As most of you people prone to infatuation and limerence are fascinated by psychology, it seems apt for me to delve into whether certain personality types or “archetypes” are more prone to romantic obsession than others.
In this article of mine on infatuation, I asked readers who reached the bottom (presumably all limerent and in a state of desperation) to respond to my anonymous poll and provide me with their MBTI personality type. The results so far, at 2409 entries, are striking; the representation of certain personality types is far, far greater than what would be expected from the general population. In this article, I will provide you with the statistics and tackle why and how these certain types are more prone to infatuation and limerence than others.
NB: Personality typing as a field of psychology is, in fact, based on Jungian principles. Carl Jung proposed the concept that we all display different traits but tend towards embodying the nature of a certain archetype.
Do MBTI Personality Types Mean Anything?
Before we get started, let’s ensure we are all clear on the following: categorization systems such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) inventory are simply descriptive systems to help us put ourselves in boxes.
As a neuroscientist with a background in clinical psychology, my specialty is elucidating the specific genes and neural factors that underpin mental disorders. The MBTI system is certainly not the product of reproducible science, nor does it provide you with quantitive data concerning your own disposition. This does not mean, however, that it is invaluable; we require rigorous neuroscientific analysis in order to progress in the deciphering of concepts like limerence, but we also require strong psychological theory pertaining to the nuances of actual human behavior.
Even if the MBTI personality test only serves to reflect what you feel about yourself and your own nature, that still renders it insightful and relevant in the discussion of limerence, depression, bipolar disorder, and any other mental state. Just as all of these compromised “states” are the product of your underlying neural makeup and genetics, the opinions and attitudes implicit in your MBTI result are also a form of biological blueprint.
N=2,409 is a fairly robust and illuminating sample size in neuropsychology, so we are off to a good start.
Since the aim of this research was to investigate whether the prevalence of any of the MBTI personality types is markedly high or low in assumedly limerent/infatuated people, I needed a control group to compare my data to.
Luckily, the book MBTI® Manual – Fourth Edition reveals the degree of representation of each of 16 types obtained from a 16,773 person sample across 23 different countries. The large sample size and recruitment of people from a range of countries rendered this data perfect for me to use as a control (i.e. the percentages of each MBTI type in the “general population”).
The Evidence: What MBTI Types Fall Into Person Addiction?
My graph above illustrates what I expected: certain personality types that are very rare in the general population seem to be overrepresented in limerence. Most notably, there are evidently significantly more INFPs, INFJs, INTJs and INTPs (introverts) and ENFPs (extroverts) in our infatuation group compared to roaming loose in the real world.
Tangentially, we see that the world’s most common personality types seem quite immune to this obsessive form of romantic love; types ESFJ, ESTJ, ESTP, ISFJ and ISTJ are hardly represented.
Inferring from the data, the more “IN”-leaning your nature is, the more likely you are to a). be able to experience manic highs and lows, b). be prone to obsession and c). find it difficult to pluck yourself out of the fantasy realm of limerence. This is shown by the fact that an curiously high proportion of our 2,409 limerents are INFPs, INTPs and INFJs.
With regards to what primes you for a period of unrequited love that you cannot shake off, the modality Feeling (F) closely follows Introversion (I) and Intuition (N). This explains why, despite being extroverted (more on this in the next section), ENFPs are evidently limerence-prone people.
The last letter of your MBTI label (Perception or Judgement) does not seem to matter to a significant degree, as we see a few types containing both “P” or “J” underexpressed in limerence and a few overexpressed.
Is Limerence An Introvert’s Disease?
Even without evidence, it would be tempting to conjecture that introverts may be more prone to the solitary pining, daydreaming and writing of diary entries that unrequited love can trigger. After all, anyone who possesses a rich enough emotional spectrum to actually view someone through the rich, spiritual lens of limerence is probably thoughtful and cerebral.
That is not to say that extroverts do not possess high emotional intelligence, as many do. However, the data is telling; apart from the ENFP, ENFJ and ENTJ personality types, which appear more than we would express in this infatuated group, all extroverted types are significantly underrepresented. ENTPs are an exception, appearing roughly as would be expected in the general population.
This is completely in line with my original hypothesis, which stated that “N” (Intuition) vs “S” (Sensing) is the single MBTI facet most predictive of whether you are prone to limerence. Introversion does, is clearly, however, also very indicative of this tendency too.
Sensing MBTI Types Are Immune to Infatuation
The only introverts who seem to not be prone to limerence are “sensing” individuals: ISTJ, ISFJ, ISTP and ISFP.
Sensing individuals live in the present and bounce of facts and real, tangible things. Intuition-leaning people, however, are always keen to find a deeper meaning in things and cannot just enjoy a walk around the park for what it is without their mind drifting to positive or negative memories.
Is is unsurprising, therefore, that we see this in our data. Limerent suffers who are at a point where they desperately want to recover and are searching for reputable online sources of information are likely to score “I” and “N” in an MBTI personality test. What is your MBTI personality type?
Thank you for reading, and to everyone who gifts me small amounts here. It helps me more than you will ever know, and allows me to keep running home from a day of research to produce online content for all of you! <3