How the Myers-Briggs Types Help us Communicate about the Environment
People with different personalities may engage differently with climate issues. Not everyone knows their type, and on a mass communications level, you are speaking to a variety of types. But understanding an individual’s personality type is a way to appeal to their values and make information resonate.
The Myers-Briggs test characterizes individuals as one of sixteen types based on four spectrums. For example, I am an INTJ, and another person could be an ESFP.
The middle two letters of the four-letter types are especially impactful for communications because they describe the ways people process information about the world around them. If someone is an S, meaning sensing, they think in more practical ways about the reality of a situation. On the other hand, a person with an N type, meaning intuitive, is more imaginative about possibilities. The third letter is either F for feeling or T for thinking. This letter represents the ways people make decisions. A person with an F as their third letter may make decisions based on values and could be more empathetic, compassionate, and focused on keeping harmony in a situation. A person with a T might focus on scientific facts and logic, like weighing the pros and cons of a situation. (The first letters are I for introverted and E for extroverted; the last letters are J for judging, meaning people prefer organized plans, and P for perceiving, meaning a person is more spontaneous, to briefly describe these types.) People can be in between each of the two letters, and no type is “better” than another.
When talking to an SF person, appealing to pathos can be helpful because this type relies on emotion to make decisions. Since they are also practical, showing the immediate benefits or consequences, tied in with emotional stories, is ideal.
The ST type is very straightforward and objective, necessitating clear and logical reasoning, as well as specific benefits and consequences, when talking to someone of this type. Visuals and charts can help display the situation to effectively convey it.
When talking to an NF person, laying out the facts and appealing to their intuition to help them understand why you think something is a problem or why a certain course of action is best can be effective, as can talking about concepts and theories, since people with “N” as their second letter think abstractly.
When talking to an NT person, you should think about concepts and theories and also include many facts and how an issue fits into the bigger picture. As an INTJ, I agree that understanding the purpose of communications about a specific issue and how it can be important on a broader scale is helpful. For example, if reading about ocean plastics, I want to know the facts on how much ocean plastic exists and how it is hurting ecosystems at a broader level, as well as the possible causes and solutions.
A person with the SF type, on the other hand, might respond well to a story about animals found dead and filled with plastic and then a number of how many animals have been found like this. It’s not that an NT person doesn’t have a heart, but certain ideas resonate better with different people. I still feel sad when I read about plastic harming animals, and I do want to do something about it.
It is noteworthy that people communicating about climate change are not representative of the general population in terms of personality types. A research study found that, although the proportion of introverts to extroverts did not vary greatly from climate researchers to the general population (54 percent of researchers were extroverts and 46 percent introverts compared to 49 percent extroverts and 51 percent introverts in the National Representative Sample), the other three parts of the Myers-Briggs types did. Of climate researchers, 82 percent were intuitive and 18 percent were sensing, compared to 73 percent intuitive and 27 percent sensing in the National Representative Sample. Additionally, 49 percent were thinking and 51 percent were feeling, compared to 40 percent thinking and 60 percent feeling in the National Representative Sample. Most significantly, 76 percent of climate researchers were judging and 24 percent were perceiving, compared to 54 percent judging and 46 percent perceiving in the National Representative Sample.
This research study explained one implication of these differences is that the greater amount of people who are the N type means these people might be biased to discuss future climate impacts. People of the S type, on the other hand, prefer to know what is happening currently and near them, rather than possibilities. Also, since more F types exist in the general population, T scientists should remember to include values and emotion when discussing science (while not skewing facts, of course). Further, the J type is more decisive, so the larger proportion of J scientists shows many of them may want to come to a conclusion rather than leave room for uncertainty, whereas the general population may focus on room for doubt. Although communicators should be clear that uncertainty is different from unpredictability, they should explain the details to show that multiple possibilities exist.
Whether speaking to individuals or operating on a mass communications level, we need to understand that the personality types of our potential audience may vary from our own.
That advice doesn’t just go for personality types. We can’t read minds, but if we want to effectively communicate, we can understand how different groups feel about the environment and perceive information. Then we can base our strategies off that in order to encourage others to support the sustainable changes we need for a safe future.
This is the second article in a series sharing excerpts and stories from my book, Planet Now: Effective Strategies for Communicating about the Environment. The book was just released in September 2020, and you can buy it here! If you want to connect, you can reach me via email — jessicareid309@gmail.com — or on Twitter @jessica_camryn.
