The Dark Side Of INTP - The Worlds Smartest Personality Type

The personality type “INTP” stands for Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, and Perception, The INTP is often known as the most intelligent / smartest personality type. Only 1 to 5% of the population is thought to be made up of INTPs. Famous INTPs you may be familiar with include Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and Abraham Lincoln.

However, despite their intelligence and other positive traits, there is a dark side to INTPs that isn’t talked about nearly as much. Today on How to Charisma we’re going to look at 6 dark side traits of INTPs.

[sammarchant]

One thing that I don't like that you keep repeating is "INTPs lack empathy" i may be feeling a bit defensive, but I have heard this explained better and I can tell you from personal experience it is not true. There is a huge difference between empathy and letting emotions guide decision making, it seems that you are conflating the two. INTPs feel very strongly about things and can feel a huge amount of empathy but can also recognize that emotions can blind us from the truth and the best path forward. An INTP can prioritize long term well being over short term emotions. An INTP can tell people the hard truths they need to hear to make their life better down the road, not because they don't care, but because they do care and they don't let their emotions blind them into being short sided.

[deussalt]

Honestly hearing this relieves a lot of self induced stress. For a long time time I thought something was wrong with me but it's refreshing to hear that I'm not alone.

[_ek-lxbe]

It's hard to live with INTP personality. Most of people don't understand us 😢

[Barthenn]

INTP myself, and I would say I hated school so much specifically Oral presentation. I remember being so anxious about having to speak before the class that I got sick, vomited, and got a 0 on multiple occasion that I didn't show up for my exam because I was too scared of speaking in front of the class. My reaction wouldn't to not care about someone being ridicule in front of the class. My reaction would be to question the school board for the way school learning is structured. I don't want to f***ing talk in front of my classmate, I actually couldn't give less than a f*** about any of them. But I don't want to be ridicule for my lack of confidence and social awkwardness. I was already enough of a reject and bullied without being made of fool in front of the whole class. I would care about that kid being ridicule because I would put myself in that person place. Not directly because I care about that person feeling. Simply I would project myself in that situation and feel it unfair to I would feel sad for that person.

[cececooke]

The worst dark side to an INTP personality is they ghost you because your emotional needs and demands stress them out. And the moment they decide to tune you out, it’ll take an act of God to make them give a crap again

[mattm.]

I'm an INTP, but I'm pretty close to being an INFP, because I do feel things very strongly and am empathetic. What makes me an INTP is I feel regardless of how strongly someone feels about something, ultimately, logic should be the deciding factor. For me, the big problem is when I empathize with someone, but they are unable, or unwilling, to even attempt to look at a situation logically... even worse when someone talks themselves into believing something to be true, when it's obviously false, or outright lies, in order to justify their illogical views.

I'm a good listener and am generally supportive. I once even had a friend tell me that in a conversation with a woman who was talking about her problems, he just sat and listened to her, rather than trying to give advice, surprising himself that he was being a "good guy" like me. We're good friends, but I wasn't expecting a compliment like that.

But, while it is important to listen and be supportive, eventually real problems need real solutions, and while it's important to keep people's feelings in mind, real solutions require logic. Sometimes the best solution can be a compromise between what is logical and what accommodates people's feelings. However, sometimes the best solution is the right one and everything else id just varying degrees of wrong.

Another thing to consider is, why don't the more Feeling people consider the Thinking person's feelings? Even strongly Thinking people have feelings.

[rft]

They're all on point, and they're really a dark side.
I think the worst traits to us are, poor empathy makes us feel lonely sometimes and hard to keep real relationships.
And the overthinking/procrastinating making us less efficient on daily basis.

[SpiralOut]

I took a myers briggs test the other day and was classified intp. Upon looking in to the traits and indicators of this personality types i'm shocked at how accurate a description of myself this personality type gives. To a T this is who i am. Its good to know im not just weird as fuck.

[coltenkelso]

I just took the personality test and got INTP. I think the biggest thing for me is being overly analytical instead of feeling. I play out situations in my head in at least 10 different ways. Then I get frustrated and give up if I can’t find a solution. I am highly intuitive but in an analytical way. Not a feeling kind of way. I have an understanding of how someone feels but I don’t really understand other people’s feelings.

[tangerinefizz]

I'm an INTP, and I would be empathetic towards someone who bombed a presentation. With me, empathy is a hit or miss. If I can identify with someone in a particular position, I can easily empathize. If I can't identify, though, I can find it difficult to empathize.

[blackspadez]

I wasn't aware of this MBTI being a thing until recently, but I do know that after training (forcing?) myself to feel empathy for others, my life became a whole lot better. I used to beat myself over the fact that "I'm so evil for not caring about how they (might) feel" But then I realized, THAT's probably my weakness. And for every weakness I have, I know there's always something I can do to strengthen that weakness. So I did. I practiced expressing my emotions and studying others to know what others feel. Somehow, I think my own MBTI changed in the process, but I was quite certain that there's a point in my life where I was once an INTP.

[imever]

I say that not being empathetic is my greatest strength... not a "dark side." Albert Einstein said, "Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality." Empathetic people are matching themselves to other people's frequencies, which is why they are leading everyone else's life and not their own. INTPs rock! It's too bad others view them as cold.

[tropicalek]

This is so true. I don’t do social media simply because I don’t want to waste time and effort being engaged with others. I don’t have a lot of friends, but great supportive family, so I don’t feel bad about it at all. I do tend take a backseat and engage less when work is being unfair or does wrong to me, rather than speak up, which ultimately hurts my career. That’s my biggest flaws for success. But as noted, I don’t care so much about titles, so it doesn’t bother me too much most of the times either.

[JenHope]

Suppression of emotions is to not rock the boat further.

[bytehead]

INTPs worrying about details? Not this one!

Now, beating oneself up, that seems to be the one I'm best doing.

[sabin]

yeah. emotional suppression is something i've pretty much mastered as an intp.
but.
there's one particular song that brings me to tears.
when i have a lot of stressful situations where crying would be the best option, i listen to that song....and let it all out....and then carry on as normal.

when it comes to "career" i already gave up ages ago. i just go with the flow, do what is asked, and dont pay attention to promotions or raises.

[ianyork]

I really struggled with empathy for the first part of my life. Since high school I’ve gone through a decade of extreme hardship including my girlfriend dying at 22, my daughter dying at 3, 8 more of my closest friends dying throughout, and being shot in the chest myself. I know what pain is, and now I REALLY know what empathy is.

[dezt]

Remember that the list below doesn't represent every point from the video

1) Lack of empathy
2) Suppressing emotions (particularly negative)
3) Procrastination(in particular paralysis analysis)
4) Lack of quality relationships (because of social ignorance and self-prioritisation)
5) Too harsh on themselves (too much emphasis on being right and fixation on details)

[storymode]

1. yes agreed. not being prepared is a lesson learned. It was a beneficial failure.
2. Since I have a hard time knowing if my emotions are a rational or irrational reaction. It is hard to express emotions when they are actually valid. This is why I ask others.
3. oh god, deciding in a world of a million options. I am fallible, so being certain is hard when I know I can be wrong.
4. Purpose. Speak with purpose. yacking about nothing wastes energy.
5. Everything got better when I realized I am fallible. Unless I do something impulsive and seem stupid.. It's humiliating.
6. Assuming that the world is stupid will work out for you most of the time. When I are proven wrong, it actually makes me happy. I love competent, resourceful people. They are hard to find.

[user-ilzj]

After taking a few courses on philosophy and behavioral psychology, I can say I have learnt to empathize with other people or maybe to understand why are they behave a certain way under certain circumstances, but I am not a shoulder to cry on, I really can't console people.