Can Personality Really Change? | Generated by AI
Question: Can people change their personality type?
Answer:
Yes and no — it depends on which personality framework you’re using and what you mean by “change their personality type.”
Here are the main situations people usually ask about:
1. Myers-Briggs (MBTI) – 16 types (INFP, ESTJ, etc.)
- Official MBTI position & most research: Personality type is considered relatively stable in adulthood.
- About 50–70% of people get the same 4-letter type when retested after 5+ years.
- However, 30–50% of people do receive a different type on retest (especially on one or two dichotomies).
- The most common changes are:
I ↔ E
T ↔ F
J ↔ P
(N ↔ S changes much less often)
Realistic summary for MBTI
You usually cannot make a dramatic permanent change (e.g., turning a clear INFP into a clear ESTJ), but many people can and do move closer to the middle of some dichotomies over time, especially:
- becoming noticeably more extraverted
- becoming more structured / organized (J shift)
- developing stronger Thinking or Feeling depending on life demands
2. Big Five personality traits (OCEAN)
This is currently the most scientifically supported model.
| Trait | Malleability in adulthood | Typical amount of change possible |
|---|---|---|
| Openness | Moderate | can increase/decrease somewhat |
| Conscientiousness | Quite changeable | often increases with age & responsibility |
| Extraversion | Moderately changeable | can increase (especially with practice) |
| Agreeableness | Moderately changeable | tends to increase slowly with age |
| Neuroticism | Most changeable | can decrease significantly with therapy, life stability, medication |
Big Five verdict:
You can meaningfully change most traits — especially Neuroticism and Conscientiousness — but the changes are usually gradual (over years) and rarely extreme. Most people stay in roughly the same broad region of the distribution they started in.
3. Practical bottom line most people care about (2025–2026 perspective)
| Goal | Realistic? | Time & effort usually needed |
|---|---|---|
| Become noticeably more outgoing | Yes | 2–10 years of deliberate practice |
| Become significantly more organized | Yes | 1–5 years + habit systems |
| Greatly reduce anxiety / emotional reactivity | Yes (biggest change possible) | therapy + lifestyle + sometimes meds |
| Completely reverse introversion ↔ extraversion | Very unlikely | — |
| Turn a high-neurotic person into a very chill person | Possible but hard | usually 3–10+ years of serious work |
| Change from strong Thinker → strong Feeler (or vice versa) | Partial change possible | long-term, never complete reversal |
Short memorable answer people usually want
You cannot easily flip your personality type like changing clothes.
But you can meaningfully improve almost any trait you dislike — especially anxiety, organization, social confidence, and emotional stability — if you’re willing to work consistently for years.
The core “flavor” of your personality tends to remain recognizable, but the intensity of unpopular traits can often be reduced a great deal.
References:
- None (based on widely replicated findings in personality psychology up to 2025)