CELEBRITY MBTI: How to spot an ESTP

I.  Introduction: Why so many ESTPs?

Rod Novichkov's How to find yourself and your best match (2007) lists a large number of celebrity ESTPs. Among the male ESTPs are:

Tom Cruise, Kurt Russell, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Charles Bronson, George Michael Dolph Lundgren, Paul Newman, George W. Bush, Christian Slater, Sting, Patrick Swayze, Mel Gibson, Sean Bean, Matt Dillon, Clint Eastwood, Viggo Mortensen, Willem Dafoe, Vince Vaughn...

Among the females:

Mila Jovovich, Cate Blanchett, Glen Close, Kathy Griffin, Brooke Shields, Lucy Lawless...

In total, Novichkov types 46 (!) celebrities as ESTPs, far more than the 6 he types as ENFJs and 10 as INFJs. The number of ESTPs on his list is only approached (in the Beta Quadra) by the number of ISTPs: he finds 35 celebrities (most of them male) to be ISTP.

Does the high number of ESTPs in Novichkov's list reflect the number (proportionately) in the general population? Not in my experience - I rarely come across ETSPs. (Since reading Novichkov's book and applying his method, I've met two males, two females, as who I'd type as ESTPs). ESTPs figure prominently in celebrity land because of - among other things - the pushy and flamboyant qualities of the ESTP personality type.

After Novichkov's comprehensive survey of celebrity ESTPs, few were left undiscovered. Here, in this article, I am presenting a total of three.

Part of the difficulty in finding an ESTP lies in the fact that two types who look remarkably like the ESTP - the ISTJ and ESTJ, two ST (Sensing / Thinking) types - turn up more, in real life and celebrity land. That is, one can easily confuse an ESTP with an ESTJ  or an ISTJ.

What sets the ESTP apart from the ESTJ and the ISTJ is that the ESTP is an Extraverted Sensor. This gives the ESTP - the males, in particular - a slightly maniacal look: see Marlon Brando.

II.  Visually identifying the ESTP

The ESTP as Perceiver. To determine if a person is a Judger or Perceiver, we look at the person’s profile and match it against Novichkov’s diagram:

 Here we see two silhouettes – one of a Perceiver, one of a Judger. The first is of Bill Gates (a Perceiver), the second of Steve Jobs (a Judger). 

 You will notice that the profile of the Perceiver type looks like an upside-down letter L: 

The ESTP as Thinker: Novichkov lists these attributes of the Thinking, as opposed to the Feeling, type:

1. Large, flat, expressive forehead;

2. Pronounced, jutting superciliary arches (which are the bones beneath eyebrows);

3. Angular or non-existent bridge of nose dip;

4. Deep eye sockets;

5. Hawkish nose;

6. Narrow, inexpressive lower face.

Boris Karloff, as Frankenstein's monster, gives us a highly exaggerated, caricatured example of a Thinker's face:

 Here we see the faces of two typical Thinkers, one male, one female: Marlon Brando and Mila Jovovich. Most of their expressiveness - that is, how they show what they are feeling or thinking - is concentrated in the upper halves of their faces, in particular, the forehead. 

The ESTP as Extraverted Sensor: Sensors put on weight easily and tend to full and well-rounded; their mouths more often than not are full and sensual and their hands are smooth and stocky. They sit or stand in a rigid, conventional way. When sitting, they confine themselves to a small space.


Notice the difference in build, as well as posture, of John McCain (a Sensor) and John Kerry (an Intuitive):

Novichkov describes the gaze of the Extraverted Sensor as clear and unblinking, and watchful – it tends to scan you:

The ESTP as Extrovert: a person's facial expression tells if they are an Introvert or Extravert. An Extravert radiates energy, whereas an Introvert seems to suck it all in – they are not directing it to the outer world at all, and can look withdrawn and a little melancholy.


I found this photograph which joins the faces of Rob Lowe (an ISTP) and Ian Somerhalder (an ESTP), two men who closely resemble one another. The main difference is Introversion and Extraversion, or what Socionics calls ‘Vertedness’. The Introvert Lowe looks more melancholic than the Extravert Somerhalder:

III. The ESTP celebrities

Matthew McConaughey, actor

Ian Somerhalder, actor

Kimberlin Brown, actress

Mark Hootsen, signing off.

US Presidents Celebrity MBTI: Ronald Reagan - ENTJ

 US Presidents Celebrity MBTI: Ronald Reagan - ENTJ

Introduction
In the seventh installment of our US presidents series, we come to Ronald Wilson Reagan, who we will type using the Rod Novichkov method of visual identification.

Novichkov, in How to find yourself and your best match (2007), types four US presidents: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. When it comes to Reagan, Novichkov has done my job for me - unlike with other presidents I've typed in this series. Nevertheless, I want to write an article on how to type Reagan, as it will demonstrate Novichkov's method in action.

Judger or Perceiver, j or p? 

Let's look at the diagrams of the Judging ('Conceiving', as Novichkov calls them) and Perceiving types, from left and right sides of the head:

Reagan is a Judger:

Feeler or Thinker, F or T? 

Let's compare two middle-aged American politicians: Lindsey Graham, who Novichkov would type as a Feeler, and Donald Rumsfeld, who he would type as a Thinker:

Novichkov lists these as the attributes of the Thinking, as opposed to the Feeling, type:

1. Large, flat, expressive forehead;

2. Pronounced, jutting superciliary arches (bones beneath eyebrows);

3. Angular or non-existent bridge of nose dip;

4. Deep eye sockets;

5. Hawkish nose;

6. Narrow, inexpressive lower face.

Does Reagan - who has a hawkish face - look like Rumseld or Graham? Definitely the former:

Sensor or Intuitive, S or N? 

Intuitives tend to be gangly, skinny, thin-lipped, and their fingers are knuckled and somewhat unsightly. They sit in awkward, unconventional and uncomfortable-looking (to a Sensor) positions, and tend to sprawl everywhere.

Sensors, on the other hand, tend to be thick, stocky, full-lipped and inclined to put on weight, and their fingers are smooth and square shaped. They sit in a stiff, conventional and (compared to an Intuitive) rigid fashion. They do not sprawl, preferring to confine themselves to a small personal space.

Here's a compare and contrast photo of an Intuitive and a Sensor: gangly, skinny, long and knuckled fingered John Kerry, and stocky, square-fingered and square-handed John McCain.

Kerry flops and lolls in his chair, while McCain seems somewhat more stiff and centrally placed. Kerry is more typical of an Intuitive, according to Novichkov, McCain, a Sensor.

This picture of a stiff and stocky Mitt Romney, a Sensor, with a sprawling and gangly Paul Ryan, an Intuitive, gives us another side-by-side example:

Reagan fits into the Intuitive category. 

In fact, he reminds me of another gangly, NT president - Abraham Lincoln:

Introverted or Extraverted Intuitive, Ni or Ne? 

Novichkov describes the eyes of an Introverted Intuitive as dreamy, cloudy, absent, otherworldly and sightless. (By 'sightless', he means that the Introverted Intuitive has the gaze of a blind person who is looking at you but not seeing you).

How do we distinguish between the gaze of the Introverted Sensor and Introverted Intuitive? The former seems squinty, and what is more, blurry. The Introverted Sensor perceives the world in obscure, vague shapes - the outlines of objects and the spaces between them rather than the objects themselves. The Introverted Intuitive, on the other hand, perceives a reality out of sync with our current timeline: which is why his eyes - the eyes are the windows to the soul - seem so absent. 

These pictures of Kennedy, an Introverted Sensor, and Reagan, an Introverted Intuitive, get to the heart of the contrast between the two types of introverted perception:

Extravert or Introvert, E or I? 

The energy of the Extravert is directed towards his outer environment; he seems absorbed by it and completely immersed in his surroundings, as opposed to the Introvert, who is withdrawn from them. The Extravert's face displays a certain amount of tension and tautness, and often appears to be more tired - and weather beaten - than that of the Introvert.

According to the MBTI YouTube commentator EJ Arendee, ENTJs like to smile, in the hopes of winning you over. You notice, perhaps before anything else, their distinctive grin.  

Conclusion: Reagan is an ENTJ

E + N + T + J gives us Extraverted Thinker / Introverted Intuitive, or ENTJ in MBTI, ENTj in Socionics.

Mark Hootsen, signing off.

CELEBRITY MBTI: How to spot an ENFJ

I.  Introduction and a disclaimer

We have now come to sixth installment of our series, in which we type celebrities using the Rod Novichkov method. We are making our way through the Socionics Quadras, and are halfway through the Beta Quadra (which includes the ENFJ, the ISTP, the ESTP and the INFJ).

In his book, How to find yourself and your best match (2007), Novichkov gives a list of celebrities who he types as ENFJs - and the list is rather short (so much so that I will reproduce it here entirely). He types Michael Jackson and Freddie Prinze Jr as male ENFJs and Jessica Lange, Joan Allen, Caprice Bourret, Allison Janne as female. He only finds six celebrity ENFJs, whereas the celebrity ESTPs clock in at 46 (!), the celebrity ISTPs at 35. ENFJs do not show up that much in celebrity land, nor in real life (in my experience).

Here I have managed to collect eight ENFJs, and half of them made their names in the field of politics. The ENFJ personality type is naturally inclined to leadership, much like the ENTJ, and this should be no surprise. But politics, by its nature, divides people (whereas the ENFJ type would rather bring them together) and I understand that some of my readers will feel a strong, visceral dislike for these types. We need to keep in mind that every person who has ever lived - good or evil, liked or disliked - can be typed as one of the 16. So, my typing someone like Reverend Jim Jones - a bad man - is not intended as a slander against the ENFJ type. In the same way, people should not take Novichkov's typing of Michael Jackson as an ENFJ as an insult to the type (Michael Jackson's reputation has nosedived since the release of the Leaving Neverland (2019) documentary).

Another objection to my identification of these celebrities as ENFJs is that the average reader may not think of these people as acting like typical ENFJs. My response to that is that we do not really know many of these ENFJ celebrities, except for the ones whose lives have been recorded in great detail - for example, Richard Nixon, Reverend Jim Jones and Michael Jackson. Not many of us know much about Hillary Clinton's personality traits: despite for running for two presidential elections, and being on the receiving end of enormous press coverage, Clinton seems very much a cipher (and this has been deliberate). We usually do not know much about the personal lives of a celebrity until they are deceased and have multiple biographies written about them. What Novichkov's method does is enable us to type a person from a distance.

II. Visually identifying the ENFJ

The ENFJ as Judger. To determine if a person is a Judger or Perceiver, we look at the person’s profile and match it against Novichkov’s diagram:

Here are Jessica Lange and Michael Jackson:

The ENFJ as Feeler. Novichkov lists these as the facial attributes of the Feeling, as opposed to the Thinking, type:

1. Small and rounded forehead, less expressive when compared to the lower face;
2. Flat, unpronounced, smoothed superciliary arches (bones behind the eyebrows);
3. Rounded bridge of nose dip;
4. Shallow eye sockets;
5. Rounded, pug-shaped nose;
6. Wide lower face, more expressive than the forehead.

The ENFJ as Intuitive. Intuitives tend to be gangly, skinny, thin-lipped, and their fingers are knuckled and somewhat unsightly. They sit in awkward, unconventional and uncomfortable-looking (to a Sensor) positions, and tend to sprawl everywhere.

Sensors, on the other hand, tend to be thick, stocky, full-lipped and inclined to put on weight, and their fingers are smooth and square shaped. They sit in a stiff, conventional and (to an Intuitive) rigid fashion. They do not sprawl, preferring to confine themselves to a small personal space.

I use this picture of Jarvis Cocker to convey the floppiness, gangliness and awkwardness of the Intuitive:

And then we have Jimmy Fallon:

These two celebrities - both Intuitives - give us a good idea of the typical Intuitive body type:

The gaze of the Introverted Intuitive could be described as cloudy, dreamy, soft, gentle. Novichkov characterises it as 'absent', even 'sightless'. I think of it as otherworldly; the Introverted Intuitive seems to be not on this planet. When making eye contact with you, the Introverted Intuitive does see you, but seems to be looking from a long distance away - a very long distance.

The below two celebrities Novichkov types as INTJ and INFJ. Both of these are Introverted Intuitive dominant:

The ENFJ as Extravert. The energy of the Extravert is directed towards his outer environment; he seems absorbed by it and completely immersed in his surroundings, as opposed to the Introvert, who is withdrawn from them. The Extravert's face displays a certain amount of tension and tautness, and often appears to be more tired - and weather beaten - than that of the Introvert. If the Extravert is not caught up in his surroundings, and his energies begin to flag, he deflates like an emptying balloon.

III.  The eyes of Hillary Clinton 

Novichkov makes the argument that body type and gaze determines whether one is an Intuitive or Sensor. Unfortunately, body type does not always give us the best indication as to whether or not a person is an Intuitive or a Sensor, as many Intuitive celebrities - especially as they get older - stack on weight like a Sensor; they lose that skinny, gangly, awkward quality. John Kasich and Colin Wilson provide the best examples of this 'Sensor-fication' of the ENFJ. The way around this is: find pictures of your celebrity when they are young (in their twenties) or spend some time studying their gaze.

We can find a few photos of the young Hillary in which she sits in an awkward manner, or has knuckled, skinny fingers:

But, in my opinion, we can work out whether or not Hillary is an Introverted Intuitive from her eyes. She possesses that cloudy, dreamy, 'sightless' gaze:

This becomes apparent when we compare her gaze to Bill Clinton's: Novichkov types Bill as an Introverted Sensor, so his gaze seems crinkly, squinty and out of focus.

IV.  The ENFJ celebrities

Benedict Cumberbatch, British actor

Julian Assange, Australian political activist

Reverend Jim Jones, US cult leader and political activist

John Kasich, US politician

Richard Nixon, US President

Jimmy Fallon, US comedian, talk show host

Colin Wilson, British author, philosopher

Hillary Clinton, US politician

V. In Conclusion

Interestingly, some of the above celebrities look like one other. Jimmy Fallon resembles Jim Jones to a remarkable degree, whereas John Kasich could be mistaken for Colin Wilson's brother.

Mark Hootsen, signing off.