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Designed to decode and make sense of a person's perception of the world, the Myers-Briggs personality test has been helping people tap into their psyche in order to boost career and relationship successes since the 1960s. Now you can also use Myers-Briggs to discover whether you're likely to earn more money or power in the workplace.
A new analysis of nearly 26,000 people representing diverse Myers-Briggs personality outcomes offers a glimmer of insight into income and job satisfaction potential, complete with tips for capitalizing on your top money-making traits. Read on to find out whether you're destined for great fortune, and if you're not, what you can do about it.
Flickr/Arturo DonateHere's how it works: Myers-Briggs asks us a series of questions, analyzes our behavioral tendencies based on our answers, and then assigns us one of 16 personality types. These personality types are based on four major psychological preferences. One of those preferences is Extroversion versus Introversion.
Extroverts are those who prefer to focus their time and energy on what's going on in the world around them, while Introverts preoccupy themselves with their own inner world of ideas. When it comes to bringing home the bacon, it turns out that Extroverts have the bigger payday. In fact, of all the Myers-Briggs personality types, Extroverts are the top earners. The reason is this: Extroverts are generally more willing to take on managerial roles, and these roles often bring about a boost in income. Introverts, on the other hand, tend to be among the lowest earners, for reasons including a general aversion to managerial responsibility.
Some of the highest earners are Thinkers — those who like to analyze the pros and cons of a situation before making a decision, rather than focusing on the people involved — and Judgers — those who prefer a structured lifestyle as opposed to one that's more flexible. Your fortune is likely to be even higher if your personality encompasses both these traits.
Thinkers are more likely to take on a supervisory role in the workplace, which usually leads to higher incomes. Thinkers, however, tend to have lower job satisfaction in these supervisory roles, which means it's important for Thinkers to be aware that increased wealth doesn't equal increased happiness. Folks who are Judgers, on the other hand, are inclined to pay close attention to organization and scheduling at work — and that seems to lead them to greater success and, in turn, higher pay.
One of the psychological preferences analyzed by Myers-Briggs is Sensing and Intuition. The breakdown is as follows: If you pay more attention to information gathered through your five senses, you fall under the Sensing category. You are Intuitive if you place a high value on impressions or the meaning of patterns in the information that comes your way.
All of us are Sensing and Intuitive at one time or another, but most of us have an inclination toward one or the either. Here's the good news for Sensors: Your income tends to be higher than that of Intuitives. That's because Sensors are slightly more likely than Intuitives to manage larger teams. And as with the previous examples, managerial roles tend to pay better.
