MCU: Steve Rogers [Captain America] (ISFJ)

Steve Rogers, or Captain America, is a good example of an ISFJ hero. While we did consider both ISFJ and ESFJ for Steve Rogers, ultimately we came to the conclusion that he leads with Si first and foremost. Most MBTI personality analyses of Captain America agree that he is an ISFJ, so we don’t imagine this article will be at all controversial. Although, people occasionally suggest that he might be an ISTJ. Feel free to share your thoughts!

Si:

“Stark, we need a plan of attack!”

“Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts innocent people die. Every time.”

“Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building’s in the wrong place.”

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, Doc.”

Steve Roger’s Si use throughout the Marvel movies shows up in various ways. Steve’s cautious Si nature becomes painfully apparent when contrasted with Tony Stark. The two of them are constantly bickering about the need for a plan and Stark’s constant improvising, impulsive nature, and lack of focus. In fact, one of their earliest interactions is Steve trying to get Tony to come up with a plan of attack to get Loki back after Thor steals him. They clash again later when he finds Stark shocking Banner in an attempt to get the Hulk to come out. Steve calls Stark out on his stupidity, asking him if everything is a joke to him. He then goes on to lecture him about safety.

Steve prefers to fall into routine, and follow orders like he always has. He strives to do this upon waking up in the modern world. Unfortunately, he realizes that it isn’t quite the same. He creates a list of things that he needs to catch up on, which is stereotypically associated with high Si. He’s also prone to referencing the past, and adapting to the lessons learned from it.

Steve has a very detail-centric memory, as Si dominants typically do. A prime example is shown when he only gets a glimpse of a map in Hydra’s base, and yet is able to recall most of the details from it. Furthermore, he is hard on himself for the fact that he couldn’t provide more details than he did. Peggy even mocks him for his own high standard as she sarcastically tells him that nobody’s perfect.

Of course, there are several others examples that can be referenced. In Civil War, when he and Bucky are reminiscing about their old life, Bucky mentions a redhead he went on a date with and asks what her name was. Steve, without even a pause, immediately responds, saying her name was Dolores, and that Bucky used to call her Dot. This example both shows Steve’s memory for details, but also a Fe focus as he remembers a good deal about that past social dynamic while Bucky had forgotten.

In Winter Soldier, when Steve is returning home to his apartment, he is about to unlock his door when he hears that the radio is on. He immediately realizes that something wasn’t right, because he hadn’t left the radio on. This again points to him having a detail-focused memory, and that he is paying a good amount of attention to the details around him.

Fe:

“We have orders. We should follow them.”

“I don’t mean to make things difficult.”

“My faith’s in people, I guess. Individuals. And I’m happy to say that for the most part they haven’t let me down.”

“If you’re gonna fight a war, you gotta wear the uniform.”

Steve Rogers presents a pretty clear case for auxiliary Fe. First, he has a strong focus on social etiquette. His first appearance literally shows him yelling “show some respect” in a movie theater. Another example can be seen later in the series when he tells Black Widow to take her feet off the dashboard of the car that they had stolen. Of course, not only does he demand that others be respectful, which is a demonstration of his extraverted judging function, but he’s respectful himself. Tony Stark is shown mocking him for being very polite. Steve, as Captain America, also accidentally chides Stark for his language in the middle of battle, which several members of the team mock him for afterward. In addition, when arguing with Tony in the first Avengers movie, he keeps demanding that Stark put his suit on, because Steve wouldn’t fight him without it.

Second, Steve tends to be modest and apologetic. We see this frequently. One example is when he feels compelled to yell “sorry” to Agent Carter, after tackling her, even though he had saved her from getting run over by a car. He’s also apologetic to the soldiers whom he was performing in front of, when they were demanding that the girls come back on stage. Lastly, when speaking to Stark and Banner, he refers to one of Stark’s building as ugly, and then pauses as he catches his insult mid-sentence.

Third, Steve’s focus is on people. In his origin story, he deeply desires to serve in the war, because he couldn’t allow himself to do any less than everyone else. Steve places his faith in people, and wants to trust others. When Natasha Romanov asks him who she should be, he asks her to be a friend. He doesn’t struggle to express concern for others, and he wants everyone to function as a team. During Captain America Civil War, Steve Rogers is briefly willing to consider signing the Accords while speaking to Stark individually. When Stark mentions Wanda, Steve gets irritated, realizing that she was essentially being held prisoner.

Some may suggest that Steve is a Te user due to his willingness to be in command. However, Fe is also an extraverted judging function, and he would have developed it as such during his time in the army, due to his training and position of leadership as a captain.

Ti:

“Protection? Is that how you see this? This is protection? It’s internment, Tony.”

Tertiary Ti can be tricky to identify, however, there are a few things we can point to in Steve. First, his Ti would have been responsible for rationalizing breaking the rules in order to try to get enlisted. Of course, his Ti in this instance is supporting his auxiliary Fe values/drive. As a tertiary Ti user, he’s initially not very critical of others. However, he grows critical as experience (Si) proves it necessary. When Stark and Banner are acting suspicious of Fury in the first Avengers movie, Steve initially chides them for it, but their Ti appears to activate his, and he then goes off looking for evidence that Fury is not being open and honest with them.

However, there are moments throughout the series that Steve gets extremely critical, and cuts straight to the heart of a matter. In the first Avengers movie, he’s critical of Stark’s character, and he tells him to stop pretending to be a hero. In Civil War, Stark holds out a pen to him as an olive branch, and Steve immediately comes out with how those pens had, in a sense, started a war in the past. Later, as Tony is explaining away his actions via the Accords as “protection”, Steve rebuttals by redefining what Stark is doing as a “internment”, which is an example of his Ti logic. It’s during this movie where we see Steve essentially lean into his Ti, being highly critical of all authorities and only willing to adhere to his own internal reasoning. (Of course, he struggles to initially break away, being first and foremost a Si-Fe user. It is only after seeing the authorities in modern times prove themselves untrustworthy many times that he is forced to lean back into his Ti, viewing himself as the most trustworthy authority as a result.)

Ne:

“Well, guess I just like to know who I’m fighting.”

Steve has a dislike for secrets and the unexpected. These traits are fairly common among those who have inferior Ne. A particular example of this causing tension between him and others is in Captain America Winter Soldier, when he leads a mission to retrieve stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence and rescue hostages. During the mission, he ends up catching Natasha Romanov not following his orders, and finds out that she had her own individual mission apart from the team’s. He becomes very displeased with her over this and starts chastising her about how her actions were risking the entire mission. He gets equally frustrated with Nick Fury later on for not being transparent with him. As a whole, Captain America is very unhappy with all the secrecy within S.H.I.E.L.D. and views them with a level of distrust because of it.

Further proof of his discomfort with the unknown is showcased in the quote at the top of this section. When he and Natasha finally figure out that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by Hydra, she comments that he almost seems happier after hearing the terrible news. He simply responds by saying that he likes to know who he’s fighting. This shows that he would rather have an understanding of the situation than be in the dark about what is going on, even if the reality of the situation is terrible.