carson smith’s blog

According to recently leaked internal memos, Twitter hopes to become the “pulse of the planet” with a billion users in 5 years. With 25 million visitors a month today, Twitter’s vital signs are already looking pretty good. What can we learn about the users who keep it pumping?

I decided it would be fun to see what personality types characterize its “Tweeters.” According to my very unscientific research this week using TweepSearch, there are a total of 903 users who self-report a Myers-Briggs* personality type in their Twitter bio. By entering this information into Google Fusion Tables, I sorted and aggregated the results.

Let’s start with the big question: are Twitter users more likely to be introverted (I) or extroverted (E)?

Result:  63% report they’re introverted. This compares to a general population that, according to MBTI, is about 51% introverted.

So what does this say about introverts? Perhaps “introverted” does not have anything to do with being social in the traditional sense? It may simply indicate introverts prefer a different medium (online) than their extroverted counterparts (face-to-face).  As new online media tools change how we communicate, perhaps they will give a greater share of the voice to introverts?

In addition to introvert vs. extrovert, Myers-Briggs also tells us about three other personality dimensions: sensing vs. intution, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. perceiving.

How do  these types come out on Twitter?

Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)

Apparently, Twitter users are much more intuitive than the general population. This means they form their impressions about people and things less on tangible evidence than on their own inner perceptions. Why would Twitter attract vastly more intuitive users? Perhaps it is because Twitter is not based in reality – it’s a virtual world where there are few tangible “senses” to grasp onto?

Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)

Twitter users are more likely to be thinkers than feelers. As thinkers tend to be more concerned with impersonal facts than do people-focused feelers, their majority presence on Twitter indicates that micro-blogging attracts more users who are interested in sharing information rather than social bonding. As Twitter is very scant on personal information and profiles and focuses almost entirely on the content of the Tweets, this makes some sense.

Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

With a majority of perceiving types, Twitter users have slightly more flexible lifestyles than the judging-skewed general population, who tend to be more structured and care about order and punctuality more. Twitter is indeed a free-flowing medium, and could possibly frustrate someone who likes more structure.

Of the 16 possible types, which one wins overall?

To my surprise, the relatively uncommon INTJ personality type came out on top with a 17.5% share, compared with 2.1% presence in the general population. In fact, the top four personality types on Twitter are all very uncommon when compared to the statistical average across the board. And by contrast, the three least popular personality types on Twitter seem to be much more common in the overall population.

If Twitter users are indeed a unique subset of the population, then what does this say about its mass appeal? Do certain personality types drive trends more than others? If investigated further and with more scientific rigor, I think this could have huge implications for start-up companies as well as the marketing/media industry.

*Myers-Briggs is a personality theory based on Carl Jung’s work, Psychological Types. The assessment measures how people interface with the world around them. And it does this through 4 dimensions with two possible outcomes each:

Introverted vs. Extroverted

Sensing vs. Intuition

Thinking vs. Feeling

Judging vs. Perceiving

So, if I were extroverted, sensing, thinking and judging, my type would be ESTJ. The opposite of that would be an INFP. To learn more about Myers-Briggs, I recommend checking out this link.

To discover your own Myers-Briggs type, try the MyType Facebook application.