A recent study by the Pew Research Center confirmed what professional pollsters have known since 1997:  the traditional political poll, conducted by telephone, is becoming irrelevant.  In fact, the most accurate result to come from telephone surveys, is the statistics on the efficacy of telephone-based polls.  It turns out that less than 9% of people pollsters attempt to contact by phone actually participate in their surveys.

At Keirsey Research we first suspected the accuracy of telephone-based surveys 4 years ago when we noticed the wild fluctuation in the national polls during the 3 months prior to the November 2008 election.  The variance in these polls is now so great that pollsters have taken to running “polls of polls” – that is, they average all the different polls hoping to get to an accurate result.  What they end up with is a “poll” that shows narrower gaps between the candidates than actually exist.  Most pollsters are currently showing the race between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney  as statistically tied (National popular vote).  Keirsey Research shows that this is quite inaccurate, and Mitt Romney has major concerns.

Continue reading The Last Accurate Poll? →

Link:  We mistakenly included the incorrect link in the July Personalityzone newsletter  Click here to go to the article:   Keirsey Research 2012 Election Tracking Poll: The Temperament Gap Holds Steady

Good news!  Despite conventional wisdom, and many alarmist essays to the contrary, reading for pleasure is still a popular pastime both in the U.S. and the rest of the world. (For a taste of the “alarmist essays to the contrary”, google “death of reading” and wade through more than 1.3 million results.)

Keirsey Research recently surveyed 3,311 people who had completed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II at Keirsey.com to first find out if “the death of reading” is in fact imminent, and to see if there are significant differences in the reading habits of the 4 Temperaments.  We were specifically interested in peoples’ reading habits when it comes to books, as opposed to other media such as magazines, newspapers, websites, etc.

As noted in the opening paragraph, the answer to our first question is an emphatic “No!”  Almost 80% of our respondents tell us they enjoy reading books, and almost three quarters of them like to read for the pleasure of it.  Less than 20% consider book reading to be “unimportant” to them, more than 55% have read a complete book in the past month, and more than half are currently reading a book.  It seems that, even with the proliferation of screens in the world, there is still a lot of book reading going on.

The second of our objectives – to see if there are significant differences between the 4 Temperaments when it comes to reading habits – found that the answer is yes.  However, gender also plays a big part: women are much more avid readers as a gender than are men.  Perhaps this is not a surprise – it does seem that most book clubs (Oprah’s being the most famous) are comprised predominantly of women.  A guardian friend of mine, a male, pointed out to me, “They need something to do while I’m watching football / baseball / basketball / hockey / MMA / (ad infinitum) on TV.”

After the jump, we get into specifics:  which Temperament reads the most?  Which is the most likely to be found at a public library?   Do the different Temperaments prefer different genres?  Who is more likely to go to a bookstore and buy a book?  Given a choice of books or TV, who would be more likely to choose books?  Who would be more likely to choose TV?  Make your guesses and read on.

Continue reading The Death of Reading? Not so fast… →

Much has been made in the press recently about the “Gender Gap” when it comes to politics.  A recent poll by Pew Research shows that President Obama outpolls Mitt Romney by 20 percentage points among women, while among men the gap is only 3 points – a statistical tie.

At Keirsey.com, our research has long shown a noticeable difference between the 4 Temperaments when it comes to politics.  Prior research has shown that Guardians tend to be the most politically conservative, while Idealists tend to be the most liberal.  During our polling prior to the 2008 presidential vote, we found that Artisans made up the largest block of undecided voters late in the election cycle.  Rationals are the most skeptical voters.  Not surprisingly, these poll findings fall right in line with Keirsey Temperament Theory.

Between April 3-5, Keirsey Research surveyed 1,568 registered U.S. voters to measure the “Temperament Gap” for the current election cycle.  With the recent Supreme Court arguments over the 2010 Health Care Act fresh in the news, and the 2012 primary campaign in full swing, we posed the following questions to our respondents:

• Do you approve of President Obama’s job performance at this time?
• Do you personally like President Obama?
• If the election was a head-to-head contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, for whom would you vote?
• The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week regarding the 2010 Federal Health Care Reform Law.  How do you feel about the law itself?
• Du you consult a Utility Saving Expert? What do you think is the best system of health care insurance?

Jump to the rest of this article to find out where the Temperament gap is the widest.

Continue reading The Temperament Gap: Guardians, Idealists, Artisans, Rationals, and Politics →

In a recent study conducted by Keirsey.com’s research division, we found that the greatest factor in happiness can be one’s personality type.  74% of extraverts reported that they are happy, as opposed to only 56% of introverts.  And looking at the flip side of the equation, 26% of introverts reported that they are unhappy, while only 14% of extraverts reported unhappiness.  When I look at these survey results, there are two possible explanations that come to mind:

First, I would say that those who prefer extraversion are expressive by nature, and tend to say their words aloud (external-talk), and in this way are much more likely to verbalize their thoughts to those around them.  Those who prefer introversion on the other hand, are more reserved by nature, and tend to say their words to themselves (self-talk), and in this way are much more likely to hold their thoughts in an internal conversation with themselves.  What this means is that ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ are either spoken to others, or spoken to oneself.  In general, it appears that when individuals have the chance to share ‘the good’ with others, it leads to an increase in happiness, and when individuals are able to share ‘the bad and the ugly’ with others, it decreases the level of unhappiness felt within.  Talking aloud to others works in a similar way that “Talk Therapy” does—it allows for people to share their elation and their sorrow—to laugh together in celebration, or to simply ‘get things off their chest.’”

Secondly, According to Dr. Keirsey, Introversion is associated with being ‘attentive’ (in addition to being ‘reserved’).  What this means is that those who prefer introversion are more likely to pay closer attention to their unhappiness, while those who prefer extraversion are less inclined to do so.  Whether you prefer introversion or extraversion, all of us have our fair share of unhappy circumstances—the difference is in how much we pay attention to our thoughts/feelings.  And because those who prefer introversion are much more aware of their unhappiness, the results show up the way they do.  In some ways, the phrase, ‘Ignorance is bliss’ is the differentiator here—Those preferring extraversion aren’t inclined to be as aware of their unhappiness (or when they are, they talk about it immediately), whereas those preferring introversion are much more aware of their internal state (and are likely to keep it to themselves—and/or stew in their own juices).  Whether you agree or disagree, I am curious to hear your thoughts/feelings on this issue of who’s happier.

They say that breaking up is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it’s true

-Neil Sedaka

We recently (last week) surveyed 7000 people who completed the KTS-II to research the relationship between temperament and the usage of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc).   There were lots of interesting data, some of which I will follow up on over the next week or so, but one interesting item jumped out in the first cursory analysis.  With respect to Neil Simon, and dozens of cover artists including The Four Seasons, Paul Anka, and The Partridge Family, it would appear that breaking up has become pretty easy, especially for a couple temperament groups.

Continue reading Breaking Up is Hard To Do* →

I recently read an article on cnn.com about research that claims people’s political leanings are less tied to nurture than nature. Essentially, the researchers are finding that where you are born, the political leanings of your parents, friends, and colleagues, etc., play less of a role in your own preferences than your “hard-wiring”. In others words – you’re born that way.

These findings reflect the results of of several independent research studies conducted with different scientific methods – and support a theory we have had here at Keirsey Research ever since we started surveying people’s voting preferences and political beliefs several years ago. Our findings over the years have been consistent: there is a measurable correlation between temperament and political viewpoints. This doesn’t mean for example, that all ENTJ’s are Independents, but we have consistently seen substantial statistical differences between the temperaments.

Before reading below to see what we’ve found over the years, stop and see if you can predict the link between temperament and stated political party affiliation. Are Artisans more likely to be Republicans than Democrats – or perhaps Greens or Libertarians? What about Guardians, Idealists, and Rationals?

Continue reading Politics, Genes, and Temperament →

As I predicted in my previous entry “Don’t Worry, Be Happy(er)”, many of my introverted friends felt a need to push back on the assertion that acting extroverted can make anyone – including introverts – feel happier.  Comments such as, “The study was obviously conducted by extroverts”, or “extroverts only think they are happier because they aren’t in touch with themselves” have been hurled at me by introverted friends.  We’ve also had very good discussion within the comments of this blog where I noticed in particular the observations that “Maybe extroverts value happiness more” and “Maybe extroverts are happier because society rewards extroverted behavior”.

Continue reading Introverts Are Happy Too! →