What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular personality assessments in the world, used by many individuals and teams to better understand themselves and each other. From team-building exercises to leadership coaching and career development, MBTI results are often seen as a roadmap to personal and professional growth. But how does this assessment actually work, and what do those four personality type letters really mean?
In this article, we’ll break down what the MBTI is, explain how it categorizes personality types, and explore some of the most common — and controversial — aspects of this well-known tool. You’ll also discover how validated alternatives, like SIGMA’s Leadership Skills Profile – Revised® (LSP-R®), can provide a more accurate and science-based understanding of personality and leadership potential.
What is the MBTI?
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a self-report assessment that groups test takers into 16 personality taypes based on their tendencies in four categorical dichotomies:
- Energy source: Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
- Information gathering: Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
- Decision-making: Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
- Lifestyle: Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
What does MBTI stand for?
MBTI stands for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The assessment is named after the developers, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, who based their work on Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types.
What do the MBTI letters mean?
The MBTI letters represent preferences for recharging, learning, decision-making, and general lifestyle:1
E stands for Extraversion, and people who have this personality preference are energized by the outer world of people and things. They generally share their ideas verbally and “recharge” by being around other people.
I stands for Introversion, and people with this personality preference are energized by their inner world. In contrast to people with preferences for Extraversion, Introverts use their energy interacting with people and things and gain energy by spending time alone and in their heads. They usually prefer to go through all their ideas and then share them out loud.
S stands for Sensing. People who have the letter S in their MBTI type tend to process things in a step-by-step linear sequence and observe and remember specific information. They also tend to focus on the facts and what can be observed via their five senses.
N stands for Intuition (because the letter I is already used for Introversion). People who have a preference for Intuition generally learn by seeing the big picture and themes, and thinking about how specific information is connected.
T stands for Thinking, and people who have this preference tend to make decisions based on pros and cons, and weighing logical consequences from an objective point of view.
F indicates someone who has a preference for Feeling, meaning that they make decisions based on how those decisions might affect other people involved.
J stands for Judging, and people who have a preference for judging are the list-makers and planners. They like to have a structure and schedule to their time and will generally space out projects so they get work done a bit at a time.
P stands for Perceiving, and people with this preference are the ones who want flexibility in their lives and in how their time is managed. They would rather be open to new opportunities for events and like making decisions on the fly, and can sometimes enjoy working on things at the last minute or on their own schedule.
How common is each personality type?
The distribution of MBTI types in the United States, as of 2024, was as follows:2
| Personality Type | Percentage |
| ISFJ | 13.8% |
| ESFJ | 12.3% |
| ISTJ | 11.6% |
| ISFP | 8.8% |
| ESTJ | 8.7% |
| ESFP | 8.5% |
| ENFP | 8.1% |
| ISTP | 5.4% |
| INFP | 4.4% |
| ESTP | 4.3% |
| INTP | 3.3% |
| ENTP | 3.2% |
| ENFJ | 2.5% |
| INTJ | 2.1% |
| ENTJ | 1.8% |
| INFJ | 1.5% |
According to this distribution:
- The four most common types (ISFJ, ESFJ, ISTJ, ISFP) account for 46.5% of the population.
- The four rarest types (INFJ, ENTJ, INTJ, ENFJ) make up only 7.9% of the population.
- Sensing types (S) are significantly more prevalent than Intuitive types (N).
- Feeling types (F) are more common than Thinking types (T).
How does the MBTI work?
Taken by millions of people annually, the MBTI has the following features:
- Categorizes individuals into groups based on preferences. There are four areas on which individuals are sorted. These four areas interact to produce 16 distinct profiles and each individual is placed into one profile based on his/her responses. The four areas are Extraversion vs. Introversion, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinking vs. Feeling, and Judging vs. Perceiving. Responses are dichotomously scored, such that individuals are “Extraverted” or “Introverted”, “Thinking” or “Feeling”, etc.
- Results are delivered by a trained MBTI administrator. The measure is restricted, so it can only be administered, scored, and interpreted by a trained MBTI administrator. While this increases the costs associated with personality testing, it also decreases the likelihood that the results will be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
- Used to make individuals aware of their preferences. Ethical use of the MBTI involves using it to enhance individuals’ awareness of their own and others’ preferences. It is important to note that the MBTI should not be used for making predictions about the ability of individuals or for decisions regarding selection of employees (Ethical Use of the MBTI Instrument, 2015).
Is the Myers-Briggs missing something?
While the MBTI has a legion of fans in HR Professionals, it has many critics in the ranks of Industrial and Organizational (I-O) Psychologists. I-O Psychologists are those who are dedicated to the scientific study of human behavior in the workplace and are concerned with things like the validity and reliability of assessments.
In Goodbye to MBTI, the Fad That Won’t Die, Dr. Adam Grant questions the validity, reliability, and comprehensiveness of the MBTI and likens it to “a physical exam that ignores your torso and one of your arms.”
Lillian Cunningham summarizes academic critics in her Washington Post article, Myers-Briggs: Does it pay to know your type? , saying that they are concerned that use of the MBTI is “about belief much more than scientific evidence. And it’s administered by leadership coaches who, by and large, have no formal education in the science of psychology.”
The biggest issue with the MBTI, as Grant explains, is that “four letters don’t do justice to anyone’s identity.” It is an over-simplistic approach to categorizing something as complex as an individual’s personality.
Looking for More?
Not sure if you want to continue using the MBTI? Curious about the different types of personality tests available? Check out SIGMA’s flagship leadership assessment, the Leadership Skills Profile – Revised® (LSP-R®).
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- Melissa. (July 11, 2017). What do the letters in the Myers-Briggs test stand for? MBTI. Retrieved from https://www.mbtionline.com/en-US/Articles/what-do-the-letters-in-the-myers-briggs-test-stand-for. ↩︎
- E. Jacobs-Pinson. (November 26, 2024). Myers Briggs Statistics: The 16 Personality Types. Crown Counselling. Retreived from https://crowncounseling.com/statistics/myers-briggs/. ↩︎