Recklessness In The 16 Personality Types

In Myers-Briggs and Jungian typology, everyone is quick to associate the word “reckless” with Se dominants, or ESTPs and ESFPs. However, that’s a bit unfair. Any personality type can be reckless, and not everyone of a specific personality type is reckless. No one slows down to think about the nuances of what it means to be reckless, all the different ways recklessness can manifest, and the different factors that can cause recklessness. So, after having an interesting group discussion about this topic recently, we decided to do a deep dive on the subject, and (hopefully) present a well-rounded picture.

What Is Recklessness?

As is prudent in these situations, let’s start with a definition, so we can all be on the same page. According to Merriam-Webster’s 1828 dictionary, being reckless is “marked by lack of proper caution : careless of consequences” or “irresponsible”. That’s pretty self-explanatory, so we’ll move on to the next section.

Everyone Can Be Reckless

Oftentimes, in personality theory, people focus so hard on tying everything back to cognitive functions or personality types, that they forget to think realistically. There are forms of recklessness that we can associate with specific personality types, but there’s also general recklessness that everyone can fall prey to. General recklessness involves ignorance, sheer stupidity, knee-jerk reactions, lack of self-control, or failure to see everything in the moment. We’re going to give some specific examples about these before moving on to the individual types.

Ignorance and Stupidity

Children and teenagers are often reckless due to stupidity. They don’t truly understand the risks of what they’re doing (e.g. children climb up onto tall objects without fear because they are ignorant of the fact that falling could result in serious bodily harm.) Unfortunately, ignorance and stupidity is not limited to children. Adults fall prey to this type of recklessness all the time, whether due to being in an unfamiliar situation (innocent ignorance), or sheer stupidity (because growing up doesn’t guarantee intelligence).

Knee-Jerk Reactions

Similarly, anyone can act brashly in the heat of the moment, or have knee-jerk reactions. These would be reflexive reactions. Some reflexive reactions are purely physical, like leaping out into traffic to catch a flying ball. (It’s hard to shut those reflexes off sometimes.) Other reflexive reactions are emotional, like reacting in anger or frustration. (As much as some people hate to admit it, we all have emotions, and we all can be prone to lashing out impulsively with just the right triggers.)

Lack of Self-Control

This would be things like gambling, drugs, and other sorts of addictions. Sometimes people draw parallels between certain personality types and certain types of addictions, and there could be some validity to some of those potential trends, but the bottom line is that people of all types can fall prey to lack of a self-control, resulting in reckless or irresponsible behavior.

Failure To See The Entire Situation

This can manifest as short-sightedness, not understanding the long-term ramifications of an action, or not being able to see all the factors impacting a situation, thus preventing someone from making the wisest possible decision. This can lead to a reckless decision that was both well-intentioned and not due to a lack of intelligence.

Is All Recklessness Bad?

Naturally, being reckless has a bad connotation, but is recklessness always bad? Actually, no. When a reckless act has a positive outcome, people oftentimes forget that it was reckless. Their impulse is to only view something as reckless when the reckless act fails. For instance, if a father rushes into a burning building to save a child, he’ll be lauded as a hero if he succeeds, or branded reckless if he fails. That principle can be applied to any risky action. Someone who works their way to success by taking risks will be labelled a mastermind if their “master plan” succeeds, or a hotheaded idiot if it fails.

It’s A Matter of Perspective

As you can see, something can be objectively reckless (i.e. appearing to be reckless to outside observers), but not necessarily subjectively reckless. In other words, the subject committing the reckless act won’t always see it as a reckless. (Sometimes they do, but other times, they see it as a strategic action). Remember, most people rationalize their actions to at least some degree.

Recklessness In The 16 Personality Types

So, let’s start tying this all back to the 16 personality types. The question is: what type of recklessness is each personality type prone to? Well, to give you a general overview, recklessness that is specific to the personality types will be the result of a doubling down on (or an overconfidence in) a specific cognitive function, by extension making that individual more reckless in that particular area. Of course, each cognitive function comes in pairs, so by over-fixating on one function, that person will be ignoring the other half, which will create an even greater, and reckless, imbalance.

We’ll be covering this subject by cognitive function, but we’ll make sure to list the main personality types associated with each.

Extraverted Intuition (Ne)

Dominant users: ENTP, ENFP

The EPs in general, with their dominant extraverted perceiving, will be most likely to fall prey to the short-sighted form of recklessness. In ENXPs, this can manifest as chasing novelty, constantly switching with every new thing, and never pausing long enough to really calculate the implications of their decisions. They may pick paths simply because they’re exciting, and then get blind-sided by the realities of their choice (or choices) later. For instance, they may get all excited about a specific opportunity or possibility, and then realize once they’ve already committed that they can’t maintain the daily responsibilities necessary to make any sort of lasting impact. In the long term, they may fail to create anything of permanence, leaving them unstable at a later point, when they are no longer capable of coping with that lifestyle.

Extraverted Sensing (Se)

Dominant users: ESTP, ESFP

As above, ESXPs are dominant extraverted perceivers, so they will be most likely to fall prey to the short-sighted form of recklessness. ESXPs frequently fall prey to recklessness due to boredom. They’ll essentially make impulsive decisions to keep their life exciting or stimulating. Of course, this impulsivity can lead to mistakes. However, while these types often recover from mistakes rather well, the reckless ESXP will never slow down long enough to introspect on or analyze these mistakes, instead repeating the same mistakes over and over. They’ll fail to perceive the cascading consequences of their actions. Of course, the longer this goes, the more likely they are to make a mistake that they can’t recover from. In the long term, like the ENXPs, they may fail to create anything of permanence, leaving them unstable at a later point, when they are no longer capable of coping with that lifestyle.

Extraverted Feeling (Fe)

Dominant users: ESFJ, ENFJ

EJ recklessness is typically centered around some sort of ideal or goal, which often leads to recklessness of self. They may do things to their own detriment, without realizing the mistakes they’re making. For an ENFJ or ESFJ, this could occur when protecting their community, family, or chosen people group against threats to harmony. For instance, there may be something threatening group consensus or the group may be breaking up (whether due to natural life circumstances, or something more sinister). In addition, EXFJs with reckless Fe may overemphasize connection and group identity. They may spend all their time playing social games and/or mirroring others behavior. As a result, they may realize too late that this has left them unfulfilled, with shallow relationships of little substance, and underdeveloped, lacking a clear sense of individual identity.

Extraverted Thinking (Te)

Dominant users: ESTJ, ENTJ

As above, EJ recklessness is typically centered around some sort of ideal or goal, which often leads to recklessness of self. They may do things to their own detriment, without realizing the mistakes they’re making. For an ENTJ or ESTJ, this recklessness can be provoked due to (what they perceive to be) a lack of productivity. For instance, they may decide to push things before they’re ready because they feel things are stalling. This principle can also apply in relationships, as EXTJs often devalue feeling type information. They be too focused on productivity, goals, and etc. that they become reckless in or with their relationships. In addition, they may find themselves as people they despise due to the decisions that they have made and the bridges they have burned.

Introverted Sensing (Si)

Dominant users: ISTJ, ISFJ

ISTJs and ISFJs are probably the last type that you’d imagine being reckless. In fact, you might even think that they could due to be a little more reckless, and in a sense, you’d be right. However, there’s a certain type of recklessness that they can fall prey to as well. Remember, recklessness is behavior marked by being careless of consequences and irresponsible. The clearest example for how this can surface in an ISXJ would the stereotype of the stubbron old man who’s avidly stuck in a specific lifestyle. The land dies, and the people move away, but he refuses to. Now, he lives in a barren dust bowl struggling to survive. Essentially, recklessness in an ISXJ is refusing to move forward with life and adapt to something new and better, instead staunchly adhering to what always was even if what always was no longer is. This can also be the mother who tries to keep her kids around way past their time, or the person acting like nothing has changed when things so clearly have. It’ll leave the ISXJ unhappy, constantly reaching for something that they can never have again, while they simultaneously destroy whatever is left of what they currently have, like their relationships.

Introverted Intuition (Ni)

Dominant users: INTJ, INFJ

Recklessness in these types can also be hard to believe, although people definitely attribute more reckless behavior to INXJs than they do ISXJs. (Some of this is flawed though because these types as a whole should also be fairly cautious.) However, recklessness in an INTJ or INFJ can manifest as a refusal to let go of an ideal. (The main difference between Si and Ni here is that the Ni ideal has never been actualized, while Si ideal is often based on something concrete like a past experience.) The INXJ may fixate so strongly on something they believe will happen or that they believe MUST happen, that they’ll miss what’s going on now, or the reality that’s staring them in the face. The may recklessly disregard anything in the present that contradicts their intuition-based perception, resulting in pointless, unachievable ideals or predictions that are way off the mark.

Introverted Thinking (Ti)

Dominant users: ISTP, INTP

As another introverted function, Ti dominants don’t often get the reputation of being reckless, unless perhaps the focus is on an ISTP. However, usually that idea of recklessness is usually emphasizing the Se, not the Ti. Ti recklessness would overly fixating on the Ti, to the extent that reality gets recklessly disregarded. (Because all introverted functions are prone to detachment from reality.) Reckless Ti falls into a self-reassuring echo chamber of false belief. Those heavily relying on Ti have a tendency to trust themselves (or their idea of what makes sense) over external evidence. This can happen to their own detriment. They’ll think, “if it makes sense to me it must be true.” This form of reckless Ti can manifest as forming intricate, conspiracy-like theories and blantantly ignoring facts because those facts don’t fit with the already accepted theories.

Introverted Feeling (Fi)

Dominant users: ISFP, INFP

Lastly, we have one final introverted function: introverted feeling. Similarily to the IXTPs, IXFPs also don’t typically get the reputation of being reckless, except in the case of maybe the ISFP with Se tendencies. (Although, for the record, as we’ve discussed, INPs can display that impulsive perceiver-type recklessness too. It’s not just the ISPs.) Fi recklessness falls into the tendency of acting on a personal feeling-based ideal. They’ll believe something to be true, or want to believe that’s something’s true, and refuse to let go of it despite any evidence or logic to the contrary. It’ll be a sort of “blind faith”, completely dismissing any need to objectively judge their subjective feelings. This recklessness can apply to literal beliefs, or smaller matters such as their self-perception and personal dreams.