Albert Einstein's Personality Type According to The Myers Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the many online personality diagnostic test. Composed of sixteen different personality types, MBTI serves as a resource to identify the personality types of not only contemporary test-takers; MBTI allows us to retroactively assess the personality types of historical characters.

Born into a middle class Jewish family in the late 19th century, it would have been difficult to predict that Albert Einstein would so greatly impact 21st century understanding of the physical universe. Einstein’s childhood experience, beliefs, and life events shaped not only his rigorous mathematical formulas and equations but also his distinctive personality. BSM Consulting, author of High-Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types, suggests that Einstein’s Myers-Briggs personality type is INTP, “The Thinker”. According to MBTI and Einstein’s biography, one can infer that, as an INTP, Albert Einstein was a creative thinker, he valued knowledge highly, and he was driven by theories and ideas.

Einstein’s ability to think “outside the box” is the quality that most defines the thinker’s personality type. As explained by BSM Consulting, “INTPs live in the world of theoretical possibilities. They (INTPs) live primarily inside their own minds” (BSM, “The Thinker” par.2). Michio Kaku, the author of Einstein, Albert, writes that one of the most important influence on Einstein was Max Talmud (par.4). Talmud introduced a children’s science series by Aaron Bernstein named Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbucher (translated, Popular Books on Physical Science) to Einstein in which, among other adventures, the author imagines riding alongside electricity inside a telegraph wire (Michio par.4). “Einstein then envis...

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...truly a greater understanding of nuclear physic for mankind. Einstein also won a Nobel prizes for succeeding physicists and he began to work towards his ultimate dream, “a theory of everything” (Michio par.48). While Einstein did not live to see his dream through, leading physicists all over the world work tirelessly toward his dream of a theory of everything.

In looking at Einstein’s life, one can infer that he fits definitively into the category of INTP “the thinker” in MBTI. His curiosity and inquisitive mind has led mankind to a higher understanding of the universe and the surroundings. His thoughts and theories have given people a microscopic view of atoms as well as a macroscopic view of the universe. Forging a new path in modern physics, Einstein has inspired many scientists and physicists to dream and defy the status quo and enter the world of the unknown.