7 Reasons ENTJs and ESTJs Mistype as Introverts

This is a very real pattern. We’ve probably run across more ESTJs and ENTJs that mistype as introverts than one’s that type as the actual extraverts that they are. Granted, many extraverts tend to mistake themselves as introverts, but this specific problem does seem extremely commonplace amongst the ENTJs and ESTJs. A ENTJ will often mistype as an INTJ, while an ESTJ will often mistype as an ISTJ (or even an INTJ). This happens for quite a few reasons, and I’m going to take the time to explore those reasons in this article.

1. Introversion bias in the typology community

Maybe that sentence struck you as odd. I mean, people talk about intuitive bias within the typology community, but introversion bias? Yes, introversion bias. It’s a thing. Similar to how it’s mostly intuitives putting out all of the information on typology, it’s also mostly introverts as well. This has led to some misconceptions regarding the extraverted types, a big one being that extraversion is the same as social confidence or social extraversion.

2. Extraversion is not the same as social extraversion

I’ve touched on this subject probably many times, so I’m only going to explain enough to get the point across. The bottom line here is that extraversion has to do with the orientation of a cognitive function. In other words, an extraverted function focuses on the external world. That is not the same thing as saying it will focus on socializing with people. For instance, Se, or extraverted Sensing, outlets via physical experiences. One can gain physical, sensory experiences alone. Ne outlets via ideas and possibilities. The internet is great for that these days. Etcetera. Socializing is a skill that one must choose to develop… and therefore, can choose not to develop. Here’s a related article if you’re interested: Typing 101: Introversion vs. Extraversion

3. Te is focused more on problems than people

Te, or Extraverted Thinking, desires validation, since it is group-oriented, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be liked. Now, I’m not saying that Te users are all harsh and abrasive jerks. I know Te dominants that hold a caretaker role, and fulfill that role well. However, the key here is to recognize that they’re looking to fix your physical problems and not necessarily your emotional state. Ergo, they can come off accidentally abrasive and thus rub people the wrong way in their efforts to help. Remember, they’re not going to be naturally in tune with other people’s emotions. Plus, taking it one step farther, some will actually see people as a roadblock and begin to view them in a more harsh or cynical light. They may rise to the challenge and place themselves in a leadership role, but that doesn’t mean they’ll enjoy working with people. They’re harnessing the power of Te to control their environment sometimes in spite of people, to do what needs to be done, to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. All of these things combined do not form the stereotypical picture of a people savvy extravert.

4. Thinking functions are generally less people-oriented than feeling functions

Ok, so I’m not saying that thinkers can’t be people oriented. I’m simply pointing out that the unemotional nature of thinking functions tends to make thinkers less concerned about connecting with people, or perhaps, they struggle to connect with people due to a lack of emotional intelligence. Obviously, everyone needs people to some degree, and no one likes to be lonely. However, thinkers are more prone to suppressing their feeling function, and ergo ignoring their need to connect with people. In comparison, the feelers tend to have a more heightened awareness of their desire to connect with others. Obviously, this principle applies to the EXTJs. They may not feel a need to have a wide circle of friends. They may be satisfied with only a few close friends. Etcetera. As long as they have their external validation, they will be satisfied. This in turn may lead to them looking like a typical introvert.

5. A heightened awareness of their inferior feeling function

Many people are very aware of their inferior function, to the extent that they feel like it’s not nearly as bad as the descriptions tend to indicate. The same holds true for the Te dominants, who may often come to believe that their Fi (or Introverted Feeling) is tertiary instead of inferior. In addition to this, I believe that inferior Fi is highly misunderstood and thus not always relayed very accurately. Inferior Fi specifically hates displaying weakness. Due to the lack of a strong connection to their own identity function (Fi), Te dominants will use action to prove to themselves and the world that they have value, and hide anything that might devalue them in the eyes of others. Some may even fail to recognize their own weaknesses due to this lack of strong Fi. I believe the insecurities of the Te dominants and their actual connection to their feeling function is highly misunderstood because of their desire to keep it so tightly under wraps and hidden from view. However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t feel the pull of their feeling function, don’t have a personal set of values, and don’t feel confident in themselves. All of these things can easily add up to mistyping as tertiary Fi. The difference is between one truly not caring and the other pretending not to care. These two things can be difficult to distinguish from the outside.

6. Over-exaggerated descriptions of a Te dominant’s desires or capabilities

Here’s another area where descriptions can fall short. An outsider looking at a Te dominant may think that the Te dominant enjoys taking the lead. They may think that the Te dominant does it with ease, especially when comparing the Te dominant’s actions to their own personal capabilities. However, it can easily be the case that a Te dominant doesn’t actually enjoy taking the lead – they’re just doing it because they feel like they have to. Disorder, chaos, and incompetence bother Te users, because of their desire for an ordered external environment. They each have a threshold of tolerance, a limit, if you will. Once that limit has been reached, Te will compel them to fix what’s wrong. Out of all of the Te users, the EXTJs will have the lowest tolerance for these things, and thus will be the quickest to step up and take control. Due to EXTJs frequently lacking a “desire” to take the lead and instead doing it out of perceived necessity, many mistype as IXTJs.

7. Relating to their parallel thinking dominant

Ok, so this is an odd one, and definitely not specific to the EXTJs, but it’s a pattern that we’ve noticed over time. I intend to write a more in depth article about this concept, but in short, what I’m calling your “parallel” type is the personality type that shares the same dichotomy priorities as you. In other words, an ENTJ (Te-Ni-Se-Fi) prioritizes thinking, intuition, sensing and then lastly feeling. The parallel type for an ENTJ would be the INTP (Ti-Ne-Si-Fe). Do you see how the dichotomy order is the same there even though the functions are completely different? For an ESTJ (Te-Si-Ne-Fi), the parallel type would be the ISTP (Ti-Se-Ni-Fe). You may connect what we’re saying to shadow theory, but for the record, we don’t actually subscribe to the 8 function model, and thus we don’t subscribe to the standard interpretation of shadow theory. Here’s the thing. Thinking dominants share certain characteristics or traits. Auxiliary sensors (and thus tertiary intuitives) also share certain traits. Similarly, inferior feelers share certain weaknesses.

Bottom line, there are dichotomy-based similarities in cognitive reasoning that become especially obvious when the dichotomy in question is sharing the exact same function placement in different function stacks. I, as an ISTP, have read emails from ESTJs and found myself strangely relating to some of the things they said. Some stuff was obviously very off, but others sounded very similar. Ryan (ISTJ) has done the same thing with ESTPs, in spite of being starkly different from them in reality. So to bring this back to the Te dominants specifically, an ENTJ might possibly relate to the INTP description or an ESTJ might relate to an ISTP description, due to a lack of practical understanding of the functions, lack of self-awareness, and/or a lack of real life examples to compare themselves to.

In conclusion…

Of course, there could be other reasons, but these are the ones that I’ve managed to produce. Another quick thing worth noting is that the tertiary function of the type in question can help gear them toward a specific mistype. In other words, an ESTJ who thinks he’s introverted could easily mistype as an INTJ due to a strong awareness of their intuition function. (Any tertiary intuitive is prone to mistyping as an intuitive, due to this.) However, I believe it’s less common for ENTJs to mistype as ISTJs, due to the negative ISTJ stereotypes. However, I have seen ENTJs consider high Se as a possibility.

I hope you found this insightful. Comment below with your thoughts!