Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F): What’s the Difference?
In the Myers-Briggs system, those with a “T” in their four-letter type code are thinkers, while those with a “F” are feelers. Some people think the difference between thinkers and feelers are obvious. After all, thinkers think and feelers feel, right? Thinkers are rational and feelers are emotional, right? Unfortunately, thinking vs. feeling is not quite that simple. In some instances, it may be obvious when someone is a thinker, or when someone is a feeler, but for the times when it’s not so obvious, it’s important to understand the real distinctions between thinking vs. feeling.
Beware of Bias
Feelers are often subjected to a negative bias within the typology community. The assumption is that they are irrational, and not capable of intelligence like a thinker is. To be clear, that is a misconception (which will be discussed more later). Being a thinker within the Myers-Briggs system (or any variant of the 16 personalities theory) has nothing to do with intelligence. Thinkers can be emotional, and feelers can be intelligent. It’s important that you set aside your personal biases before proceeding forward.
Read More: Yes, Thinkers Feel and Yes, Feelers Think
Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F): The Myers-Briggs Dichotomy
If you’re new to the 16 personalities, here are a couple of things that you need to know.
(1) Carl Jung identified 4 dichotomies (Thinking, Feeling, Intuition, Sensing), each encompassing two cognitive functions of opposite orientations. In other words, extraverted thinking (Te) and introverted thinking (Ti) are part of the thinking dichotomy, just like extraverted feeling (Fe), and introverted feeling (Fi) are part of the feeling dichotomy. As a result, there are a total of 8 cognitive functions (Te, Ti, Fe, Fi, Ne, Ni, Se, Si). Carl Jung theorized that each individual would have one of these 8 functions as their dominant, and that dominant function would play the greatest role in how their personality type manifests.
(2) Myers and Briggs came along, studied his work, and reformed it into 16 personality types, based on how he described the framework. In the process, they identified similarities between cognitive functions within the same dichotomy, and created generalized descriptions based on these similarities. In other words, Extraverted Thinker (Te users) and Introverted Thinkers (Ti users) were grouped into a general Thinking description, while Extraverted Feelers (Fe users) and Introverted Feelers (Fi users) were grouped into a general Feeling description. (This thinking vs feeling dichotomy was then labelled as “T” and “F” in the four-letter type codes.)
Related Article: Carl Jung’s Psychological Types: A Look at the Framework
Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F) Misconceptions
Like all the other dichotomies, people often make Thinking (T) and Feeling (F) out to be something far more extreme than they actually are. I’m going to counter a few of the common ones before proceeding to the real differences between thinking and feeling.
1. Thinkers are mean, and Feelers are nice
So many times, I see people act like jerks under the guise of being a thinker. However, that’s not how this dichotomy works. Thinkers are not inherently jerks, nor are they jerks for the sake of being jerks. Likewise, feelers can be mean and tactless. There’s an element of social skills involved here, in addition to basic human empathy. Personality type does not define or determine these things.
2. Thinkers have no emotions, and Feelers are cry babies
Personality type does not magically exempt someone from having emotions. Rather, personality type will influence how someone might deal with their emotions, or how much they might value them by default. Thinkers may appear less emotional, at times, but that doesn’t mean they are. But with that being said, some thinkers are more open about their emotions, even if that emotion is just anger. As for feelers, believe it or not, feelers can be stoic, especially the introverted ones. The cry baby stereotype is more indicative of someone who is emotionally immature, rather than a feeler specifically.
3. Thinkers are the villains, and Feelers are the heroes
In the process of associating values with feelers, people have associated morality with feelers. This is also false. Morality is separate from type. So, someone takes the understanding that thinkers are mean and thinkers have no values and starts labeling every villain as a thinker. Once again, that’s false. In fact, there are many excellent examples of villainous feelers, just like there are excellent examples of heroic thinkers.
Related Article: The Myers-Briggs Personality Types As Heroes and The Myers-Briggs Personality Types As Villains
4. Thinkers are intelligent, and feelers are not.
Lastly, and probably the most prominent of them all, the intelligence bias within the MBTI community. The word “thinking” is often taken far too literally, creating the misconception that feelers aren’t analytical or intelligent because they don’t “think”. (They’re just emotional, cry babies, right?) Once again, this is false. Intelligence is separate from personality type.
5. Feeling is about values, and thinking is not.
People get all up in arms when the feeling (F) dichotomy is tied to emotions. They’ll adamantly claim that feeling is about values. While I understand why feelers want to disassociate feeling from emotions, there is an inherent problem with making it all about values. Namely, the word “value” is extremely general, encompassing all kinds of things that feelers won’t necessarily “value”. Please realize that everyone has values, and everything can be a value. Values drive everyone’s actions, because everything is tied to a value. It’s more accurate to say that feelers value certain kinds of values. But now I’m just being confusing.
Read More: Feeling vs Thinking: What Are Values?
2 Real Differences Between Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
In the above misconceptions, I didn’t really dive into explaining how the stereotype came about, or what truth at the core of each has been twisted to produce the stereotype. That’s because I’m going to talk about those things below, while covering the real differences between the thinking (T) and feeling (F) dichotomy.
1. Thinkers devalue emotional data, while feelers do not
The reason that thinkers may appear to be less emotional, and that feelers may appear to be more emotional, is due to how they view emotions in general. Thinkers often view emotions as something that is getting in the way of objectivity. They see emotions as distractions, or weakness. They see emotional data as invalid. Of course, this isn’t to say that they’re not affected by emotions. All humans being are (rare exceptions aside). In reality, what tends to happen is that thinkers try to section off their emotions, or compartmentalize them, which can lead to a couple of different issues.
- Emotions end up having a subconscious influence on them, one that they’re totally oblivious to. This can lead to them thinking they’re being objective, when in reality they are the farthest thing from it.
- The attempt to completely detach themselves from emotions can lead to them being “emotionally constipated”, so to speak. They can struggle to form deep relationships, express vulnerability, etc.
- The suppression of emotions can become a ticking time bomb, leading to an extreme and inappropriate emotional explosion.
Feelers, on the other hand, view emotions as relevant. After all, a person’s decisions and experiences all impact their emotions. It’s unavoidable. Therefore, emotions should be taken into account, whether those emotions be one’s personal emotions or the emotions of others. Because of this willingness to validate emotions, feelers are often more willing to express emotions. Of course, I’m not saying feelers won’t be private, and cautious with whom they express their emotions to. I’m just stating a general tendency. So, while thinkers are trying to strip out the emotional data to be objective, feelers are valuable because they recognize the need to take emotions into account. One cannot truly be objective without recognizing and accounting for the substantial influence that emotions have on people.
2. Thinkers are task-focused, while feelers are people-focused
Remember my little explanation about values in the misconceptions section earlier? Here’s where it’s relevant. Feelers often focus on defining or forming values that measure someone or something’s worth and importance, specifically in regard to emotional or social impact. For Fi in the FPs, this will center around evaluating the specific type of person they want to be, and forming personal ideals. Whereas, in the FJ, this will center around forming values in direct response to their chosen community, or the external impact. This inherently makes feelers more people-focused, even if they aren’t moral or extraverted.
On the other hand, thinkers focus more on tasks, even when it’s to help people. In a sense, thinkers are more concrete in nature. They’ll look for physical ways to solve people’s problems, resulting in them either missing or ignoring the emotional component. Many people miscategorize thinkers as mean because of this, because in the moment thinkers are prone to completely tuning out the human component, focusing entirely on completing the task or solving the problem. Thinkers aren’t intentionally being mean when they do this. Oftentimes, they’re legitimately just trying to be helpful, useful, or productive.
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When I see this article, I remember that in South Korea, people say “are you a T?” to those who don’t seem to show sympathy or emotion (like when someone feels sad or is watching a sad movie). It’s become one of the most hilarious and ridiculous meme because MBTI is so popular in South Korea. People associate “feelers” with always expressing their emotions in front of others and showing sympathy and empathy, while “thinkers” are seen as dry and cold.
A) You mention that thinkers can be completely oblivious to how emotions influence them, but is it possible for them to recognize/be aware of their own or others’ emotions even if they regard them as invalid/irrelevant? Or do you have to be “emotionally blind” to be considered a thinker?
B) To what extent do thinkers disregard emotions, and how “immune” is their conscious thought process to emotional influence? For instance, if a person makes decisions based on low confidence or a negative self-image, would this be a case of a feeler validating their emotions, or can thinkers experience this as well?
Example train of thought: “Intelligent and competent people wouldn’t feel stress because they would have enough confidence in their abilities to handle any problem thrown at them → I often feel stressed and unsure of my skills, and for some reason, I don’t trust my ability to develop competence in → Therefore, I must be unintelligent, incapable, and weak, and should avoid to prevent being looked down upon or exposed as incompetent.”
C) Could thinkers still factor emotions into their decision-making process, even if emotional data is not valued for its own sake? For example, can a thinker acknowledge the need to address others’ emotional states if they believe those emotions could cause problems or interfere with task completion? Or must you completely disregard any awareness of how emotions influence human behaviors to be considered a thinker (assuming the thinker has no history of studying psychology or human behavior)?
A. You don’t have to be emotionally blind to be considered a thinker, but many thinkers recognize this as a trouble area for them. TJs are more likely to be aware of their own emotions (and blind to others), while TPs are more likely to be aware of other people’s emotions (and blind to their own).
B. I wouldn’t call thinkers immune to emotional influence. No one is immune. I would frame it more like denial, rationalizing away, or a refusal to admit. Anyone can be influenced by low confidence, a negative self-image, or stress. Avoiding doing something you feel incapable of doing can seem logical.
C. Just like how feelers aren’t incapable of making emotionally detached decisions, thinkers aren’t incapable of factoring emotions in. This stuff can’t be taken too extreme. It has more to do with default tendencies and priorities. Anyone completely refusing to recognize the existence of emotions, or refusing to recognize that human beings run on emotions will not be successful in life.
TJs are known for recognizing someone’s emotional state, and then trying to solve the problem in a concrete way. They take a very pragmatic, or cause and effect approach to it. X caused this emotional issue, so I need to fix X to get everything running smoothly again. They won’t want to address the emotions directly, but rather, what caused the emotions. TPs are known for tuning into the external emotional atmosphere, and using it to gauge what’s appropriate and inappropriate. These behaviors for thinkers tend to be conscious and intentional, rather than subconscious or automatic. In other words, it takes conscious effort.
The strange assumptions people make about the cognitive functions… 🫠
The part focusing on thinkers being affected by their emotions even if they don’t want to be made me think of Patrick Star (probably the least stereotypical INTP ever? haha) from “SpongeBob Squarepants”. I can think of a lot of moments where he let his emotions get the best of him (Fe Grip at least some of those times, maybe?) but when he’s in a more calm, controlled state he tends to make most of his decisions based off of his strange Ti framework. (Though, I guess some people might call parts of mine strange if they saw all of it…)
An example of this is when he’s trying to help his best friend SpongeBob get into a tough guy bar. They made a plan that SpongeBob would pretend to beat up Patrick and that would impress the bouncer enough to let him in. As part of the act SpongeBob calls him “Tubby” resulting in Patrick being enraged and punching SpongeBob to the ground (“😢 Tubby…? 😡”) before SpongeBob reminds him why they were doing all this, (“😮 Oh yeah…”) at which point his Ti takes back over (combined with Ne?) to fake being beaten up in all sorts of creative ways (I think it culminated in being kicked over the horizon… and exploding 💥, if I remember correctly because why not lol.)
I can think of other examples like when he terrorized a carnival because SpongeBob only gave him a handshake as a gift in comparison to everyone else (I think there was a real gift but everyone else was trying to keep it a surprise?) and the time when he struggled to accept it when SpongeBob decided to live in the wild as a Jellyfish and even decided to try to catch him like any other Jellyfish at one point. (“If I can’t have you as a friend… I’m gonna make you a trophy!…I even picked out this nice jar for you!”)
This was a really entertaining and informative read. I vaguely knew about the values and uhh… valuing emotional data stuff, but breaking it down so specifically should help with identifying who’s a feeler and who’s a thinker, haha.