o_19kdfsn0q18e31dfraas1esh19vta.pdf

Appendix 2: Type Bigots, the Scourge of the MBTI Community
Before people learn about the MBTI, they tend to have an innocent bias against other types. For
example, I used to believe that everyone was an INTP (like me). It was just that everyone else was
bad at it.
From my biased perspective, the Artisans were INTPs without enough self control, the Idealists
were INTPs who let their emotions get in the way, and the Guardians were INTPs who cared too
much about what other people thought of them. How was I to know any different? Other people's
motivations were a mystery to me.
Most of us start off with an inborn bias whether we know it or not. The bias may something we just
instinctively believe, i.e. "Thinkers don't care about others," or "Feelers are weak." Or perhaps we
have had a bad brush with an individual of a certain type, i.e. a nasty boss, a cheating girlfriend, or
an unloving parent. American culture has built in biases that say all males ought to act like ESTJs
and all females ought to act like ESFJs. Other cultures and subcultures have their own preferred
types. Bosses tend to hire people who share their own personality type. Yet although most people
are unconsciously type-biased, this doesn't actually make them type bigots; they simply don't know
any better.
But what happens when they do learn better?
Enter the MBTI. A knowledge of type can do one of two things for you:
1. It can help you to understand other people, rid yourself of unconscious prejudice, and accept
others with their strengths and weaknesses.
2. It can help you to understand how much you hate and despise entire swaths of the
population.
The latter people are known as "type bigots." They don't see themselves as bigots, of course—true
bigots never do. Rather, they genuinely believe that they now have a real, scientific, expertacknowledged
basis for their devaluation of part of humanity. The MBTI merely confirms their
innate conviction that they are superior and others are inferior.
For example, it is common in internet type communities to hear people make sweeping
generalizations such as "My type is smart and other types are dumb" or "I can't stand how arrogant
type X is." Such malicious statements are often clothed in justifying statements and examples from