When you first meet someone in college, one of the most basic and common questions that will come up in nearly every conversation is, “What is your Myers-Briggs?” However, over the past year, the general trend has been to ask about one’s Enneagram type instead. What is the difference?
Myers-Briggs, also known as MBTI, is a personality assessment that examines 4 traits:
- Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E)
- Intuition (N) or Sensing (S)
- Feeling (F) or Thinking (T)
- Perception (P) or Judging (J)
You are given the task to answer questions to your interests, disinterests, strengths, weaknesses and compatibility with others. All these questions ultimately culminate to give you 4 letters that describe your personality type out of 16 possible personality types. In addition to your result, it also gives you the percentage for how much you display a certain trait. For example, if you are an ambivert or an introvert-extrovert, then you might get 55% introverted and 45% extroverted.
The Enneagram test is also a personality test, but it gives you one of 9 personality types that look into your temperament, strengths, weaknesses and personal goals to determine your basic type.
So, which one should you take?
Myers-Briggs focuses on your personality type in terms of nature, whereas the Enneagram looks more towards nurture that shapes your personality.
Myers-Briggs is more analytical and structured in that you get 4 distinct traits, whereas the Enneagram is more holistic and gets into the nitty-gritty details that break down a certain personality AND give you your most compatible pairing.
In my opinion, the Enneagram test is better because it makes it more obvious that there is tons of room for interpretation and that these types are placed onto a scale. However, the distinct result that Myers-Briggs provides may make the trait seem black or white, when in fact, there are gray areas, in which one trait may seem more relevant than the other in certain circumstances.
Either way, both tests are a fun way to get to know more about yourself, friends, family, and other people! A little disclaimer that these tests should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. All of these types are placed on a spectrum, and these types are not the only ones in the world!