Shark Tank - The Male Ego

[Epiphany]

I came across this episode of the Shark Tank and was surprised by the outcome. I assume that most business tycoons are E*TJs, by default, regardless of gender. It is my understanding that, statistically, more women are (subjective) Feelers and more men are (objective) Thinkers, according to typology theory. What I found interesting from watching this, is that the only woman seems to be more objective in her judgement than the four males. All of the "sharks" admit that the product is fantastic, possibly the best one they've seen on the show, and worth investing in; but the men succumb to their irritation of the gentleman pitching his idea because they are angry at his presentation, rather than sticking to the objective matters of the negotiation. They are more focused on how upset he makes them feel and they even try to dissuade the woman from making a deal by exaggerating the "disrespect" that he's showing her. She's the only one who has enough patience to put her emotions aside. Throughout the whole discourse, she is focused on the product and how she can use it to her own benefit and the men are whining about how they don't like him. Interesting...

 

[Epiphany]

Or perhaps I have misconstrued the meaning of Thinking and Feeling. My ESTJ brother is much more emotionally reactive than I am; and I've known other Thinkers to have frequent emotional outbursts while introverted feelers remain more even-tempered, but this thread isn't just about emotionality.

The woman in the video remains objective in her pursuit of this product because she believes in its potential, not because she necessarily likes the guy who invented it, whereas, the men seem unable to get over their egos or the negative emotions he stirred within them. The guy was simply trying to feel out his options and play his cards right. Instead of negotiating with him, the men reacted out of anger and possibly lost out on a successful endeavor while the woman avoided petty bickering and seized the opportunity.

 

[ptgatsby]

Or perhaps I have misconstrued the meaning of Thinking and Feeling. My ESTJ brother is much more emotionally reactive than I am; and I've known other Thinkers to have frequent emotional outbursts while introverted feelers remain more even-tempered, but this thread isn't just about emotionality.

Keep in mind that while MBTI uses four primary measurement sticks, there are huge areas of the human experience that it can't touch. Even given dozens, hundreds or thousands of measurement sticks to use, we would be unable to express the whole.

For example, F is not significantly more emotional, and by emotional, I mean physiologically reactive. There are generally two measurements for emotional reactivity - one positive and one negative. E>I is emotional (reactive) on the positive side, while MBTI does not measure the negative side (typically labelled neuroticism). There is a very slight correlation between F and Neuroticism, but it's largely a fragment of sex differences and is mostly an artifact (socially created).

As for working together, T's are not more objective in the absolute sense. They are less agreeable, to borrow language from another test. That is being shown in your clips. Disagreeable isn't considered an "emotion"... but this is where the issues crop up. The terminology we use matters. A person who can put aside their emotions and make objective decisions could be a T (maintain emotional distance), or it could be a F (better at coping with their own emotions). It's the same issue you'll run into during emotionally charged encounters: a F may cry while a T may not, but that T is not more emotionally distant; the F is simply coping with the emotions then and there, while the T may be unable to. That same T may take up drinking, for instance.

The above example(s) are stereotypes but do illustrate why nomenclature matters so much.

 

[Beorn]

Part of it could just be a matter of how badly they want the money. Lori has the lowest net worth of all the sharks by a huge margin. Lori's net worth is around $15 million while Cuban has the highest at $2.5 billion. For those guys dealing with someone with obvious negotiating and social inadequacies just isn't worth the hassle while Lori stands to make a significant percentage increase in her net worth by putting up with it.