Mark Hootsen Left Book Club: 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: