The Myer’s-Briggs Type Indicator INFJ personality type is one of the rarest of all personality types, making up less than 3% of the population of the world.
MBTI describes INFJs as follows:
“Seek meaning and connection in ideas, relationships, and material possessions. Want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Conscientious and committed to their firm values. Develop a clear vision about how best to serve the common good. Organized and decisive in implementing their vision.”
Even though INFJs are rare, a lot of them are hiding in plain sight. From musicians to politicians, many INFJs are high performers who change the world. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous INFJs in history.
Writers
Plato
Dante Alighieri
J. K. Rowling
Aristophanes
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Scientists
Carl Jung
Jane Goodall
Musicians
Taylor Swift
Alanis Morissette
Peter Gabriel
Leonard Cohen
Actors
Al Pacino
Cate Blanchett
Shirley MacLaine
Mel Gibson
Daniel Day-Lewis
Edward Norton
Sidney Poitier
Hilary Swank
Billy Crystal
Claudia Schiffer
Nicole Kidman
Michelle Pfeiffer
Mark Harmon
Tom Selleck
Carrie Fisherr
Hilary Duff
Politicians & World Leaders
Shirley Temple Black
Mahatma Gandhi
President Martin Van Buren
Eleanor Roosevelt
Ron Paul
People who are most definitely NOT INFJs
INFJs are kind and thoughtful people who strive to help the people around them and make the world a better place. There are two people who are included in some lists of famous INFJs who are most certainly NOT INFJ: Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden.
Adolf Hitler was a communist dictator whose white supremacist ideology is responsible for starting the second world war that killed an estimated 70–85 million people including over 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust at Hitler’s direction.
Osama Bin Laden was a terrorist extremist who was responsible for killing thousands of people through his terrorist group al-Qaeda, including nearly 3,000 on September 11, 2001 in New York City at the World Trade Center Twin Towers, in Arlington, VA at the Pentagon and on Flight 93 which went down in Pennsylvania.
Characterizing Hitler and Bin Laden as INFJs is wrong. Murderous dictators obviously have severe psychological problems ranging from Narcissistic personality disorder to Sociopathy. They don’t care about other people. They will do anything in their power to get what they want. This is not behavior that is associated with the INFJ personality type. INFJs naturally focus on how other people feel and strive to make them comfortable and happy. Mass murder is not in our wheelhouse. Now, that’s not to say that there has never been an INFJ who was a mass murderer, but normal, healthy INFJs do not exhibit this behavior.