It’s no surprise to anyone who frequents MBTI blogs, forums and online communities to hear that sensor types are drastically underrepresented on the Internet. While iNtuitives make up only 26.6% of the global population , they are the definite majority in online MBTI communities. Here are a few reasons why this imbalance occurs.

1. Most of our societal resources are already catered toward sensors.

With sensors making up roughly 73.4% of the global population, it’s only natural that the majority of our education systems, workplaces and social norms are catered toward sensing types.

Growing up, sensors are more likely than intuitives to be provided with the tools they need in order to excel. For this reason, they may be less likely to seek out systems that help them understand themselves and how their method of processing information relates to the world around them.

For many sensors, the MBTI is simply telling them information about themselves that they have already been made aware of, whereas intuitives are more likely to find that the MBTI is the first resource they’ve come across that directly identifies how they process information.

2. Intuitives – by definition – enjoy exploring theory.

Intuitives enjoy understanding the bigger picture of how things connect and relate to one another. They want to know the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ behind what interests them, rather than just the ‘what.’

The MBTI provides intuitives with a tool for understanding what’s behind human behavior and how those around them are interpreting reality. Since intuitives value the ability to perceive a situation from various different angles, they enjoy using the MBTI as a means of understanding other viewpoints.

Intuitives don’t just want to know how they see the world, they want to know how everyone else around them sees it and what the implications of those various different viewpoints are.

3. Sensors prefer learning information that they can tangibly apply to their lives.

Sensors are more than capable of deeply understanding theory – it’s just that they don’t want to waste their time learning theories that are not useful to them.

An ESTJ may become incredibly interested in the MBTI if it helps him or her develop effective leadership strategies in the workplace, or an ESFP may enjoy it if it helps him or her better relate to others.

Whereas intuitives enjoy learning theory for the fun of it, sensors prefer learning theory that can be practically applied in some way. For this reason, sensors who are exposed to the MBTI may quickly lose interest in it if they do not see a way in which it applies to their everyday lives.

4. The MBTI provides intuitives with a community of like-minded people that many of them have not found in real life.

With sensing types dominating the world, many intuitives types grow up feeling ostracized from or out of place around their peers. This may be particularly true for INxx types, who often express difficulty relating to others in the early years of their lives.

Even the more outgoing ENxx types often report feeling as though they’ve only ever fit in on a surface level – and that they grew up longing to find others who shared and understood their true complexity.

The MBTI community connects intuitives with like-minded people who share commonalities in the ways that they process information and view the world. For many intuitive types, it is a massive relief to know that there are others out there who think, feel, understand and experience the world in a similar way to them.

5. The MBTI provides intuitives with the language that they were previously lacking to describe their problems.

Intuitives must reason their way to everything: why they are feeling a certain way, why a certain problem is continuously manifesting, why something about their life just seems off even though they can’t quite put their finger on what.

The MBTI helps intuitives assign language to the hunches and feelings that they have never previously been able to put into words. An ‘off’ day for an ENTP can be explained by a disruption to their extroverted feeling. A continuous lack of follow-through for the INFP can be explained by under-developed extroverted thinking.

For the most part, intuitives dislike acting without first understanding the root cause of the problem they are facing. And the MBTI finally provides these types with the language that they need to understand and communicate their abstract, existential problems.

6. Intuitives tend to spend more time thinking than doing – therefore they spend more time on the Internet.

To the average intuitive, exploring and debating ideas is significantly more interesting than putting those ideas into practice. An INTJ may enjoy designing a system significantly more than they enjoy implementing it. An INFP may enjoy reflecting on their feelings for someone more than they enjoy actually spending time with that person.

As a result of their tendency to prefer speculation over implementation, many intuitives spend a significant portion of their time reading, researching, debating and sharing ideas online.

Whereas sensors want to see the potential results of their theorizations as soon as possible, most intuitives are happy to dissect and analyze a theory seemingly forever – and the Internet is a great place to do just that.

7. The intuitive community (unfortunately) fuels a sense of backlash toward the sensing community.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the very real intuitive bias that exists in the MBTI world.

Many Ns grow up feeling as though their particular form of intelligence is being misunderstood, disregarded or overlooked by the sensors that surround them. Therefore, it is a relief to finally find a community in which their strengths are both understood and celebrated.

While finding the MBTI community is a wonderful experience for most intuitives, it has also spurred a unique online counterculture, in which many intuitive types glorify iNtuition as a trait that is superior to sensing and deem themselves a master intellectual race.

This attitude is often quick to turn sensors off of the MBTI – just as intuitives often see their form of intelligence go unappreciated in the real world, sensors often see their form of intelligence go unappreciated in the MBTI community. This semi-intentionally fosters an exclusive community of intuitives on the Internet – who occasionally sit back to wonder why the hell there are no sensors in the online MBTI community.

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