The Relationship Between Alocohol Consumption and Myers-Briggs Personality Types.

Abstract

The objective of the study was to explore links between Myers-Briggs personality types and alcohol consumption in college students. Seventy-one student participants completed a form of the Myers-Briggs personality test online and then answered demographic questions, including their Myers-Briggs personality type. Finally, participants completed a six item survey of alcohol use produced by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. An independent-samples t test showed that extroverts drank almost significantly less than the introverts in their lifetime [t(67)=1.989,p=.051]. Also, ESFJ (M=19.50) types drank close to significantly [t(67)=-.435,p=.665] more alcoholic beverages in their lifetimes than ESFP (M=3.00) types. A repeated measures test was run for the middle two Myers-Briggs letters, gender, and all six questions and none showed a significant F ratio. I concluded that I may not have been able to find any statistical significances with such a small sample size since I was not able to get adequate-sized samples of all 16 personality types. Also, it could be because the Myers-Briggs personality types are too broad and two people with the same personality type could be very different. Perhaps future research exploring links between personality characteristics and alcohol use should focus on more precise trait measures of personality, rather than on personality types.