7 Myths About Intuitives - Debunked

What do Sherlock Holmes and Wednesday Addams have in common, besides being fictional characters and a little bit terrifying? According to the internet, they’re both Intuitives. When Hollywood wants a genius, it reaches for an “N” in the Myers-Briggs system. And yet Hermione Granger, the cleverest student at Hogwarts, gets typed as a Sensor and nobody bats an eyelid. Funny, that.

Somewhere along the way, "Intuitive" became shorthand for brainy and deep, and "Sensor" became shorthand for the folks who keep the trains running on time. If you're one of the quarter of the population who prefers Intuition, it's a flattering story. It's also mostly hogwash.

I first separated the wheat from the chaff on this back in 2018, and a lot has changed since then. The research on personality and intelligence has moved on. Over in the online type communities, Sensors have started calling out "intuitive bias," and even some Intuitives are getting fed up with being cast as the weird, nerdy  ones. So I figured it was time for a fresh look at seven pesky myths about Intuition, revisited and debunked (again).

Myth #1: Intuitives Are Smarter Than Sensors

Now, I'm not going to argue that well-developed intuition, which boils down to the ability to spot patterns in random pieces of information, isn't a factor in intelligence, because it is. Most Intuitives can pull back from the trenches and are good at relating small pieces of data into a whole. But does that mean Intuitives are more intelligent than Sensors? Or that they have above-average intelligence at all? Absolutely not.

So where does the idea come from? Like most stereotypes, there is a grain of truth in it.

Back in 1989, psychologists Robert McCrae and Paul Costa compared the four Myers-Briggs type dichotomies with the Big Five personality traits and found that each one has a Big Five counterpart.  Introversion/Extraversion (Myers-Briggs) quite obviously maps onto Extraversion in the Big Five, and Sensing/Intuition maps onto Openness to Experience. Thinking/Feeling lines up with Agreeableness, and Judging/Perceiving with Conscientiousness. The fifth Big Five trait, Neuroticism, has no type equivalent, since the type framework was never designed to measure it. But overall, the overlap is striking, given that the Big Five grew out of a completely separate line of research.

Why does this matter for the smarts debate? Of all the Big Five traits, Openness has the clearest link to intelligence. One UK study tracked more than 5,600 people from birth to age 50 and found that kids with a higher IQ at age 11 tended to score higher on Openness as adults. 

However, Openness is most closely tied to crystallized intelligence, which is basically all the general knowledge you rack up over a lifetime. Put simply, curious people go looking for new ideas, and after a few decades of that they just know more stuff. 

That's knowledge, though, and psychologists file it separately from fluid intelligence, which is your ability to reason your way through a problem you've never seen before. Openness has only a small link with fluid intelligence. So the trivia night champion can still be stumped by a brand-new puzzle that someone with a head for logic cracks in seconds. And a lot of what makes someone smart in the real world never shows up on an IQ test anyway. Sensors often run rings around Intuitives when it comes to accurate recall and sound practical judgment, and good luck getting through life without those!

AI has added a new twist to all this. If intuition is pattern-spotting, the machines are now better at it than any of us. The difference is that AI spots patterns by looking backward at the data it was trained on, while Intuitives like to look forward and wonder what a pattern might turn into. It's a neat trick, but it still doesn't make us cleverer than anyone else.

In reality, no personality type is smarter than another. Intelligence just shows up in different ways across the 16 types.

Myth #2: Intuition Is a Mystical Sixth Sense

The dictionary definition of intuition is the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning. And it's true that Intuitives do appear to make decisions based on hunches or gut instinct. We often "know" something without being sure of how we know it. To an Intuitive, all this really means is we're never quite sure where the answer came from. You try explaining your workings on the test paper when your brain just spews out an answer and is done with it!

Google "Myers-Briggs Intuition," however, and you'll uncover a bunch of word associations that take intuition to a whole new realm of Spidey senses. My favorite stomach-churners include "inner voice" and "third eye” and "claircognizance.” The world seems determined to imbue intuition with some kind of otherworldliness, and it's these associations that have led some to believe Intuitives are universally psychic; that we exist "outside the box" and pluck ideas from thin air.

Sorry to wreck the mystical party, but we can't read minds or see into the future, and our hunches are wrong plenty of the time.

Part of the muddle is that we're lumping two different animals together. Everyday gut instinct is something everyone has, whatever their type. Psychologist Gary Klein spent months studying veteran firefighters who made split-second, life-saving calls they couldn't explain. Spooky? Not really. Their "sixth sense" turned out to be thousands of hours of hands-on experience, recognized in a flash. 

Klein later teamed up with Daniel Kahneman, and the pair concluded that gut feelings are only reliable when two things are true. First, the situation has to be predictable enough to follow patterns, and second, you have to have had the chance to learn those patterns through lots of practice and feedback. Think chess players and firefighters. If that sounds more like a seasoned Sensor than a dreamy Intuitive, well, you're not wrong.

Myth #3: Only Intuitives Think About the Future

There's no doubt that INTJs, ENTJs, INFJs and ENFJs love to make lists about all the myriad things they want to achieve in their lives. Writing it down as a ‘life manifesto’ makes all their wild ambitions seem tangible, and it gives the structure-loving Intuitive-Judger a sense of direction toward their dreams. I know that I make life plans as a way of protecting the things I care about. I like to role-play where my life might be in five, 10 or 20 years' time so I can map out a general path for getting there without missing anything important.

But Intuitives are not the only personalities to think about the future, and not every Intuitive thinks about the future in the same way. ISTJs and ESTJs are some of the most meticulous planners you'll ever meet; they just like to build their plans on what has worked before. ISFPs, another example, are incredibly pensive and will analyze all their future options carefully before making a decision. This deep level of future analysis causes many ISFPs to initially mistype as Intuitive.

As for Intuitives looking ahead in different ways, it largely comes down to their cognitive functions.  In type theory, every Intuitive type has a favorite flavor of Intuition. Intuitive Judgers (INTJs, INFJs, ENTJs and ENFJs) use Introverted Intuition, which works in the background to piece patterns together into a single picture of where things are heading. Ask one of these types about the future and they'll often describe one long-range vision in remarkable detail. Intuitive Perceivers (ENTPs, ENFPs, INTPs and INFPs) use Extraverted Intuition, which feeds on the outside world and sees possibilities everywhere. They tend to juggle a dozen possible futures at once and stay ready to pivot the moment circumstances change.

So, while Intuition is associated with forward thinking and futurism, it is not the same experience for all Intuitive types, and Sensors have plenty of their own ways of looking ahead.

Myth #4: Intuitives Are Hopeless With Details

Intuitive types will naturally look at the big picture, and most will get very tired, very quickly if they are forced to focus on the itty-bitty details. But seriously, most of us learn pretty quickly that you can't accomplish any task to an acceptable standard without focusing on the details. No one ever got a degree without turning in their assignments, and no one ever built a business just by having an idea.

By the same token, Sensors cannot earn their degree just by memorizing the facts. There's got to be a sense of how the facts fit together so they can construct a larger thesis around the data. So all types have both the big picture and the details within their comfort zone. The only difference is where you start. 

Intuitives tend to work from the top down; they figure out how the machine works before they understand the purpose of the individual components. Sensors work from the bottom up; they like to know how each of the components works before they can understand the machine. The end result is the same.

Myth #5: Intuitives Are More Live-and-Let-Live

Temperament theory, popularized by David Keirsey, groups the 16 types into four families based on the core motivations that drive them:

• Preservers (SJ types: ISTJs, ISFJs, ESTJs and ESFJs) value tradition and duty. They like to know where everyone fits in the hierarchy, and they expect people to play their part.
• Responders (SP types: ISTPs, ISFPs, ESTPs and ESFPs) want to respond to life as it happens. They're adaptable, practical problem solvers who find rigid plans dull and unmotivating.
• Theorists (NT types: INTJs, INTPs, ENTJs and ENTPs) want to understand how things work, and they'll happily question any convention that doesn't stand up to logic.
• Empaths (NF types: INFJs, INFPs, ENFJs and ENFPs) want to help people reach their potential, and they tend to be tolerant of people from all walks of life.

I think the “live and let live” myth has arisen from a direct comparison between the two Intuitive temperaments, Theorists and Empaths, and the Preserver temperament, which is made up of the four Sensing-Judging types. Preservers notice whether you've followed the rules and done things the proper way. Theorists and Empaths pay little attention to convention, so whether you dropped out of college or dyed your hair blue barely registers. That's what makes them look like the live-and-let-live types.

But Theorists and Empaths judge people too. They just use their own yardsticks.

Theorists judge people on competence. Make a sloppy argument or fumble a task you claimed to be good at, and a Theorist will notice, and it may take a while to win back their confidence.

Empaths judge people on values. An INFP, for example, may seem laid back and easygoing, but they're measuring everyone against a firm set of personal principles, and once they've made up their minds about you, it takes a lot to change them.

So, to live and let live? Every temperament judges people. Preservers measure you against tradition, and Intuitives bring their own yardsticks to the party.

Myth #6: Intuitives Are Deeper Thinkers

The idea behind this myth seems to be that Intuitives live in their heads waxing lyrical about philosophy all day, so they're much deeper than the mindless Sensor drones who just get on with the act of living and chit-chatting about the weather.

Really?

Sit down with a Sensing-Feeling ER nurse who has 20 years on the job and ask her what she's learned about people. I promise you'll get depth by the bucketload. And let's be honest, droning on about random possibilities based on some ill-informed hunch isn't deep. Half the time it isn't even intelligible.

Intuitives just think and process information differently, and that's about the size of it. A big chunk of what some people mistake for depth is an Intuitive entertaining herself with tangents and speculation about an interesting topic. It's no more intellectual or bookish than a Sensor providing his own brand of insight, one that's real and honest and based on experience.

Myth #7: Intuitives Are Rare, So They Must Be Special

Okay, there's a teensy grain of truth in the "rare" part. The world is split into roughly one quarter Intuitive, three-quarters Sensing, so they’re definitely in the minority. 

Obviously, growing up surrounded by people who don't value your way of processing can be isolating. You feel wrong, like it's your fault no one gets you. Then you take a personality test and realize there's an actual reason why you've felt so alienated by the majority of people. You're not crazy...you're just not them. Like any outsider who suddenly finds a clan, there tends to be an attitude of "we're rare persecuted geniuses and secretly so much better than them." It's an unfair reaction, but an understandable one.

The internet doesn't help. People who love personality theory tend to be high in Openness, so Intuitives are probably overrepresented in online type communities. Spend enough time on the forums and you'd think N was the default setting and Sensors were the anomaly. And rarity on its own is no badge of honor. Every type brings strengths the world needs, whatever its numbers.

It's also a two-way street. Intuitives can have a superiority complex toward Sensors, and Sensors can have a superiority complex toward Intuitives. We all possess an ego that likes to exalt and protect itself, so of course our type is “smarter” and “more attractive to the opposite sex.” Show me a human who isn't guilty of self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error, and I'll show you a liar.

Ironically, we all know the truth. We all understand that the 16 types are equal and all traits are equally valuable. It's just that when your boss asks you to proofread a 20-page report line by line, it's hard to get excited about it, especially when you'd much rather be finding ways to make proofreading redundant altogether. So, you might undervalue a Sensing colleague who's brilliant at catching every typo. Yes, we know we shouldn't be thinking this. We just have trouble with it sometimes.

So, Are Intuitives Smarter?

Nope. Sensing and Intuition simply describe where your attention goes first when you take in information. We Intuitives start with patterns and possibilities, and Sensors start with facts and experience. Both roads can lead to insight, and neither type has a monopoly on brains.

Not sure which camp you're in? Take our free 16 types personality test and find out!