... 'Over-immersion' should be cautious

[Image source=Pixabay]

Moreover, six out of ten respondents said that they understood others better through MBTI results, and 49.8% also responded that it seems to provide good tips for human relationships.

Embrain also analyzed that there is a high interest in "finding people who match well with me" through MBTI. In fact, 66.1% of respondents said they want to find compatible personalities through MBTI, and 65.0% said, "If the personality is compatible, I think I would develop a liking for the other person."

However, there were also voices pointing out that one can make the mistake of hastily generalizing others (83.0%) and that some do not like being defined by a fixed framework (36.9%).

Higher interest among younger age groups... speculated to be because it is a period of forming human relationships

Meanwhile, the tendency to be curious about others' test results was more pronounced in younger age groups (▲20s 78.7% ▲30s 73.7% ▲40s 51.4% ▲50s 48.4%).

Embrain commented, "It can be speculated that the 20s and 30s, who are relatively in the process of forming human relationships, are using MBTI results as a tool to communicate more easily with others."