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Stephen Colbert Officially Typed On The Late Night Show As INFP!

Riva

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Summons [MENTION=9627]Xann[/MENTION] to the thread. Can you relate to the guy?
 

Xann

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Summons [MENTION=9627]Xann[/MENTION] to the thread. Can you relate to the guy?

I don't see much evidence for either N or Fi, to be honest, but lots for Si + Fe. Irish wit =/= N. No, I don't relate to him at all. The majority of intelligent sensors (especially introverts) score N upon first taking the MBTI test, so this is not surprising.
 

Betty Blue

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On a visual scale he looks awfully like a young Dustin Hoffman...It's uncanny

Personality wise I am very confused. Having not heard of him until [MENTION=404]erm[/MENTION] showed me the youtube vid of him introducing himself and the test results I had him pegged as an ENTP ... his persona was clearly ENTP... however if he was honest during the test and is completely different off cam... then sure why not... anyone could be INFP if they are just acting for the camera to show a different personality. INFP's are pretty good at acting and very good at making up believable stories... lying to strangers (without any malice attached)...because why not.


150216-dustin-hoffman-01.jpg
 

erm

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I thought IXFP in the past. John Oliver is totally ISFP and I guess I can see Colbert as an N. He reminds me of myself in school a lot, and that IXFP style goofy/sarcastic humor, though I'm not as funny, smart or socially fluent as he is, just had a similar way of going about it.

Most typing on these forums are pretty superficial, more akin to "what My Little Pony are you most like?" than anything substantial. Humans already obsessively judge and class people based on superficial behaviors like how talkative they are, whether they like maths, how punctual and rigid etc. The whole point of MBTI and similar systems was to go deeper than that, past our Savannah Ape tendencies to categorize people at such a low resolution/on the surface, and also get a different angle on people rather than renaming the same old stereotypes. All whilst still doing the eugenics thing of using nature terminology over nurture terminology, but that was still popular in psychology at the time.

The Official MBTI test does tend to go a bit deeper (though it still manages to convert a lot of class warfare into the N/S dichotomy and a fair bit of debunked renaissance bullsh*t about emotions into the T/F dichotomy). Most of these internet typings are "do you like maths?" or "do you act a lot?" instead of "how do you go about maths?" and "how does each type go about acting?", even if it pretends to be the latter. I suppose the deeper stuff is difficult and time consuming, the shallow stuff vastly more entertaining.

Anyway, if you do a shallow buzzfeed style typing on him you'll just get his ENXP persona. Your brain's first instinct is to do that kind of typing long before you discovered MBTI.

TL;DR F**k you. Why aren't you giving 50% of your earnings to a reputable charity?! Leave me alone.
 

reckful

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The majority of intelligent sensors (especially introverts) score N upon first taking the MBTI test, so this is not surprising.

Where did you hear that? On a trip to BerensWorld? :alttongue:

The idea that the official MBTI S/N items tend to cause a lot of S's to mistype as N's is a notion that Linda Berens has been pushing for a while, but FYI, somebody decided to put it to the test, and it failed miserably. The study found that N's actually mistype as S's substantially more often than S's mistype as N's.

According to the official MBTI folks, somewhere between 25% and 30% of people come out N when they take the MBTI (see, e.g., here and here), which makes S/N the only MBTI dimension that isn't pretty close to 50/50. If the MBTI is actually N-biased, and if they fixed it so it wasn't biased, how small a minority do you think the N's would turn out to be?
 

Xann

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Where did you hear that? On a trip to BerensWorld? :alttongue:

The idea that the official MBTI S/N items tend to cause a lot of S's to mistype as N's is a notion that Linda Berens has been pushing for a while, but FYI, somebody decided to put it to the test, and it failed miserably. The study found that N's actually mistype as S's substantially more often than S's mistype as N's.

According to the official MBTI folks, somewhere between 25% and 30% of people come out N when they take the MBTI (see, e.g., here and here), which makes S/N the only MBTI dimension that isn't pretty close to 50/50. If the MBTI is actually N-biased, and if they fixed it so it wasn't biased, how small a minority do you think the N's would turn out to be?

I was not aware of Linda Berens' research into the matter, to be honest I have never heard her name before. I came to the conclusion on my own after about 10 years of studying people across many personality psychology forums self-administer the MBTI test and comparing and contrasting it with my own typings, as well as in many cases having the privilege of observing them settle more accurately on a sensing type after running the gamut of possibilities that the limited functionality of the tests were unable to eliminate. What I consider to be intelligent (top 5-10% of the sensor population), would likely only change the percentages you presented by 4-7%, and keep in mind it is fully possible the limitations of the official MBTI test also lead to (perhaps less creative/perceptive) intuitives ending up with an S result erroneously. In any case, even if it were so much that only 1 in 5 people were intuitives, it would not be surprising to me.
 

OrangeAppled

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I think there is a case to be made for INFP (I dug most of this up on Wikipedia) :

Colbert claims that in his early life he had difficulty making friends. He spent a lot of time reading fantasy books and playing D&D. He credits roleplaying games as his first experience with acting and improvising.

He said when he started acting, he found he liked performing, even when no one came to the show. When he started, he mostly did experimental pieces and drama, and wasn't interested in comedy.

When he started touring with Second City and met Paul Dinello [who he would go on to collaborate with and befriend], Dinello thought Colbert was "uptight, pretentious, and cold" at first, while Colbert thought Dinello was "an illiterate thug".

I also think introverts are more likely to disappear completely into a character like Colbert did, while extraverts tend to just be characters [Like Stewart, an actual ENTP].

It's also worth remarking that almost all of Colbert's earliest TV credits, were as a writer, not performer.

Here's an interesting quote from Colbert, which makes him sound INFPish:

"I was 22 or 23 when I made a decision not to be actively Hamlet-like and miserable in my daily life, and the decision helped a lot," he said. "Living vitally is not easier than living morbidly -- it's just better. People are all we've got."

Also, if you think he's a Ti user before Fi user, watch his interview with Joe Biden. So sincere and heartfelt, and Colbert spends a lot of time talking about how he admires Joe Biden's authenticity. Also Late Show Colbert, has been very open about his faith, even having a Catholic discussion panel during his Pope episode. Which isn't terribly ENTPish.

Ok, so now he is like prototypical INFP, which almost makes it suspicious :D .
Totally agree with the first bolded part too.
And every INFP seems to come to the fork in the road of "To be or not to be...Hamlet?".
 

hokie912

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Totally, totally called it, and interesting that he did this segment! I watched his episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee last night and he actually quoted Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" as essential life philosophy. If that's not INF, I don't know what is.
Also, I've crushed on Stephen for years, and I seem to have a thing for INFPs (my husband is one), :D
 

Ace_

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Watching his show, I can see how he is a feeler. When Bill Burr and Jim Jeffries were on, it was awkward, because they're both brutal thinkers, too honest and shocking for the atmosphere that Colbert wants and for his audience.

I still like him though, but I like Bill Burr and Jim Jeffries way more.
 

Dashy CVII

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If there's one thing we know from being around MBTI typists, it's that extraverts are constantly mistyped introvert. Anyone can relate to the introvert without being one. It's the introvert who has a much harder time relating to the extravert. Introverts are instinctively conservative. You need experience to type, and still, all you can give is one opinion. I don't trust the typologist nor Colbert's jocular mentality in answering, as people often report a different type result the next month. Typewise I don't see him as as externally eager as someone like Ellen Degeneres, but there's a gradient. Extroverts aren't always comfortable being around people, and a lot of questionnaire questions don't get at the heart of it. One of her questions for extraversion for example was "do you tend to introduce people to each other?" A fairly pointless question.
 

the state i am in

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I think INFP 9w1 so/sx. So/sx tends to have the most expansive sense of fun.

His jokes are so embodied, and his miming moments are fantastic.
 

Yuurei

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Stephen Colbert is a truly inspiring man-not because of his news show because of the person he is- I m not suprised. I usually get along with INFP. At least in my experience, they have a healthy balence balance if F/T, they typically understand and consider other peoples feelings while rarely becoming too overwhelmed by their own emotions.
 

misfortuneteller

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Plenty of regular people mistype on MBTI/Enneagram. What makes it any different because they are famous?
 

hokie912

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I'm just going to leave this here...

Anderson Cooper on Twitter: "one of my favorite excerpts from my interview with @StephenAtHome. This question he embraces left me stunned when i first read it, and i can't stop thinking about his answer. It has helped me, and i hope it helps others.… https://t.co/YV2s8z34Jk"


But yeah, I think INFP checks out. I also so appreciate the depth of his feeling/thinking and that he seems to have really wrestled with his beliefs. I'm not a person of faith, but I can still appreciate what he says and the meaning he's been able to make of his experience.
 

Virtual ghost

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My impression was always ENFP. Too good showman for an introvert and ENFPs can be introverts in "private life".
Although I am not expert on the guy.
 
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