• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Sensor Bias at MBTIc

Tigerlily

unscannable
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
5,942
MBTI Type
TIGR
Enneagram
3w4
There is a HUGE sensor-bias here! Sure there are many very open-minded, friendly, non-biased Intuitives here but pretty much every day someone says that I's are more intelligent, that they wish they wouldn't ever have to deal with S's ever again, that S brains are more primitive, etc. Or my favorite 'that Sensor's have 'trouble' understanding what I's mean because they are too concrete and things need to be simplified etc. Someone actually said to me when I first joined that he hoped that I would stick around even though they might be discussing things that I might find hard to follow. WTF?

I think MBTI (and other psychology topics) to be fascinating but many here place much too much importance on it which last I heard was an unproven theory and then use it to seperate and put people in boxes rather than using it to understand and relate to others.
Uh oh! :eek: Dorothy! Quick shield me!
 

Mondo

Welcome to Sunnyside
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
1,992
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
As you all know, I joined this site as a Sensor and have been one for somewhere around 5 months now.

Am I a Sensor? No. I've tested as an ENTP since I first took the test in high school :)

I'd lurked on this site for a bit before joining it and had noticed a bias against Sensors- the idea that they are generally less intelligent, less interesting and in general probably worse people than Ns are. This annoyed me, since a good number of my friends and family members are Sensors, so I joined the site as a Sensor just to see what would happen. I played up my Se (lucky for me it isn't weak) and downplayed my Ne in order to fit the image and jumped right in. After a while, people started to be a bit nicer about Sensors, and aknowledge that sometimes they aren't idiots. It was kind of fun to play a different part for a while :devil:

I'm still the same person, anything not related to my type that I've said has been true.

I still sense some bias against Sensors around here- nobody seems to want to be one for instance- so can you please tell me why? :huh: Would you have acted any differently towards me if I had joined as an ENTP?

people were catching onto me so I had to come out of the closet

Mod note: Please reserve this thread for discussion about bias. You can leave personal comments for whatever here.

I definitely sense a Sensor bias (no pun intended). The worst is on the iNtuitive forums, such as iNtutive Central.
I know many smart people who are definitely Sensors!

I think a lot of iNtutives become snobby towards Sensors because they feel those were the types who pegged them as weird without really getting to know them. That is never a good feeling............ BUT.............. irony here!!!!!!

The iNtutives who are doing this to Sensors are extremely guilty of the same practice......
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
I definitely sense a Sensor bias (no pun intended). The worst is on the iNtuitive forums, such as iNtutive Central.
I know many smart people who are definitely Sensors!

I think a lot of iNtutives become snobby towards Sensors because they feel those were the types who pegged them as weird without really getting to know them. That is never a good feeling............ BUT.............. irony here!!!!!!

The iNtutives who are doing this to Sensors are extremely guilty of the same practice......

The thing is I have seen Ns get tagged for simply pointing out that the sensors around them don't understand them and then everyone is crying "oooohhhh sensor bias, sensor bias! You will hurt their feelings if you say they don't understand you!", so there is a strange sort of political correctness about this issue between sensors and intutitves. It is okay for sensors to not understand intutitives and to be vocal about it but it is not okay for intutives to say anything about sensors failing to understand them.

That's a double standard.
 

pure_mercury

Order Now!
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
6,946
MBTI Type
ESFJ
The thing is I have seen Ns get tagged for simply pointing out that the sensors around them don't understand them and then everyone is crying "oooohhhh sensor bias, sensor bias! You will hurt their feelings if you say they don't understand you!", so there is a strange sort of political correctness about this issue between sensors and intutitves. It is okay for sensors to not understand intutitives and to be vocal about it but it is not okay for intutives to say anything about sensors failing to understand them.

That's a double standard.

Being overly sensitive about such interactions is one thing; reading/listening to intuitives claiming to be intellectual superiors is another (that is what actually got my goat earlier). It works both ways on misunderstanding, too. Listening to some intuitive people I know explain something complex can be like listening to a 5-year-old tell a joke. They aren't inferior; they communicate differently.
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
Being overly sensitive about such interactions is one thing; reading/listening to intuitives claiming to be intellectual superiors is another (that is what actually got my goat earlier). It works both ways on misunderstanding, too. Listening to some intuitive people I know explain something complex can be like listening to a 5-year-old tell a joke. They aren't inferior; they communicate differently.

Yes and you get to express this statement with appaluse, but if I said anything about S, people would cry "sensor bias!." :D
 

pure_mercury

Order Now!
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
6,946
MBTI Type
ESFJ
Yes and you get to express this statement with appaluse, but if I said anything about S, people would cry "sensor bias!." :D

Well, I am not one for victimology, but this forum shouldn't be an echo chamber for people to feel better about themselves at others' expenses illegitmately, either. It's important to self-examine. I can understand someone intuitive being frustrated at sensors not understanding them, but the question should be "How can I make myself better understood?" NOT "Why are these people so dense?" The flipside is true, too. I (and people like me) shouldn't say "What that hell are you talking about?" We should say, "Explain to me your thought process, so I figure out what is missing in this communication."
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
I guess the thing is that some of us have sensor relatives who won't listen no matter what and just laugh say "whatever."

The assumption that some of us have not tried and knocked our heads against the preverbial wall all our lives is not valid.
 

pure_mercury

Order Now!
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
6,946
MBTI Type
ESFJ
I guess the thing is that some of us have sensor relatives who won't listen no matter what and just laugh say "whatever."

The assumption that some of us have not tried and knocked our heads against the preverbial wall all our lives is not valid.

I am starting to think that "sensor" = "relative or co-worker I hate" for some people.
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
I am starting to think that "sensor" = "relative or co-worker I hate" for some people.

Well, then you are wrong. I have affection many of the sensors I have the most frustration with. EDIT: "Been hurt by" is a better word than "hate" here.

Mark this, you are a vastly different breed of sensor than many of us know based solely on your willingness to seek understanding through MBTI.

I have tried to bring MBTI up with the ones I care the most about and they won't talk about it at all. I try to explain the differences in commnication and they laugh at me.
 

Lookin4theBestNU

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
801
MBTI Type
ENFj
Enneagram
2w3
:popc1:

Waiting to see if this thread can get anymore ridiculous....my bet is that it will!
 

Randomnity

insert random title here
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
9,485
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
He said "some people" not "heart". No need to be paranoid.
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
He said "some people" not "heart". No need to be paranoid.

LOL, I don't think it is paranoid since he was quoting me when he said it. I am simply saying if you get that the only people I am speaking of when I say the S in my life are the people I "hate" then you haven't read my content.
 

pure_mercury

Order Now!
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
6,946
MBTI Type
ESFJ
Well, then you are wrong. I have affection many of the sensors I have the most frustration with.

Mark this, you are a vastly different breed of sensor than many of us know based solely on your willingness to seek understanding through MBTI.

I have tried to bring MBTI up with the ones I care the most about and they won't talk about it at all. I try to explain the differences in commnication and they laugh at me.

I am sorry to hear that. That is really lame behavior. Truly. MBTI seems to be a useful, albeit limited, tool for understanding yourself and others better. Do you honestly think that sensors don't want that for themselves, too? Or that someone basically maintaining that you (even as an intelligent, engaged person) have less capacity for deep thought because of one personality trait isn't just as closed-minded as people laughing at your for trying to explore how you communicate differently and get them involved? I am not saying that there isn't a PC atmosphere here to an extent. I am only saying that the wariness isn't totally unwarranted.
 

pure_mercury

Order Now!
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
6,946
MBTI Type
ESFJ
LOL, I don't think it is paranoid since he was quoting me when he said it. I am simply saying if you get that the only people I am speaking of when I say the S in my life are the people I "hate" then you haven't read my content.

That was a response, but I didn't mean that you specifically meant that. What you said just reminded me of some of the first couple of SJ-related posts that I read that were basically "This SJ jerk at work did this. . ." It's not endemic, there are just examples. I don't feel as though you are attacking me at all, nor do I feel that you use "sensor" as an epithet. I think that the bias does pop up, though. I am trying to countervail it by engaging people actively.
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
I am sorry to hear that. That is really lame behavior. Truly. MBTI seems to be a useful, albeit limited, tool for understanding yourself and others better. Do you honestly think that sensors don't want that for themselves, too? Or that someone basically maintaining that you (even as an intelligent, engaged person) have less capacity for deep thought because of one personality trait isn't just as closed-minded as people laughing at your for trying to explore how you communicate differently and get them involved? I am not saying that there isn't a PC atmosphere here to an extent. I am only saying that the wariness isn't totally unwarranted.

Yes, I understand this and when I see evidence that a person is willing to give and take in the area of understanding, I will work as hard as they do to meet in the middle.
 

INTJMom

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
5,413
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w4
There isn't always that much difference between Sensors and iNtuitives when you consider that every type has a Sensing and iNtuitive function. For half of the types the two are adjacent as second and third functions. The clearest distinctions come from those who strongly prefer one function over the other - or in whom one or both S or N functions are nearly absent.

What the Sensor bias looks like to me is a means to unite posters since the days of iNtuitive Central. The N function is what this online community supposedly had in common since that time. It often appears that the definition of Sensors gets squished into a tight little corner as a throw-a-way definition for those traits that the community rejects. It reaches a point that most people assume they must be iNtuitives because the definition of Sensing is smushed down into a handful of rigid, negative traits. The irony is that it is entirely possible that many people who rail against Sensors are in fact Sensors without even realizing it simply because they don't understand the breadth and depth of what those functions are really about. You simply cannot understand the iNtuitive function without understanding Sensing. Both poles of the spectrum must be comprehended and defined in a balanced manner in order for the distinctions to be clear.
I agree entirely.
Furthermore, anyone who categorically believes all sensors are not intelligent are themselves pompous over-inflated know-it-alls who actually know nothing that they ought to know!
 
Top