US Presidents Celebrity MBTI: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - ESTJ

The November 2016 election has inspired me to write a series on typing the US presidents, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt onwards, using the methods of Rod Novichkov. Though not accepted in the Socionics community, the method has proven to be (in my experience) nearly a 100% effective. Just look at the MBTI channels on YouTube and you'll see that those who claim to be certain types (INFJ is the most common common) match the visual descriptions given by Novichkov.

Novichkov and Varabyova in their book How to find yourself and your best match (2007) type US presidents Reagan, Clinton and Bush 43. Even though Novichkov and Varabyova have done my work for me there, I'll be including the profiles of those three presidents in my series so as to illustrate how the method works.

Let's start with the Judger / Perceiver, or as Novichkov calls it, the Conceiver / Perceiver dichotomy. Looking at Novichkov's diagram

will tell us if Roosevelt is a Judger or Perceiver. We need to find a side profile shot of Roosevelt, something which is (for many celebrities) quite difficult. I've turned up these photos:

The Judger's neck seems to go right through towards the middle of the head. Generally the back of the neck seems flat and much less space exists between the throat and the jawline, especially the chin. In contrast, the Perceiver's neck doesn't go through the middle - the head seems to dangle, or hang off, the neck. The back of the head often appears more rounded, and the throat tends to incline away from the jawline. Take, for instance, this picture of Elvis Presley, who Novichkov types as a Perceiver (an ESFP, in fact): 

Compare and contrast Elvis with these two men, both of whom have Judger's necks:

Although Roosevelt's shirt collar, and the jowls around his neck, don't give us as clear a side view as we'd like, I say that Roosevelt is a Judger.

Next comes the Thinker / Feeler dichotomy. Generally, Thinkers look like Donald Rumsfeld: expressive forehead, inexpressive lower face; pronounced superciliary arches (i.e., the bones behind the eyebrows); deep eye sockets; an aquiline nose which gives him a sharp profile; a deep-set bridge of nose which looks as though someone has knocked a chunk out of it with a chisel.

The Feeler, on the hand, looks like the reverse of Rumsfeld. Take TV soap actor Scott Clifton: expressive lower half of the face; inexpressive (and usually quite low) forehead; flat superciliary arches; shallow eye sockets; a shallow bridge of nose which is rounded and sticks out; a pug nose which gives him a rounded profile.

We may ask: who does Roosevelt resemble more - Rumsfeld or Clifton? The question answers itself: Rumsfeld.

So we can classify Roosevelt as a Thinker and a Judger, or Tj.

Is Roosevelt a Sensor or an Intuitive? Sensors tend to have thick, stocky and smooth hands, and they put on weight easily and tend to have stocky builds. They also sit, and position their bodies, in a rigid and conventional way. Look at John McCain below:

The photo gives a good contrast with John Kerry, who here sits in an angular, off-kilter manner - he seems to loll in the chair almost like a caterpillar. We also notice Kerry's long, knuckled fingers and his skinny frame. All this shows him to be an Intuitive.

Looking at Roosevelt's weight, the stockiness of his hands, and the general rigidity (or 'ordinariness') of his posture when either sitting or standing, we should classify Roosevelt as a Sensor. He looks more like McCain than Kerry:

Roosevelt so far appears to be a sensing, thinking and judging type - in Socionics letters, an STj. But, you may ask: is Roosevelt an introverted or extraverted Sensor? We can tell the two apart by their gaze. Extraverted Sensors look at you and through you, introverted Sensors, at you and around you. Extraverted Sensors possess a sharp, watchful and highly focused gaze, introverted Sensors, a unfocused and somewhat bleary one. Introverted Sensors seem to perceive outlines and fields, extraverted Sensors, details.

These two men give us an example of the extraverted Sensor's gaze:

Roosevelt, on the other hands, always appears to have a distracted, not-quite-there gaze.

So far we have Roosevelt as (in Socionics letters) an STj.

Finally we arrive at the Extravert / Introvert dichotomy. Extraverts tend always to be tense and animated, and absorbed in their exterior environment. If nothing in their immediate environment interests them, then their faces assume a deflated look. Generally, they appear relaxed and comfortable, and find it easy to smile.

Introverts, on the other hand, tend to appear withdrawn, vacant, and even somewhat melancholy. It's as though someone switched the lights off. Introverts who are Thinking types don't appear comfortable on camera and don't smile easily.

Look at Roosevelt, and compare him to Truman:

To go by their facial expressions alone: Roosevelt seems tense and preoccupied with his environment, Truman, withdrawn from it and preoccupied with his own cogitations. The genial and friendly Roosevelt appears the more animated of the two. Truman gives the impression of being a sheepish man who would rather not be there.

I assess Roosevelt as being an Extravert. So, putting the Socionics letters together, we have E + S + T + j, meaning that Roosevelt is an ESTj, or in MBTI, ESTJ.

In the list of typed celebrities in the back of Novichkov's book, we find a large, disproportionate number of ESTjs. They turn up a lot - in politics and in entertainment. As we shall see, three of the US presidents who came after Roosevelt were ESTjs.

Mark Hootsen signing off.