MBTI & Home-Education

[Rowan]

I have often heard it said that S types are more common than N types, which seems to be confirmed by a U.S.A. Population Breakdown on Wikipedia. This surprised me as I know nobody that scores as an S type. My family and friends are all Ns – as are, I believe, a good many of my casual acquaintances. Keeping in mind the fallacy cum hoc ergo propter hoc I came to a few plausible explanations:

• It is a mere fluke.
• The UK population has a higher proportion of Ns than the US population.
• I could have become an N type as a result of being raised amongst and by Ns and then, as an N, felt more inclined to befriend Ns.
• Something altogether more complex that I haven’t considered: suggestions?
• Home-educated people and adults who home-educate are more likely to be Ns than Ss and, as someone who was home-educated, a lot of my friends and acquaintances are Ns.

The last explanation interested me, particularly after I discovered from Wikipedia that the creator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Isabel Briggs Myers, was home-educated and an INFP. So I did a rather unscientific experiment and took a list of famous home-educated people and looked at online speculations about their type preferences; the results did indicate a tendency towards N:

• John Quincy Adams INTJ
• Abraham Lincoln ENFJ
• Woodrow Wilson INTJ
• Thomas Jefferson INTJ
• John Tyler INTP
• Theordore Roosevelt ENTP
• Grover Cleveland ESTJ
• James Garfield ENTP
• Andrew Jackson ESTJ
• William Henry Harrison ESTJ
• Whoopi Goldberg ENTJ
• Thomas Edison ENTP
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt ESTP
• Benjamin Franklin ENTP
• Blaise Pascal INTP
• George Washington ESFJ
• Frank Lloyd Wright INTP
• James Madison INTP
• Etc.

This, however, might be a tendency towards N in famous people, rather than home-educated people. Nonetheless I am intrigued so I thought I might as well ask for opinions on this forum. Do you think there could be a causal link? Are/were you home-educated and a XNXX? Are the home-educated people you know often XNXX? All thoughts are welcome.

[Wolf]

Yes, and probably. I think it runs in families.

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Wolf

Yes, and probably. I think it runs in families.

Do you think it is learnt, genetic or some blend of the two factors?

[Wolf]

Genetic, coupled with like-minded people seeking each-other. There's no other way to explain the way the Sensor and iNtuitive people divide as they do. It's as if we're so different that we don't mix much.

People with strong intuition or bad experiences that are sufficiently-similar to be intuition-like are most likely to see the value in something like this. It's more useful to be intuitive in such a learning situation, while the standard rote learning methods are better tailored to a different personality (and primarily females).

[OctaviaCaesar]

I was home-schooled all through high school and loved. My INFP sister was homeschooled throught high school but didn't like it. My ESTP sister hated being homeschooled so much that she went to public school in eighth grade. My ESTP brother is still at home, in eighth grade now. Only one of my parents, the one who provided us with most of our education, is N: ENFP.

[dissonance]

i think the biggest factor by far is that Ns tend to associate themselves with other Ns. my first high school group of friends was 7 people, all Ns. my 2nd group was 8 people, and only 1 S. but my classes were mostly S types...

and i didn't know about mbti in high school.

it seems that all of my deep, meaningful relationships are always with Ns. i can get along great with S types, but i often hold back from talking because i can see it on their face that they think what i'm saying is worthless.