Is Santa Claus a Reclusive Extravert or Jolly Old Introvert?

While working on a personality profile of Santa Claus as a lighthearted way to look at how experts sometimes have to work up profiles on unknown subjects or persons about whom the reports are conflicted, I found a number of sources whose authors examined the character along the dimensions of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. While they disagreed on some aspects, they all agreed that Santa is an extravert.

• "What Type is Santa?"
  Hile Rutledge pegs Santa as clearly extraverted: "Most of the shows and images we see of Santa show a gregarious and expressive man, frequently in the company of others. Can you imagine the network that man must have? No Introvert would have such a thing unless he lived in total stress, and that jolly old elf certainly has a stress-free life 51 weeks out of the year."

• "Holiday Movies MBTI"
  Regarding Kris Kringle as depicted in the Rankin/Bass program Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.

• "Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 10 — Christmas Characters’ MBTI"
  Without elaboration because "there are a lot of versions of Santa Claus," A. M. Molvik said Santa "seems like he might be an ENFP" (an extraverted, intuitive, feeling, perceiving person).

• "How Festive Are You Feeling?"
  Not only did respondents in this study reported by the Myers-Briggs Company tend to see Santa as an extravert, but nearly half specifically pinned him down as fitting the ESFJ (extraverted, sensing, feeling, judging) type.

• "Here's What You're Like as a Friend, Based on Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type"
  Writer Katherine Gillen also refers to the ESFJ combination as "the Santa Claus."

• "Myers-Briggs® Personality Types Of Dragon Ball Heroes"
  Indirect but specific. In labeling the series protagonist as ESFP-A, author Will Harris explains, "Goku, at his heart, is a happy, jolly, smiling, Santa Claus kind of guy."

• Related: "A Christmas Song for Each Type"
  Again referring to "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," this time the energizing nature of song rather than the character in the stop-motion TV program's Kris Kringle incarnation.

A further search turned up some that dubbed Santa Claus an introvert.

• "Santa Claus and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator"
  Author Frank Whybrow notes that "for one month of the year, Santa spends an inordinate amount of time 'extraverting’ as he interacts with (mostly little) people. However, there is very little that is spontaneous about these interactions ..." Regarding this dimension, Whybrow concludes, "Santa is one serious introvert."
• "The Myers-Briggs Type of Santa Claus"
  Sadie Young decides, "I think it is pretty clear that mall Santas are probably extraverts, but the real St. Nick prefers introversion."
• "A Very Truity Christmas! The Personality Types of Our Favorite Holiday Characters"
  Jena Brown sums it up: "He travels at night, when the world is asleep, delivers presents and eats cookies without being seen, and only comes out of his house once a year. Santa is quite clearly an Introvert. "
• "What is Santa's Myers Briggs Profile?"
  "He is a man who has happily lived by himself for countless years without any attempt to integrate himself into the wider community," writes Michael Brown. "He keeps all his thoughts to himself, never attempts to make conversation despite endless opportunities to do so, and likes to do his work at dead of night."

As noted here previously, "The extravert is more active, talkative, socially aware, and focused on his or her environment, as opposed to the shy, anxious, inwardly focused introvert. Extraverts also tend to be bolder, more fearless."

First identified as a concept and popularized by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the continuum concerned whether each person tends to focus more on the external world or on inner experience. Even though some of his own followers may dichotomize people as being either extraverts or introverts, Jung (1921) himself believed that we all possess both characteristics within ourselves even if we tend to emphasize one more than the other. Jung said no person is purely extraverted or introverted but instead shows such a mix of both extraverted and introverted qualities to the point that ambivert (both extravert and introvert, akin to how people who can be both righthanded and lefthanded are ambidextrous). can offer a more accurate description (Cohen & Schmidt, 1979).

Both popular and controversial, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) dichotomizes people along four different, Jung-inspired dimensions including introversion/extraversion. Whereas those who use the test to assess personality find it to be a useful tool for categorizing people, its critics argue that individuals' responses to the test are inconsistent, that placing people into binary categories oversimplifies our views on human nature, and the unscientific thing suffers from such a dearth of empirical support as to be practically pseudoscience (Eveleth, 2013; Goodfriend, 2016).

Nevertheless, the extraversion-introversion dimension emerges in every major identification of human beings' primary personality factors (McCrae & Costa, 1987). Regardless of how professionals feel about the MBTI, this appears to be an important and well-established aspect of human nature.

Asked for a response regarding where a typical version of Santa Claus might fall on the extraversion-introversion dimension, psychologists and other writers for the Popular Culture Psychology books shared their thoughts.

• Dr. Asher Johnson, the criminal treatment specialist, was inclined to think that "he's probably an introvert. Introverts can, at times, be outgoing but it's exhausting for them. They go back in retreat so they can get that energy so they can go and be jolly."
• Dr. William Sharp, a psychoanalyst in private practice who also teaches at Northwestern State University, agreed: "I'm going with the introvert side as well, especially if we go with a Jungian definition that the introvert is charged by the downtime ... The example I always use is, the extravert goes to the party and is ready for the after-party. The introvert can go to the party and have a good time but then they're ready to go home. They're not heading to the after-party. Santa, he's doing this all in the dead of night when people are asleep. I don't think he's looking for a lot of contact and to be the center of attention. He's dropping stuff off and he's moving on, spending another 364 days kind of isolated up at the North Pole."
• Dr. Scott Jordan chairs the psychology department at Illinois State University and examines life and popular culture through the Dark Loops Productions podcasts, videocasts, and related events. Jordan says Santa "is a pathologically altruistic introvert because the people who are pathologically altruistic will do good for others to the detriment of themselves."
• Alex Langley, psychology instructor and author of books such as The Geek Handbook and Make a Nerdy Living, responds, "He operates in the dead of night. His best friends are what, reindeer? No." Starship Therapise co-author Justine Mastin calls the reindeer "employees." Alex calls them Santa's "work pets," not exactly friends, and considers Mrs. Claus to be Santa's only true companionship. "A really sad social situation up at the North Pole, now that we're talking about it."
• Vital Thrills entertainment journalist Jenna Busch notes that such a tendency varies, of course, depending on whether the figure in question is a single person or a series of individuals performing the Santa Claus role.

Related posts:

• "An OCEAN Far Away: Big 5 Personality Factors in Star Wars"
• "Personality Factors in 4-D: Characteristic Constellations"
• "Why Popular Culture Psychology? The Power of Story"