Conclusión: El lugar de Alejandro en la tradición preislámica persa

Age: 18 years old, just graduated from high school.

Occupation: Busboy at Beverly Hills Supper Club.

Notable Because: He saved hundreds of people from a fiery death.

Analysis of Type: INT Evidence for INTP

• Described as "quiet" (Likely I)

• Terrible stage fright (Likely I, but describes most people)

• After the fire, he withdrew and refused to give interviews (I)

• Had few friends at work; by contrast, other employees said the team felt like a family (Likely social outsider INT)

• Described as having a "flat, calm voice" (Likely INT)

• Unattached to his job (INPs have lowest job satisfaction of all types,¹¹⁴ but Bailey had also had better-paying jobs before.)

• Self described perfectionist (SJ, INP)¹¹⁵

• Unsatisfied with his performance; thought he could have done better (NT high expectations of self, but maybe also survivor's guilt)

• Recriminated himself for years afterwards about not doing enough (NT self criticism)¹¹⁶

• Filled with a sense of calm during the disaster (NT)

• Claims that science was one of his favorite high school subjects. (Likely NT)

• Modest; did not display a thank you letter from the President or his other plaques and awards (NT)

• Unimpressed by the hierarchy at the club (NTs and NTPs in particular have particularly low regard for titular authority)¹¹⁷

• As an adult, still uses words like “super” and “neat” (INTPs remain youthful at heart longer than other types)

• Pictured with mussed up hair (INTP disinterest in appearance)

• Did not give direct orders so much as mildly stated suggestions, i.e. “I want everyone to...” and

“Okay, everyone do this...” (INTPs prefer giving information to commands)¹¹⁸

• Had previously worked in construction jobs (Favors INTP, not INTJ)¹¹⁹ Evidence Against INTP:

• Owned a Pontiac Firebird Formula (Favors SP)

• Had previously worked in construction jobs (Favors STP over INTP)¹²⁰

114 Myers, McCaulley, Quenk & Hammer, 1998 115 Demarest, 2006

116 Keirsey, 1998a 117 Keirsey, 1998a 118 Keirsey, 1987

119 Myers, McCaulley, Quenk & Hammer, 1998 120 Myers, McCaulley, Quenk & Hammer, 1998

It seems most likely that Bailey is an NT, though at this point it is difficult to say whether he is an INTP or an INTJ. The evidence leans slightly towards INTP (the hair, the role informative command style, the use of words like “super” even as an adult, the construction jobs) but we really don’t have anything that would give us real certainty. At any rate, I feel we can still apply what we learn from him to INTPs, so let’s continue on.

Story

As a busboy, it was Walter Bailey's job to fill glasses, mass produce hors d’oeurves, and set up tables for the guests at the Beverly Hills Supper Club. To give you an idea of Bailey's social rank, first imagine a unicellular organism. Then imagine a bicellular organism. The unicellular organisms would be the club's dishwashers, and the bicellular organism would be Bailey.¹²¹ He had worked there about a year and he was 18.

The Supper Club was a giant building divided up into smaller rooms for people to enjoy shows while they dined. There was a fancy ballroom, the Cabaret Room, which was capable of holding over a thousand people. The room had a stage up front where comedians could perform or speakers could make an address. A few “minor” amenities were missing, however: sprinklers, smoke detectors, and fire alarms.

It was about 9 pm on a Saturday night. The club hosted some 3,000 patrons who were served by around 180 employees. Bailey was working in the classy red-carpeted Cabaret Room; he had asked to be assigned there so that he could enjoy the night's act.

At one point he had to go serve another room. As he was walking down the hallway, he bumped into another employee, a waitress. She was looking for the club's owners, and Bailey informed her that they were in the kitchen. To explain why she was looking for them, she whispered, "There's a fire in the Zebra Room."

Being a good INT, Bailey was skeptical of her claim and went to verify it for himself. When he arrived at the Zebra Room, which was on the opposite side of the building, he went to open the door--but stopped when he saw that smoke was seeping out the cracks in puffs. Bailey didn't open the door.

Instead, he went directly into the adjoining bar, still full of chatting patrons, and announced,

"Everybody out! There's a fire!" Here Bailey acted on his own authority to send paying customers out of the building.

INTPs will give lip service to the chain of command, but they never really accept the fact that it applies to them. Authority and claims of expertise hold little weight; only sound logic matters. As for rules, they are made to be broken because they seldom fit the exact facts of the situation and it would be illogical to obey them in such cases because doing so would lead to a less than ideal outcome. All this adds up to the fact that Bailey didn’t go run looking for the owners like the waitress did; he acted independently, following his own judgment.

After shooing the patrons out, Bailey's mind probably began running simulations of how the fire

response would proceed. It occurred to him that nobody in the Cabaret Room had been informed of the fire yet. He headed there and found his supervisor. After explaining the situation, he said, "We have to clear the room." The man's response was to stare unheedingly at him, then instruct him to watch a line of customers while he himself went to open some doors. Probably feeling frustrated, Bailey decided to go over the man's head and set off to find the club's owners. He got part way there, then thought better

121 Ripley, 2009

of it. He was wasting time, and his supervisor's refusal to act was simply poor judgment. So he

returned to his supervisor and confronted him again, telling him they needed to evacuate the ballroom.

This time the supervisor walked off, presumably to initiate the evacuation.

Left to his own devices once more, Bailey began the unauthorized evacuation of the line of waiting customers he had been told to watch. He led seventy of them out of the building. After instructing them to remain outside, he returned to the Cabaret Room. Nothing had changed. All 1,200 guests were still enjoying the comedy act. Now Bailey had to decide what to do. Did he trust the authorities to handle the situation appropriately? Did he wait for the proper chain of command to play out? Did he bow to his supervisor's implicit refusal to evacuate the thousand plus guests?

Or did he evacuate the guests without permission?

As an INT, Bailey would be expected to distrust authority, follow his own logic-based judgments, and have strong willpower. All of which means that he could not put blind faith in his bosses, nor could he see the situation through any lens save for that of his own logic. And logically speaking, the party guests needed to be evacuated as soon as possible. But that decision seemed likely to cost him his job.

It must have taken every ounce of willpower to do what came next. Terrified, he walked through the ballroom and climbed up onto the stage. He took the microphone from one of the comedians. Before the staring eyes of the multitude, he announced in a voice that people would later say sounded calm, "I want everyone to look to my right. There is an exit in the right corner of the room. And look to my left. There's an exit on the left. And now look to the back. There's an exit in the back. I want everyone to leave the room calmly. There's a fire at the front of the building." With that, he left the stage and went outside. People began evacuating--slowly. Minutes later a thirty foot ball of fire seared out of an adjoining equipment room and the lights in the Cabaret Room went out. The immolation of the Beverly Hills Supper Club had begun.

Outside, Bailey went to check on a smoking exit. He went inside and was instantly blinded by thick smoke. From deeper within the darkness he could hear the cries of dozens of people trying to get out.

He groped his way into the depths, grabbed whoever he could lay hands on, and dragged them outside.

Again and again he returned to the hallway, holding his breath against the poisonous smoke. Finally he reached a pile of living and dead bodies clogging the doorway to the Cabaret Room.

He needed help, so he went outside to where the evacuated guests were gathered and yelled, "Can anyone help us? We need more help at that exit!" (Several other employees had been helping him drag out people.) The guests stared back, but no one did anything. Hopelessly Bailey raced back to the club alone and continued pulling people out. The cries for help and the moans grew fainter; he could hear the people inside gasping and dying. Finally there was silence. There wasn't any point going back in.

Outside, the lawn was covered with bodies. As his final duty he went around covering up the faces of the dead with napkins. Then he got a ride and went home.

Analysis

In Amanda Ripley's fascinating book, "The Unthinkable," she analyzes why Bailey became a hero that night. She quite rightly attributes Bailey's success to the following factors:

• Bailey was knowledgeable.

• He paid attention to details (the smoke puffing out of the Zebra Room).

• He was decisive (he didn't waste time talking when something obviously needed to be done

immediately).

• Thanks to his Christian faith, he had less fear of death.

• He didn't care about losing his job as much as other employees did.

Ripley described Bailey’s behavior as atypical.¹²² But as you can already guess, there is more to this story than meets the eye. The fact is, Bailey's reactions were not completely atypical--for an INTP.

Let's examine his decisions using our knowledge of his probable type.

Discussion

Rationals do not trust claimed expertise, titles or authority. In fact, they remember and store away every incident where authority failed.¹²³ (Now you have one more for your collection.) Additionally, INTPs do not take anyone at their word when it comes to facts. If they haven't verified a fact for themselves, they will regard it with skepticism. In short, Rationals--and in particular INTPs--are the masters of independent judgment. They seek to objectively assess the facts and then proceed as logic suggests, regardless of what anyone else says. INTPs also have strong willpower, which causes people to note that they have iron convictions or (negatively) are very stubborn and pigheaded.

All of these factors explain why Bailey took the situation into his own hands. First he independently analyzed the threat presented by the fire and decided that it was hazardous. Then he predicted the next logical step that ought to be taken to prevent harm. Finally he began carrying out the first steps of a strategy to counteract the threat.

It is important to note that when it became clear that the authorities (the supervisor and the club

owners) were behaving irrationally, he eliminated them from his plan. It takes both courage and strong convictions to disregard the implicit orders of one's supervisor. Bailey had to believe that his own judgment was more sound than his supervisor’s and the club owners'. (This is an excellent example of why people think INTPs are arrogant.) But here is independent thought at its height. And here is the willpower to act on those thoughts. This is why Rationals must have strong willpower: the rational thing to do is not always the pleasant, easy, conforming thing to do. Bailey was able to save hundreds of lives because he refused to take the easy path of blind obedience.

One thing that should not be overlooked is that Bailey, unlike most of the other club employees, was lukewarm about keeping his job. Why is this? In the first place, it was a crummy job. But in the second place, INTPs have the lowest job satisfaction of any type save for the INFPs, who tie with them in terms of job dissatisfaction.¹²⁴ An INTP will enjoy their job as long as there is something new to learn or some new skill to build. But when the learning/skill-building stops, then the fun ends and the INTP gets bored and unhappy. So, if Bailey were indeed an INTP, then he had an excellent reason to wish to leave. After all, how much more could there be to learn after working as a busboy for a whole year? (How much do you love your job? How much do you have to lose compared to your

coworkers?)

The fact that Bailey was able to keep calm during the disaster is another key point. True, he was very frightened, but he maintained his cool nonetheless. INTPs prize calm because it allows them to think clearly and prevents the interference of judgment-warping emotions. And indeed, Bailey’s control over himself helped him to make correct decisions during the emergency.

122 Ripley, 2009 123 Keirsey, 1998a

124 Myers, McCaulley, Quenk & Hammer, 1998

Application

Bailey is not unique among INTPs; an INTP of my acquaintance experienced a similar, albeit much less heroic version of his experience when dealing with the inappropriate handling of a computer virus in their workplace. Upon analyzing both instances, there were notable similarities:

• Independent research into the nature of the problem preceded action. INTPs verify facts for themselves and then decide upon the proper course.

• INTPs try to notify their superiors first.

• If their superiors seem disconnected from reality, INTPs repeat their efforts to convince them despite initial shut downs. (Recall that INTPs were ranked as the 3rd most argumentative type.)¹²⁵

• INTPs simply ignore the chain of command and do what they think is necessary.

What would an INTP soldier do if his commander was bumbling the mission and risking everyone’s lives? What would an INTP employee do if they thought their boss’ unsafe practices would hurt other coworkers?

But there is an even more fascinating angle.

From a young age, INTPs are nonconformists. An INTP child may be the only person in their class who refuses to say the pledge of allegiance. Individuality seems like something INTPs seem born with.

After WWII, psychologists grew interested in the psychology of conformity and obedience. A number of revealing studies were undertaken that show just how rare and difficult this trait is.

In one such experiment (the Asch conformity experiment), psychologists wanted to see how much people’s decisions were molded by those around them. The experimenters took a group of 5 -7 people and gave them a card with a line on it. They were instructed to compare the card to another card with three lines of differing length on it. The objective was to compare the two cards and decide which lines matched.

The trick behind the experiment was that all but one of the “test subjects” in the group had actually been hired by the experimenters. For each test, the fake test subjects would all choose one of the wrong lines and agree that it was correct. Then the reaction of the real test subject was observed to see if they would agree with the wrong conclusion.

The experiment demonstrated that the opinions of a group have a strong effect on the decisions of an individual. If left uninfluenced by others, the test subjects would almost always choose the correct line.

But when the majority formed a unanimously wrong consensus, the test subjects would often subjugate their own opinions to those of the group. Test subjects agreed with the wrong answer 32% of the time, and 75% of the test subjects chose a wrong answer at least once. (However, it is significant to note that the remaining 25% did not agree with the wrong majority even one time. So about 1 out of 4 people seem to be immune to the consensus effect. Other subjects, however, agreed with the majority every time.)

Another result that emerged was that if one other member dissented--even if they gave the wrong answer--the test subjects were much more likely not to go along with the false majority. So if one group member disagrees, it can embolden others to disagree too.

Many years later, type practitioners did a small study where people of various types were tested using

125 Loffredo & Opt, 2006

Asch's experimental setup. The INs turned out to be least likely to conform, and IT and IN types conformed less than EF and ES types.¹²⁶

Have you ever wondered why natural selection has allowed the existence of INTPs? One would think that protoINTPs would provide perfect prey for saber toothed tigers as the absent-minded hominids wandered obliviously across the prehistoric veldt, philosophizing about the nature of the universe.

As a thought experiment, let’s pretend that we have a hunting/gathering family unit of 100 individuals.

We would expect something like 3 - 5 INTPs in the group. What survival advantages do these INTPs confer on their band?

One of the advantage that INTPs provide is the ability to create dissent. When the leadership is

confidently leading the lemmings over the cliff, the INTP declares, “That doesn’t make any sense. The leader doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Naturally the other lemmings are horrified at this betrayal of the social norms, but the INTP has verbalized something they suspected deep down in their gut. And now that one person has dissented, everyone else is emboldened. “I don’t completely agree with what you’re saying, but I do think...” another person will begin.

By refusing to go along with the norm, INTPs prevent groupthink and suggest alternatives when the agreed upon solutions are about to fail catastrophically. It may be that everybody else will go running off the edge of the cliff, but the INTP and their immediate family will survive.

There’s another side to this though. Another classic experiment, Schachter's 1951 “Johnny Rocco”

study, has also demonstrated that those who refuse to conform tend to be ignored and excluded.

(“Surprise, surprise,” you’re thinking.) In this study, a nonconformist was planted in a group of test subjects and instructed not to agree with the group’s decision on the fate of a juvenile delinquent, whatever that decision might be. No matter how much pressure they were under to conform, the nonconformist was told to reject the group’s ideas. Afterwards the group members were asked who they would eliminate if they had to make the group smaller. They usually chose to get rid of the nonconformist.

I wonder how many INTPs have been “voted off the island” because they refused to conform? Bailey had few friends among his coworkers, and this in spite of the fact that he had worked at the Beverly Hills Supper Club for a year.

I wonder how many INTPs have been “voted off the island” because they refused to conform? Bailey had few friends among his coworkers, and this in spite of the fact that he had worked at the Beverly Hills Supper Club for a year.