[Traditional Enneagram] Meyers Briggs Tests and The Enneagram – A Strong Correlation

[highlander]

Edit: Please note that I expanded the analysis beyond what is in this thread and posted it in the Wiki here:
Enneagram and MBTI Correlation - Typology Wiki
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I have long noticed there seems to be a correlation between members’ Myers Briggs test results and their Enneagram test results. I’ve read several analysis on this over the years including on this forum including charts that say how common or uncommon it is for certain MBTI types to be a particular Enneagram type (or visa versa). There is one problem with all of the ones I’ve read. I have not seen anything based on actual data. Most of the things out there appear based on logic, supposition or subjective opinions. I think there is a lot of bad information.

I decided to run the numbers. I did something like this before but not as thorough.

At the time I am writing this, Typology Central has a total of 22,877 members. 4703 of those members have entered both their MBTI type and their Enneagram type. I added Enneagram type to the user profile about four years ago so the data has been collecting since that time.

So let’s look at the results.

This first graph illustrates for each of the MBTI types, the percentages of each Enneagram type that exist for each MBTI type. In other words, if I am an INTJ, how likely am I to be an Enneagram 5 or 2 or 8 for example. It shows those percentages.



I will say more about each of the types and how they relate to each other but before that, let's look at some broader overall themes.

How Common Are Each Of The Enneagram Types

The first thing that stands out when looking at the numbers is that when they were normalized, all Enneagram types are well represented across the population as a whole. The most common Enneagram type was a 2, coming in at 16% of the overall population. 4, 5, 6 and 9 each came in at 12% and 7 came in at 11%. 1, 3 and 8 were the least common Enneagram type, all coming in at 8% each. This differs dramatically from the MBTI distribution which ranges from 1.5% INFJs to 13.8% ISFJs – making ISFJs nine times more common than INFJs. Enneagram doesn’t appear to have such wide variations in frequency across the various types.

Overall Themes – Which Enneagram Type is Correlated With Which MBTI Type

An important part of the analysis was to normalize the data using the published CPP MBTI percentages as a baseline because the forum includes a much larger percentage of certain types – specifically introverted intutives - than is typical. The chart below shows this normalized analysis. What it essentially shows is for each Enneagram type, what the overall percentage of MBTI types make up that type. For example, for Enneagram 7, it shows that 89% of individuals with that type are EPs (add 15 + 33 + 13 + 38).



Looking at overall patterns from the data, a number of interesting themes emerged.

• Enneagram 1 - There is a strong correlation between Enneagram 1 and those that prefer Introverted Sensing in the dominant or auxiliary position. 82% of Enneagram ones are of three types: ISTJ, ESTJ, and ISFJ. Reflecting the the higher frequency of 1 among sensors and higher percentage of sensors in the population as a whole, it can be observed that 88% of Enneagram 1s are Sensors, with INTJs and ENTJs being the Intuitive types mostly likely to be a 1.
• Enneagram 2 - There is a strong correlation between Enneagram 2 and Extraverted Feeling. 78% of Enneagram 2s fall into three types: ISFJ, ESFJ, and ENFJ. Inconsistent with that observation, 7% of INFJs were Enneagram 2s, making it not uncommon but much less likely than other Enneagram types.
• Enneagram 3 - Enneagram 3 types are most often Extraverts and Sensors. 71% of 3s fell into three types: ESTJ, ESFJ, and ESTP. ENTJ, ENTP and ENFJ were the intuitive types most likely to be Enneagram 3.
• Enneagram 4 - 80% of Enneagram 4s fell into five types: INFJ, ISFJ, ISFP, INFP and ENFP indicating a correlation between the Enneagram 4, introversion and a feeling preference. The number of ENFP 4s is notable and is perhaps associated with a combination of a preference for intuition and introverted feeling.
• Enneagram 5 - Enneagram 5s are typically Introverted Thinkers with 75% falling into one of four types INTP, ISTJ, INTJ, and ISTP. It is by far the most common type for INTPs, INTJs and ISTPs.
• Enneagram 6 - Enneagram 6 is interesting in that it is present in significant numbers across all of the MBTI types. 13.7% of Sensing types and 5.5% of Intuitive types were Enneagram 6 making it more strongly correlated with Sensing than Intuition. ISTJs and ISFJs are the two types that are most likely to be Enneagram 6 and given how common those two types are, ISTJs and ISFJs comprise 57% of the Enneagram 6s in the overall population. Reflecting the the higher frequency of 6 among sensors and higher percentage of sensors in the population as a whole, it can be observed that 89% of Enneagram 6s are Sensors.
• Enneagram 7 - Enneagram 7 correlates strongly with EP - dominant Extraverted Intuition (ENFP, ENTP) and dominant Extraverted Sensing (ESFP, ESTP). 89% of Enneagram 7s were one of those four types.
• Enneagram 8 - 8 is by far the most common Enneagram type for ESTJs and ENTJs. 77% of Enneagram 8s fell into one of four types: ESTJ, ESTP, ENTP and ENTJ. 45% of the 8s are ESTJs, largely due to how common the ESTJ type is.
• Enneagram 9 - About 70% of Enneagram 9s are Introverts. Also, Enneagram 9 correlates strongly with a preference for Feeling and somewhat with a preference for Sensing

Now let us look at the percentages for each of the individual types.

ESTP Personality Enneagram Type

ESTPs generally fall into one of four Enneagram types. 39% of ESTPs are Type 7 and 29% are Type 8s. In other words, if you are an ESTP, you are almost 70% likely to be a 7 or an 8. Note also that there are a lot of 3s (17%) and 6s (12%). It’s probably no accident that 7s, 8s, and 3s tend to be very engaged with the external world.

ISTP Personality Enneagram Type

If you are an ISTP, you could be almost any Enneagram type but it’s Enneagram 5 that is the most common, representing 41% of the population. Other common types include Enneagram 9 (16%), 6 (12%), 7 (12%), and 8 (9%).

ISFP Personality Enneagram Type

The odds are if you are an ISFP, your Enneagram type is 4 or 9. 35% of ISFPs in the population were 4s and 34% were 9s, making up almost 70% of the ISFPs. Other likely possibilities include 6 (9%) and 2 (6%).

ESFP Personality Enneagram Type

The odds are that if you are an ESFP, your Enneagram type is 7 or 9. 44% of ESFPs in the population were 7s and 21% were 9s, making in total up two thirds of the ESFPs. 2 (13%) and 6 (8%) is also relatively common.

ISFJ Personality Enneagram Type

Three quarters of ISFJs fall into three Enneagram types - 6 (27%), 2 (26%) and 9 (22%). There are also a reasonable number of 4s (13%) and 1s (12%).

ESFJ Personality Enneagram Type

If you’re an ESFJ, you are probably an Enneagram 2. 61% of the ESFJs fell into this category. 19% were 3s and 9% were 6s.

ISTJ Personality Enneagram Type

ISTJs are pretty much evenly split between 1 (30%), 5 (29%) and 6 (29%). This doesn’t seem unusual. The ISTJ “inspector” type is likely to be a 1. ISTJs are known for their loyalty that is common to Enneagram Type 6.

ESTJ Personality Enneagram Type

If you are wondering where all the 3s are in the population, they are very likely going to be an ESTJ or an ESFJ. Those two types account for over 60% of the 3s in the population as a whole. 32% of ESTJs are 3s and 40% are 8s. 1s are also relatively common, representing 16% of the ESTJs.

INTJ Personality Enneagram Type

62% of INTJs are Enneagram 5s so when we are thinking of the common analytical INTJ stereotype, it is likely the INTJ Enneagram 5 which comes to mind. 1s are also fairly common, representing 14% of the INTJs. 4 and 8 both come in at 6% each, making them less common but still frequently occurring. Mind you, I am an Enneagram 6. 6s represented only 5% of the 575 INTJs in the overall population.

ENTJ Personality Enneagram Type

ENTJs can be almost any type except for a 2 and were well represented across many Enneagram Types. There were a few that stood out. 46% of ENTJs are 8s and 19% are 3s. Both fit well with the ENTJ stereotype of the in charge over-achiever. 1 was also fairly common, representing 11% of the population of ENTJs.

INTP Personality Enneagram Type

A whopping 74% of INTPs are Enneagram 5s. 8% are 4s, 6% are 9s and the rest fall in the 2 – 3% range across the rest of the types except for the Enneagram 2 which stands out at 0%.

ENTP Personality Enneagram Type

ENTPs are represented across all of the different Enneagram types but there are a few that stand out as more common. The most common type by far for ENTPs is Enneagram 7 at 47% the ENTP members. Other common types included 8 (15%), 3 (12%), 5 (9%).

INFJ Personality Enneagram Type

INFJs are also well represented across all of the Enneagram Types. By far the most common was the 4 at 44%. 14% were 5s, 11% were 9s, and 10% were 6s. 1s (6%) and 2s (7%) are not quite as common but there are plenty of them out there.

ENFJ Personality Enneagram Type

42% of ENFJs are 2s. If we recall that 61% of ESFJs are 2s, it becomes clear that there is a definite correlation between Extraverted Feeling as a dominant function and the Enneagram Type 2. Enneagram type 3 (18%) and 4 (16%) are also very common for the ENFJ. Note that 1, 6 and 7 are not uncommon as they are all in the 6 – 7% range.

INFP Personality Enneagram Type

57% of INFPs are Enneagram type 4, which likely aligns with our most common stereotype for the INFP as someone who prides themselves in being different. 16% are 9s and 13% are 5s. 2s and 6s both come in at 5% and while not as common, there are a lot of them in the forum population.

ENFP Personality Enneagram Type

It’s not common for an ENFP to be an Enneagram 1 or 5 but other than that, they are well represented across all of the Enneagram types. A large number are 7s (39%), 4s (25%) and 2s (14%). 9s (7%) and 3s (5%) are not entirely uncommon either. Again, when we recall that 47% of ENTPs are Enneagram 7, it appears there is a strong correlation between Extraverted Intuition as a dominant function and Enneagram 7.

 

[á´…eparted]

Wait, so the majority of the forum is comprized of SJ's, and the least common type is INFJ? I find this extremely hard to believe?

Regardless, this is great to look at.

 

[/DG/]

Wait, so the majority of the forum is comprized of SJ's, and the least common type is INFJ? I find this extremely hard to believe?

Regardless, this is great to look at.

Are you looking at the normalized data or are you misinterpreting something else? The second chart normalizes the data according to the supposed frequencies of all types "in the real world," not just on TypoC. SJs supposedly comprise a majority of the population, INFJs are supposedly the rarest type, etc.

 

[Fluffywolf]

It is pretty interesting, even considering the many mistypes there are, some of the correlations are so defined, it would be hard to imagine that mistypes would account for them.

On the correlation you found of INTP's with enneagram 5. Due to the nature of INTP's and the description of 5, it can be said that they are matches made in heaven. But on the other, that they are also often mistyped because they are so well matched.

How many INTP's would mistype themselves as enneagram 5? I certainly did at first, although after some introspection I came to realize I was wrong. It remains that enneagram 5 speaks to pretty much every INTP in some way. But enneagram is a bit more tricky like that, dealing more in the subconscious than in the conscious. Still, I changed it after some time, others who type themselves wrongly at first might fix it later on. But INTP's are pretty good procrastinators. I'd say there is also a fair amount of INTP's that have likely settled on the idea of what their enneagram is and not bothered investigating it properly. How many? 10%? 50%? Even more would probably be unlikely, so I would not question the fact that enneagram 5 is most prominant amongst INTP's. Just that I doubt the line is as thick as the numbers prove it to be.

I'd say that the percentage of people mistyping themselves in MBTI, due to the relative ease with which an MBTI type can be found, is small enough not to worry about. But I'm not convinced the same holds up about people selftyping their enneagram.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

This is all very interesting, [MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION]. Nice work putting this together. Some of the info seemed obvious and some was more surprising. I would have expected a stronger correlation between INFJ and 9.

Certain correlations seem exaggerated due to similarity of type descriptions and shared archetypes, themes, traits, etc (as [MENTION=6643]Fluffywolf[/MENTION] noted about INTP 5s; my rough guess would be that it's probably something closer to 25-50% of INTPs who are true 5s, although I think it would still be present in many INTPs' tritype configurations) and I think this is an important caveat to remember whenever we try to correlate these 2 systems.

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

These strong correlations are not surprising. Interesting to see the outliers and if those are people who change type frequently or are undecided, etc. but that would be difficult to measure. I second the earlier post about enneagram being a bit more difficult to self-type. It takes more reseach.

Really awesome read. Thanks [MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION]

 

[SearchingforPeace]

Great job. Fascinating data.

 

[grey_beard]

So INTJ=5, ENTJ=8 while INFP=4 and ENFP=7 (stereotypically). And INFJ as a 4, so often first confused with INFP, and ESFP as a robust 8.

Comports with impressions picked up by gossip, as it were, though.

Well done, Highlander.

 

[Ene]

[MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION] this is very interesting. Thank you for running these numbers. I'm also surprised that there aren't more Ni dominant nines.

 

[Bush]

Holy hell

I like it. I'm a fan of empirical stuff. "The data says a thing."

Could [MENTION=26002]estorm[/MENTION] benefit from this, through comparing results? Maybe if these results are sound enough, they could suggest what he "should" see in his own test.

 

[uumlau]

Highlander, I trust your data, but some of your conclusions indicate that you are either using words differently than I would or you are seriously misinterpreting certain statistics. Rather than go over each case (as I suspect the error(s) are the same in each one), let's look at the claim that the most common Enneagram type is 2. Our population as you've noticed before is primarily INxx types: INTJ, INFJ, INTP and INFP. Of these, only the INFJ has type 2 significant at all, and is much more likely to be type 4. We should have a majority type 4 and type 5 population, not type 2. It seems that you are weighing "percentages" together, not actually aggregating data to determine what the percentages are.

Could you post the count of each MBTI/Enneagram type, please?

 

[highlander]

Wait, so the majority of the forum is comprized of SJ's, and the least common type is INFJ? I find this extremely hard to believe?

Regardless, this is great to look at.

Highlander, I trust your data, but some of your conclusions indicate that you are either using words differently than I would or you are seriously misinterpreting certain statistics. Rather than go over each case (as I suspect the error(s) are the same in each one), let's look at the claim that the most common Enneagram type is 2. Our population as you've noticed before is primarily INxx types: INTJ, INFJ, INTP and INFP. Of these, only the INFJ has type 2 significant at all, and is much more likely to be type 4. We should have a majority type 4 and type 5 population, not type 2. It seems that you are weighing "percentages" together, not actually aggregating data to determine what the percentages are.

Could you post the count of each MBTI/Enneagram type, please?

Both of you are missing the normalization aspect here which [MENTION=6554]/DG/[/MENTION] mentioned. The first chart and tables with the colorful bars is based on actual data present for each type and what the percentages are for each enneatype. The second chart has been normalized to fit the "world" population so to speak by converting the numbers into what they would look if the forum had the CPP distributions. You really have to look at these two completely different sets of data - different angles so to speak to derive the conclusions that I did - like 1 and 6 being associated mostly with sensing types - or that there are a lot of 2s. For example, on the second chart, the ISFJ is going to count 9 times as much as INFJ in terms of numbers. The normalization pushed numbers down for some types and pushed them up for others. The reason there are a lot of 2s overall is because they have high numbers for certain types that are very common in the population. It doesn't mean they are the most common type on the forum. They're not. Enneagram 4 and 5 are the most common type on the forum because of the disproportionate number of INFs.

I'll have to post other tables a bit later.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

There is one problem with all of the ones I’ve read. I have not seen anything based on actual data. Most of the things out there appear based on logic, supposition or subjective opinions. I think there is a lot of bad information.

While I do think this is useful and interesting to see, I'm not sure I'd agree that enough members here type themselves correctly for this to be especially reliable data.

At the time I am writing this, Typology Central has a total of 22,877 members. 4703 of those members have entered both their MBTI type and their Enneagram type. I added Enneagram type to the user profile about four years ago so the data has been collecting since that time.

There aren't nearly this many active members here, not to mention that many of the members who are active don't have this information entered. My point being, it's difficult to have an opinion about how reliable this data is. A great deal of these numbers are likely people who sign up on a fleeting interest, enter their first guess at their type and leave the (however likely incorrect) information just sitting there to collect with the rest.

/raining on Te parade


Has anyone ever read the results of the Fauvre Enneatype/mbti study? They likely wouldn't want it posted here- I'm just wondering if anyone found it useful/insightful enough to seek out and read. I got the impression she was going to weed out the information from people who mistyped themselves- at least on the enneagram end. She made some comment about how she could tell, based on the questions she asked, when someone was wrong about their enneagram type.

 

[Bush]

I absolutely love the normalization approach. If it's done right -- though I'm sure it is but I haven't looked at it in detail -- it actually puts the correlations into a perspective outside of our little forums-world. Just slap a sample size on for each type and you're good to go.

It'd also be helpful to gather up links to the other threads with correlations, theoretical and empirical. Meta-analyses are neat.

I guess you could give some un-normalized stats, too, as boring as they are?

 

[Kas]

I like it a lot.
A big study group- big enough to make the error (as mistyped people) irrelevant. Also I like how you compared the results to the general MBTI population to get more useful stats.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I like it a lot.
A big study group- big enough to make the error (as mistyped people) irrelevant. Also I like how you compared the results to the general MBTI population to get more useful stats.

Good point. Also, people mistyped in one system are likely to be mistyped in the other system anyway.

 

[uumlau]

The main problem with determining MBTI vs Enneagram correlations is that it's one thing to have the personalities correlate, and quite another to have the actual types correlate. For example, I believe that a lot of E4s are mistyped as INFPs - and vice versa - because the personalities are so similar. Similarly, I think a lot of INTx types are wrongly typed as E5s - and vice versa - because the personalities match.

That's the main issue I had determining my E9 type. The E5 descriptions said all the "right things", but didn't really match: it describes a generic nerd. Similarly, the E9 type matched me in terms of motivations, but the personality descriptions have a ton of emo-fluff in them that didn't match me. I had to do the difficult work of figuring out what the Enneagram types "really meant" to get my type right. Once I arrived at INTJ E9, everything clicked: I think like an INTJ, I react like a E9.

While I'm only one data point, I currently believe that a lot of these correlations that we see in typical MBTI vs. Enneagram data aren't as significant as they might appear to be on the surface.

 

[Kas]

Good point. Also, people mistyped in one system are likely to be mistyped in the other system anyway.

Yes, that's very likely.


It is possible though that mistypes are influencing statistics of some types (especially rare as INFJs) more than others.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

The main problem with determining MBTI vs Enneagram correlations is that it's one thing to have the personalities correlate, and quite another to have the actual types correlate. For example, I believe that a lot of E4s are mistyped as INFPs - and vice versa - because the personalities are so similar. Similarly, I think a lot of INTx types are wrongly typed as E5s - and vice versa - because the personalities match.

That's the main issue I had determining my E9 type. The E5 descriptions said all the "right things", but didn't really match: it describes a generic nerd. Similarly, the E9 type matched me in terms of motivations, but the personality descriptions have a ton of emo-fluff in them that didn't match me. I had to do the difficult work of figuring out what the Enneagram types "really meant" to get my type right. Once I arrived at INTJ E9, everything clicked: I think like an INTJ, I react like a E9.

While I'm only one data point, I currently believe that a lot of these correlations that we see in typical MBTI vs. Enneagram data aren't as significant as they might appear to be on the surface.

I hate the 9 descriptions for similar reasons. I joined a 9 group on facebook and it seemed many of the posts were of the "emo-fluff" nature you're describing. I have a very hard time relating to those particular posts.

I should find out the frequency of MBTI types in that group. I suspect a high ratio of feelers to thinkers.

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

Great work! Pretty graph.