Which Emotion Each Myers-Briggs® Personality Type is Most Likely to Feel in Their Dreams

Ever wonder if each personality type has a tendency to dream certain emotions? By analyzing personality types and dreams, we introduce ourselves to a whole new world of personal understanding!

We know that some personality types remember their dreams more than others.

And apparently, Intuitives are more likely than average to dream about getting killed, while Feelers dream about getting pregnant more frequently than Thinkers. Yikes! 

But when it comes to feelings such as fear, joy, sadness, and anger, in which personality types do these emotions show up the most?

And what do these dream emotions say about our personality type?

Most Common Emotions Experienced in Dreams for Each Personality Type

“The dream shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is: not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is.” 

Carl Jung

Our dreams are thought to be gateways to our unconscious feelings and desires. So, the emotions you experience in your dreams may say more about your personality than you think. 

School psychologist and writer Kayla Swanson recently asked more than 400 people of various personality types on Reddit to share the primary emotion they experience in dreams. Responses were collected from each of the 16 personality types. 

The most common emotion reported among all personality types? Fear. 

Joy (21.3%) was the second most reported emotion with feeling no emotion (10%) being the next most popular answer.

The least reported emotions were disgust (3.3%), anticipation (3.5%), and anger (5.3%). 

Below is a breakdown of how all respondents answered. 

While the sample size was relatively small and some personality types were more represented than others, the results still offer an intriguing glance into the potential dream world of each personality type. 

Read on to learn which emotions you’re more likely to experience in your dreams, according to your personality type. 

INFP: Fear and Joy 

As dominant feeling types, it’s no surprise that INFPs reported experiencing a range of emotional highs and lows in their dreams. 

INFPs reported feeling fear in their dreams at least 16% higher than the average of all personality types. The second most common emotion experienced in dreams for INFPs is joy, with 18% reporting regularly experiencing this feeling. 

INFPs also reported the feeling of anticipation in dreams at a higher rate when compared to the respondents as a whole. 

INFJ: Sadness and Fear

Unlike INFPs, INFJs can have trouble accessing their own personal emotional state. This may explain why INFJs experience a smaller range of emotions in their dreams. 

INFJs also seem to haver darker dreams than their Perceiving counterpart. 

INFJs reported less joy and the highest rate of sadness in their dreams compared to the other personality types. 

This type is also slightly more likely than average to feel no emotion or a mix of emotions. 

INTJ: Mixed Emotions and Fear 

In waking life, INTJs are stereotyped as emotionless robots.

According to their dreams, however, this stereotype couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

In fact, INTJs reported a higher number of mixed emotions (12%), anticipation (6.1%), and fear (48.5%) than the group as a whole. 

Only 6% said they feel no emotions in their dreams, which is lower than average. 

INTP: Fear or Nothing At All 

INTPs, on the other hand, reported a much higher rate of feeling no emotions (21.7%) in dreams. In fact, this was the second most common response after fear. 

INTPs are dominant Thinking types and Extraverted Feeling is fourth in their function stack. Introverted Feeling, the function that helps one assess their personal values and emotional experiences, is last in the INTP’s stack. 

This may explain why this type is less likely to experience strong emotions in their dreams. 

ISFJ:  Fear or Nothing At All 

ISFJs, who have the same functions as INTPs, just in a different order, also reported a much higher rate of feeling no emotions (33.3%) in their dreams. 

Similar to INFJs, ISFJs also reported a smaller range of emotional experiences in their dreams, with answers only representing the emotions of fear, joy, or none. 

ISFP: All the Feels or Nothing

ISFPs experience a range of emotional experiences in their waking life, and this seems to translate to their dreams. 

Compared to the group average, ISFPs reported a higher rate of feeling no emotion (20%) and a slightly higher rate of mixed emotions (10%), sadness (10%), and anger (10%) in their dreams. 

ISFPs also report a slightly decreased rate of fear (30%). 

ISTJ: Fear and Joy 

According to another personality type dream study, ISTJs report dreaming about taking their life and their fathers the least often when compared to the other 16 types.

They also seem to experience a much smaller range of emotions in their dreams than many other types. 

ISTJs reported higher rates of joy (33.3%), fear (50%), and no emotions (16.7%) in their dreams. 

ISTP: Joy and Anger 

It appears that ISTPs are too busy enjoying life to be scared. At least, if their dream emotions are any indication of how they feel in their waking life! 

ISTPs indicated much less fear (only 16.7%) than the overall respondents. This type is more likely than average to experience joy (33.%), no emotion (16.7%), disgust (8.3%), and anger (16.7%) in their dreams. 

ENFJ: Anticipation and Sadness

Like most of the other personality types, ENFJs reported their most frequently-experienced emotion in dreams as fear (40.8%). 

But what is interesting is that ENFJs also reported higher rates of anticipation (7%) and sadness (12.7%) in their dreams than the average. 

ENFJs also reported lower rates of feeling no emotion.

ENFP: Fear and Joy 

Many ENFPs appear to be fearless risk-takers in waking life, but this is not the case in their dreams. 

ENFPs reported the highest rates of feeling fear (61.9%) in their dreams when compared to the other types. ENFPs also report feeling joy (19%) more often in dreams than the average. 

Similar to the INFP, ENFPs experience a broad range of emotions in their dream life. According to the survey, ENFPs are also less likely to feel sadness (4.8%) or no emotion (4.8%) in their dreams. 

ENTJ: Sadness and Joy 

ENTJs may come across as stoic in waking life, and it appears that their dream world is not so different. 

ENTJs reported higher than average rates of feeling no emotion (21.4%), and slightly higher rates of sadness (14.3%) and joy (28.6%). This type is also less likely than average to feel fear (35.7%) in their dream life. 

ENTJs are the third type most likely to feel sadness and fifth-most likely to experience joy in their dreams. However, these results are somewhat skewed due to the small response rate from ENTJs. 

ENTP: Disgust and Anticipation 

ENTPs may not be the type most likely to express their emotions in waking life, but they have a somewhat strong preference for certain emotions in their dreams. 

ENTPs were more likely than average to report experiencing disgust (5.9%), anticipation (5.9%), and joy (23.5%) in their dreams. In fact, ENTPs were the second most likely type to say they often feel disgusted in their dreams, behind ISTPs. 

This type also reported slightly lower amounts of fear (35.3%) and sadness (5.9%).

ESFJ: Joy and Surprise 

ESFJs are a type that values comfort, tradition, and developing skills that stand the test of time. However, it appears that their dreams often dive into the unexpected. 

ESFJs reported the highest amount of surprise (4.8%) in their dreams. (They were actually one of the few types to say they feel surprised in their dreams at all.) 

ESFJs also reported higher rates of joy (33.3%) and sadness (14.3%) in their dreams than average. 

ESFP: Joy and Disgust 

ESFPs are fun-loving, perceptive and adaptable — traits that seem to show up in their dreams as well. 

Out of all of the types, ESFPs are the most likely to experience joy in their dreams (47.4%). ESFPs also reported higher levels of disgust (5.3%). 

There were fewer reports of feeling no emotion (5.3%) and fear (31.6%) among ESFPs than the average. 

ESTJ: Joy and Anger

ESTJs may have a reputation for being a serious personality type, but they’re one of the most likely types to experience joy (38.5%) in their dreams. 

However, they are also one of the types most likely to experience anger (15.4%), which suggests that real-world frustrations may frequently take themselves out in the ESTJ’s dream world. 

ESTJs also reported lower rates of fear (30.8%) than average.

ESTP: Joy and Anger 

ESTPs are strategic, attentive, and adventurous. They love experiencing the highs of life, and this seems to be the case in their dreams as well. 

Similar to their Judging counterpart, ESTPs reported much higher rates of joy (40%) in their dreams than the group as a whole. Also like ESTJs, ESTPs reported higher than average rates of feeling anger (20%). 

ESTPs reported only three emotional states: joy, anger, and fear. And fear (40%), while high overall, was still reported less than the group average. 

Types Most Likely to Feel Fear 

Another way to look at the findings is to rank in order the percentages of how often each MBTI type reported each emotion. 

Fear was the most common dream emotion, with 40.6% of all respondents reporting frequently experiencing this feeling. 

NFPs topped the list when it came to experiencing fear in their dream life. All of the types most likely to experience fear have Introverted Feeling in their cognitive function stack (or in their top four most-valued functions). 

The top five types most likely to feel fear in their dreams are: 

1. ENFP (61.9%) 
2. INFP (56%) 
3. ISTJ (50%) 
4. ISFJ (50%) 
5. INTJ (48.5%) 

Types Most Likely to Feel Sadness 

INFJs topped the list when it comes to feeling sad in their dreams.

In fact, all of the types who experience sadness the most in the dreams are Extraverted Feeling types, with the exception of ENTJs. (It should be noted that ENTJ is an outlier in this study due to smaller sample size.) 

These results suggest there may be a connection between Extraverted Feeling and processing the emotion of sadness. 

Top 5 for sadness:

1. INFJ (31%) 
2. ESFJ (14.3%) 
3. ENTJ (14.3%) 
4. ENFJ (12.7%) 
5. INTP (10.9%) 

Types Most Likely to Feel Joy 

The personality types most likely to experience joy in their dreams have a few things in common. 

All of these types are Extraverts and every type, with the exception of the ENTJ (again, this was an outlier due to limited responses), are also Sensation types. 

The top two personality types most likely to experience joy in their dreams are dominant Extraverted Sensors. 

We wonder what they’re dreaming about… 

Top 5 for joy:

1. ESFP (47.4%) 
2. ESTP (40%) 
3. ESTJ (38.5%) 
4. ESFJ (33.3%) 
5. ENTJ (28.6%) 

Types Most Likely to Feel Anger

While Extraverted Sensation types may be more likely to experience happiness in their dream life, it seems that they’re also the most likely to experience anger. 

It’s interesting to note that 4 out of 5 are Thinking dominant types.

Anger is an emotion one often feels when things don’t go the way they want them to go. Perhaps this is why Thinkers express frustration more often in their dreams. 

Top 5 for anger:

1. ESTP (20%) 
2. ISTP (16.7%) 
3. ESTJ (15.4%) 
4. ISFP (10%) 
5. INTP (6.5%) 

Types Most Likely to Feel Disgust 

Perceivers, in general, are more likely to experience feeling disgusted in their dreams than Judgers. 

Disgust is the emotion where one finds something unacceptable and rejects incoming Sensory information.

Perceivers tend to be wired to form either thinking or value judgments internally, and quickly reject new information when it doesn’t fit their thinking or value system. 

So perhaps this is their introverted decision-making process at work in their sleep?

Top 5 for disgust:

1. ISTP (8.3%) 
2. ENTP (5.9%) 
3. ESFP (5.3%) 
4. ENFP (4.8%) 
5. ENFJ (2.8%) 

Types Most Likely to Feel Anticipation 

Most of the types most likely to feel anticipation in their dreams are Intuitives. 

Intuitive types tend to think more about the future than the past or present than Sensors. Fear of the future could lead some of these types to experience more anticipation in their dream life. 

Top 5 for anticipation:

1. INFP (8%) 
2. ESTJ (7.7%) 
3. ENFJ (7%) 
4. INTJ (6.1%) 
5. ENTP (5.9%) 

Types Most Likely to Have Mixed Emotions 

Most people feel different emotions in their dreams. The question didn’t ask the respondents to specify which emotions were felt. 

The top five is a pretty eclectic group and there doesn’t seem to be a discernible pattern. 

Top 5 for mixed emotions:

1. INTJ (12.1%) 
2. ISFP (10%) 
3. ESTJ (7.7%) 
4. INFJ (6.9%) 
5. INTP (6.5%) 

Types Most Likely to Feel Nothing 

Like with those who reported mixed emotions in their dreams, there is little in common among the types who reported feeling no strong emotions in their dreams. 

Top 5 for feeling no emotion: 

1. ISFJ (33.3%)
2. INTP (21.7%) 
3. ENTJ (21.4%) 
4. ISFP (20%) 
5. ISTJ (16.7%) 

How Do You Feel?

What emotions do you feel the most often in your dreams? Have you ever thought about it? Dreams can help us understand the more repressed emotions and desires inside of us.

Spend some time reflecting on your own dream emotional experiences. You never know what you might learn!

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This article was co-written by Megan Malone and Kayla Swanson.

Kayla Swanson is a native of Omaha, Nebraska and currently resides in Colorado. She has worked in the public school system as a school psychologist for the past 10 years. Kayla has published some short stories in a smattering of literary journals and her self-published novel, Legend of the Burning Lake, is available on Amazon.com.