The Effect of Personality Type on the Compatibility between Friends

Overview

Objectives/Goals It has long been a mystery to scientists why people are friends. This project investigates this question by using the Myers Briggs test to assess the personalities of pairs friends to find patterns. The hypothesis for the this experiment was that a pair having 3 or 4 identical letters assigned by the Myers Briggs test will more likely be compatible than a pair having 1 or 2 identical letters. Methods/Materials In this experiment, 124 pairs of friends were gathered, and each participant took the Myers Briggs test. The results of the test for each participant in each pair were recorded. The data was analyzed by calculating the number of identical and opposite letters that were generated by the Myers Briggs test. It was also observed which letters were often opposite or identical. Results Pairs of friends could have 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 identical letters from the Myers Briggs test. The percentages of pairs having each of these were 4.03%, 31.45%, 38.71%, 20.16%, and 5.65%, respectively. Detailed results cannot be presented in this paragraph, but the matching letters and not matching letters were evaluated to find patterns in friend selection. These included finding introverted (I) and extroverted (E) pairs, sensing (S) and intuitive (N) pairs, thinking (T) and feeling (F) pairs, and perceiving (P) and judging (J) pairs. For some of these letter pairs it was more common that the friends would have the same letters and for others they would have opposite letters. Conclusions/Discussion The hypothesis was proven incorrect. It was most common for the pairs to have two identical letters and two opposite letters instead of having four identical letters as predicted. In fact, it is least likely that a pair will be compatible if they have four letters the same. Furthermore, it is likely a compatible pair will be both intuitive (N) or both perceiving (P). It is very unlikely that people will be compatible if both people are sensing (S) or judging (J).

Competition history

• CSEF 2015 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry S0404

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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