Are INTJs good at manipulation?
Most of the time, because they’re often gifted individuals, (YES).
INTJs with low EQ can still pull off very effective schemes to manipulate people.
This is primarily because “INTJ empathy” isn’t of the same nature as “conventional
empathy”.
INTJs can take the opposite route of Fe — hyper-rationalizing behaviorism and thought-patterns with Ni and
Te, then discovering one’s blind-spots and navigating through their weak understanding
and striking at their every want and need.
One common example: People believe manipulators are liars, therefore, truthful speakers are
genuine.
Reality: People who speak the truth can also be manipulators.
Blind-spot: Speak the truth and only the truth and you’ll never be suspected.
Never utter a lie or anything closely related to it.
Reinforcement: Keep telling people the truth — never exaggerate; say things that are
good but not exaggerated, forced or outlandish.
The more truths you speak and prove — the more they’re likely to believe you.
People think you’re not hiding secrets from them, therefore, you’re likely to earn their
trust.
Technique: Never tell your target a lie, only tell them half-truths.
Once you’ve seduced your target to a wild degree, you’ll have everyone in the palm
of your hand and they’ll believe anything you say.
Assumption: You won’t ever say a lie, therefore, you are trustworthy.
Upkeep: Don’t get complacent.
Keep the cloak on and your dagger hidden.
Don’t stop telling half-truths and stay true to your words until the time you want
to defect.
And did you notice anything about this manipulation tactic?
It played none on feelings — only thoughts, logical fallacies, assumptions, etc.
Requirements to pull a con-artist technique like this: You have to be tactically, strategically,
and intelligently more inclined overall by a few notches (which is precisely what an
INTJ often possesses).
An INTJ doesn’t need to empathize with someone’s emotions to really know them.
It’s just knowledge, deduction, and application.
It’s just like knowing you don’t need to go to space to know it exists — you don’t
need to escape the stratosphere and look down in order to know the Earth is round.
Likewise, you don’t need to experience phenomena like depression to know how it works.
That’s why INTJs don’t seem like they follow through with emotions but they’re
able to give people incredibly accurate insights and solutions to their problems.
INTJs take an entirely different approach outside of the realm of another’s understanding.
So to conclude: INTJs can read emotions, not necessarily feel or experience them.
So these are some drawn conclusions to summarise; 1.
Not all INTJs have low EQ. 2.
Manipulation isn’t about feelings, it’s about the appeal.
The appeal comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes.
3.
INTJs can still manipulate people without the emotional aspect.
This is why INTJs make excellent manipulators — possibly the best ones around.
This is also why INTJs are incredibly hard to be manipulated — they know the tricks
of the trade.
However, whether an INTJ wants to manipulate, that’s a different story altogether.
INTJs are good at understanding manipulation, but usually, do not take the route of manipulating
others.
However, if an individual INTJ’s personal value or experience justifies his or her need
to manipulate others, to get the necessary outcome, they might superficially do that
once in a while.
The word “mastermind” is given to us because we optimize things since we love order and
systems so much.
INFJs on the other hand, as Ni dominants, are more people-oriented, and quite often
manipulative (mostly in a good way unless the INFJ is like Daenerys Targaryen from Game
of Thrones).
Part of our bigger optimization scheme involves making minimal contact with fellow random
human beings.
But manipulating or influencing, needs a lot of human contacts which we hate.
But we are extremely good at detecting manipulation, lies, or anything which is off.
An unhealthy and immature INTJ might have a low emotional understanding, but a more
mature and developed one does not.
And detecting manipulation and lies for us, is not an emotional process.
Our mind with the primary function Ni perceives things like a high-resolution camera.
And the more self-aware the INTJ is, the better is their Ni process, since Ni-Se functions
come in the axis.
Detecting manipulation has nothing to do with understanding emotions.
Cognitively that is a separate process.
You need a little bit of instinct and analysis to help you in that.
If emotion was the key to understanding a person’s characteristics overall, then ENFJs
and ESFJs would have been the best, since they are primary Fe users.
But according to me, they are not.