Think=”Strong” Feel=”Weak”
The Brothers Heath (Chip & Dan) ran another great column in July/August edition of Fast Company, proving it isn’t just me who’s observed that thinkers are considered to be strong, while feelers are considered to be weak.
“In Defense of Feelings” highlighted a series of experiments conducted by the University of Toronto, the upshot of which proves “When people were given a choice to interact with a rational decision-making partner or a gut-trusting one, 75% chose the rational partner.”
Extrapolating to the roots of this Great Recession, I agree with the Heaths that this preference for rationality explains why we trusted spreadsheet-wielding financial mathematicians, whose modeling “proved” that NINA (no income, no asset) mortgages would perform even if default rates reached historically high levels.
What the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator teaches
In B-school at Duke, I studied the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for a class on leadership*. One of the preferences the MBTI instrument measures is “thinking or feeling,” and most everyone in the world comes out with a preference (from slight to strong) for one or the other. To paint an illustration with a broad brush, most bean counters are “thinkers” and most elementary school teachers are “feelers,” each being attracted to a profession where their strengths are most appreciated.
The Heaths addressed the feeling side of the spectrum, too, saying “Guts aren’t perfect. For instance, we tend to feel so much empathy for individuals that it can doom our efforts to be impartial and consistent.”
I have no MBTI preference between thinking and feeling, which is statistically rare. Circumstances apparently drive my preference. My children would characterize me as a “thinker” because of some of the tough love I’ve dished out — like letting my underage-drinking son deal with the law himself instead of hiring a lawyer to get him out of the consequences. On the other hand, those familiar with my unprofitable environmental contracting business would say I was a “feeler” for not pulling the plug sooner — I “felt” sure I could turn it around in spite of clients declaring bankruptcy and a key employee who stole from me. More about this debacle in an essay I wrote for Charlotte Magazine.
The thinking-feeling upshot for me is to know my vulnerabilities and do what I can to insulate myself from situations where I tend to apply “thinking” solutions to “feeling” situations, and visa versa. For example, I vowed never again to have employees — I always work with contractors or project partners.
Back to the point at hand, that we prefer thinkers over feelers. Perhaps that explains why I studied business instead of psychology in the first place.
What about it? Have you been in business situations where your gut told you one thing and your head said another? Do most people worship math geniuses and spurn touchy-feely types?
*The indicator is beyond the scope of this short post, so here’s a link for those who don’t know about this valuable tool.
