# Do you feel there is a coorelation between sense of direction and S/N



## Deans (May 25, 2012)

I was thinkning that an intuitive type (like myself) would usually have a worse sense of direction due to not always paying attention to the details. Thoughts???


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

I'm an intuitive and I have a very good sense of direction and where I'm at. Some of the worst people I know with this are Si-doms, so I'm not sure there's much correlation here.


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## lib (Sep 18, 2010)

I think that sense of direction has a lot to do with wheather you are a guy with a masculine brain or a woman with a feminine brain as guys, generally speaking, have more of a direction sense than women - and women with a masculine brain generally have more of a direction sense than women with a feminine brain. Visual/spatial ability seems to generally be higher with men and it also increases with higher level of testosterone. I think it was in UK where maps with South being up were offered together with the usual with North up, the new maps only had interest among women. If you ask men and women where North is, men are far more likely to be able to point towards North. Some of the questions in a brain-orientation test (masculine/feminine) are based on one's ability to determine direction (scoring points for masculine-brained).
If I walk at random in a new city I might end up walking around in my own thoughts and lose track of direction but will, from an image of the city-map in my head plus either my compass or the sun's position combined with time, I'll have an idea of how to get back to my hotel/hostel/tent. 
If some MBTI types have a more developed sense of direction than other, and I'm not saying it's the case, I think these types would be the more masculine brained types (e.g. INTJ).


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## Perhaps (Aug 20, 2011)

lib said:


> I think that sense of direction has a lot to do with wheather you are a guy with a masculine brain or a woman with a feminine brain as guys, generally speaking, have more of a direction sense than women - and women with a masculine brain generally have more of a direction sense than women with a feminine brain. Visual/spatial ability seems to generally be higher with men and it also increases with higher level of testosterone. I think it was in UK where maps with South being up were offered together with the usual with North up, the new maps only had interest among women. If you ask men and women where North is, men are far more likely to be able to point towards North. Some of the questions in a brain-orientation test (masculine/feminine) are based on one's ability to determine direction (scoring points for masculine-brained).
> If I walk at random in a new city I might end up walking around in my own thoughts and lose track of direction but will, from an image of the city-map in my head plus either my compass or the sun's position combined with time, I'll have an idea of how to get back to my hotel/hostel/tent.
> If some MBTI types have a more developed sense of direction than other, and I'm not saying it's the case, I think these types would be the more masculine brained types (e.g. INTJ).


Out of curiosity, is anything in this paragraph substantiated by any credible research whatsoever?


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## Owfin (Oct 15, 2011)

lib said:


> If some MBTI types have a more developed sense of direction than other, and I'm not saying it's the case, I think these types would be the more masculine brained types (e.g. INTJ).


Ni is more masculine than X function because...?


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## Finagle (Jun 4, 2011)

Action Potential said:


> Out of curiosity, is anything in this paragraph substantiated by any credible research whatsoever?


Neuroskeptic: Men, Women and Spatial Intelligence
Magnitude of sex differences in spatial abiliti... [Psychol Bull. 1995] - PubMed - NCBI
Nurture affects gender differences ... [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI

Conclusion: more complex than simply having men better at it than women.


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## Finagle (Jun 4, 2011)

Owfin said:


> Ni is more masculine than X function because...?


INTJ is more masculine because of Te, not Ni.
He never mentionned Ni, and INTJ is clearly a masculine type.


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## Staffan (Nov 15, 2011)

Make a poll of it.


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## snail (Oct 13, 2008)

Deans said:


> I was thinkning that an intuitive type (like myself) would usually have a worse sense of direction due to not always paying attention to the details. Thoughts???


I don't know if it is true, but my mom and I like to joke about it. We are always getting lost, while dad, the only S type in our immediate family, always knows exactly where we are.


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## Elizindrhythm (Mar 30, 2012)

snail:2518610 said:


> Deans said:
> 
> 
> > I was thinkning that an intuitive type (like myself) would usually have a worse sense of direction due to not always paying attention to the details. Thoughts???
> ...


Which I find hysterical, because my S mom has the *WORST* sense of direction compared to the rest of us Ns. 

I think some of this is due to an innate ability to negotiate spacially, and some due to training. For example, I do very well at those tests that show a box laid out flat and you have to guess what it looks like put together, and I have a better than average sense of direction, but I cannot arrange furniture in my head or judge somethings size or distance visually AT ALL. 

But my dad got tired of answering the 'Are we there yet' question and showed me how to read a map by age 6, then threw the maps in the back seat with my sister and I and let us keep track of where we were. To this day, I cannot abide GPS 'cause I want my map! 

Now, do I get lost? Yes, if my N brain is doing something else. (Seriously, during my divorce, I one time drove to work and ended up in the parking lot of a job I had left 5 years earlier! Total auto-pilot .) So I think there may be some masculine/feminine brain differences here (I'm an ENFP, which I don't think is perceived as very masculine. Must be the attraction to shineys.), but also it seems that fewer girls are taught navigation skills.


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## zynthaxx (Aug 12, 2009)

My wife is Si dom and gets lost easily. I've got secondary Se and have a pretty good sense of direction. So does my secondary Ne brother, my secondary Se sister and my primary Ni father.


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## Staffan (Nov 15, 2011)

Come to think of it I've done some orienteering and it seems to attract sensors, especially STs.


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## Kyrielle (Mar 12, 2012)

I'm not sure there's a correlation. I'm an Ni-dom and I have very few issues with getting lost and have a very good sense of direction. Granted, when given a map, I might rotate it so everything is facing the way I am (if I've never been there, I need to do this to help me build a mobile mental map), but I very rarely get lost. And even when I do, I can get back to somewhere familiar with minimal effort.

Now, if you ask me to FIND something generic (like a Wendy's or a Dunkin Donuts)...well then you should be prepared for an epic quest that will take many times longer than it should. Everywhere there should be what I'm looking for, there's always its competitor.

Most of getting lost is about panicking when you realize you don't know where you are and forgetting that you can always turn around and just go back the way you came. It's also about not building a mental map of where you are and forgetting what you've already seen and where you've already been.


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## Donovan (Nov 3, 2009)

for me it depends. if i'll be going to an area (that i've never been to, and) that i know will have heavy traffic/messed up roadways/etc. then i'll literally pull up a map of it on google and hit the zoom button until i can actually see what the roads will physically look like. i think that is more of an OCD/anxiety thing more than CF's (unless that is related to my inferior).

but in the above i'll actually be more likely to have a "sense of direction" due to being more alert; i'll be in a state of mind where i'll be paying attention to the things needed in order to _have a sense of direction. _

what's funny though is that if i'm comfortable and relaxed driving in a place that i've been to hundreds of times, enough that i don't have to even think where to turn, where everything is almost relgated to muscle memory (and i'm guessing the frontal "executive" parts of the brain), and you were to ask me where work/family/school was in relation to where i happened to be at the time--i'd really have no idea. i'm thinking that would be because if i remained in a familiar, relaxed frame of mind it wouldn't be functioning in a way to even to all those things into account. 

there might be a correlation, but i think it has more to do with, like i said, state of mind and then it's not a question of whether or not it's an N/S issue, but the rebounding relationship they share due to _where they reside within the person and in what attitude_.


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## aconite (Mar 26, 2012)

Eh, I don't think so. My father has a very good sense of direction, he won't get lost in a city he's visited only once. Almost like his brain has an in-built GPS device. He's an ENTJ. My mother is terrible at that, I'm quite decent, and we share perceiving functions set (I'm an INTP, she's an INFP).


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## petitpèlerin (Apr 23, 2012)

LiquidLight said:


> I'm an intuitive and I have a very good sense of direction and where I'm at. Some of the worst people I know with this are Si-doms, so I'm not sure there's much correlation here.


Exactly.

Also, about the male/female thing, I have the most reliable sense of direction and map skills of anyone I know. I've been a professional driver for most of the last 10 years, and worked with predominantly men, many of whom are also very good with maps and direction (and many who are not!), but I don't know of any who are better. For me, I think it's part intuitive sense of direction, part extremely-visual/spatial and fairly-logical mind, part skill (which anyone can develop with practice), and part confidence (which comes with developing a skill). When I get "lost" I don't panic, I use whatever I do know and an intuitive sense to go in the direction I want to go in until I find myself somewhere I know where I am, or else I retrace my path until I'm back to somewhere I knew where I was. Either way, I'm never really lost, I don't use GPS, I don't need to stop and ask directions, and I love the challenge. Now, if only I were so happy and confident navigating social situations . . .


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## Metanoia (Nov 21, 2011)

I'm glad someone posted about this topic because I've wondered the same myself. I'm an INFJ and have always had a great, some have even said uncanny, sense of direction. From some of the JCF/MBTI descriptions floating around out there, and because of the obvious necessity for sensory data to move around in physical space, it may seem logical that Sensors reign supreme when it comes to directions and orienting themselves in the outer world. But I think it has more to do with types of intelligence, such as spatial vs. musical vs. logical vs. interpersonal, etc., or some other factors altogether, than it does Personality type.


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## LadyO.W.BernieBro (Sep 4, 2010)

Big time.

l don't know what it has to do with paying attention to details though. 

I'm not as tuned in with anything physical as sensors are, I am severely lacking in spatial skills and have no sense of direction.

Even if I were more of a visual thinker I think it would still be a problem, l have a hard time translating concepts that are in my mind to the physical world. You wouldn't believe some of the spatial/motor things l didn't pick up on until early adulthood.

My sensing function is especially low though so I'm not speaking for all intuitives here.


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## Tad Cooper (Apr 10, 2010)

I'd say those with Se would have a better sense of direction than Ns in general. With Si it would probably be down to being prepared (a map etc) or having been there before.
I find I know a route because a I notice road names, landmarks and remember how many lefts/rights I took.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

Despite the fact that I have trouble telling the difference between left and right, my sense of direction is very good. I rarely get lost. That is a good thing because I spend a lot of time outside walking and exploring and can always find a new route. I'm not afraid to get lost but it just very rarely happens.


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