Are High % of Finnish People INTPs?

[yoopernation]

I'm a Yooper (Upper Peninsula of Michigan citizen) of Finnish heritage (dad came over on the boat very young), so I know a little of Finnish culture / personality. I wonder if the Finns are strongly INTP? Much of what I value as strong Finnish values remind me of the characteristics of an INTP. There are various forms of the following joke in Finland ,,,

A guy is walking through town and meets a friend, and they decide to stop in the bar to have a beer. They both have a seat at the bar and both order a beer. Ten minutes goes by and the first guy says 'nice day out'. Ten minutes more goes by, and the second guy goes to the bathroom, comes back, has a few more swigs of beer and says 'did we come here to drink or did we come here to talk?'

Sound INTP-ish? I know they at least have the 'I' thing going strong. I remember when I really understood how 'Finnish' I was when watching a PBS show where the Finns were taking the boat to get cheap booze. No loud people, nobody talking much at all, let alone hand gestures, etc.

One other interesting and revealing story on Finnish culture I got from a book a while back. During WWII, at a Finnish military setting, two guards were on morning duty having coffee when they saw a LOT of Russians coming over a rise in the distance. The one guard says to the other .. 'where are we going to put all the bodies?' Don't know if it's true or not, but it is indicative of the Finnish culture I think.

There's another indicator of whether somebody is an INTP or not ... I can't imagine many introverts doing the hand gesture thing much when talking!

If you are Finnish or have an understanding of the culture, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

 

[Architectonic]

That story does not sound INTPish to me, but merely introversion. The northern Europeans are very reserved by nature, but I don't think that is a genetic trait but rather a cultural (or even climactic) trait

 

[crippli]

^I'm not sure how much genetics are involved in ones personality. Except vision(that I suspect it's effect is underestimated), I think it's mostly cultural/environmental. Even vision is to a degree environmentally decided.

There is a drawback to northern introversion. There is a more abstract element of socialism that is in effect as well. This does not make them as asocial/introverted as they are perceived. So the net result? Not sure if they come out capable of doing more, or higher level of introversion.

 

[AutumnTree]

I think Finnish culture correlates more with ISTP than with INTP.
Maybe it's all the 'sisu' who make them seem less INTP to me, and more ISTP. I see the stereotypical ISTP to be very silent, though, physical and independent, sort of like the Finish stereotype.
We INTPs seem a little bit too soft.

But that's just how I perceive things (I am from Sweden).

 

[hablahdoo]

The title caught my attention as I'm 1/4 Finnish, but I don't think there's much more I can contribute as I don't know Finnish culture well. Just letting you know so you can continue work with your crazy trends...

 

[Adymus]

A high Percentage of INTPs are not INTPs, so I'd say a strong No on that one.

 

[hablahdoo]

A high Percentage of INTPs are not INTPs

Sorry to derail, but there must be a thread somewhere in the forum about this. Can anyone direct me to information on this as the search function has failed me?

 

[Joohanh]

I don't think INTP characterizes Finnish people accurately. I consider to be a strong INTP type, and there's a clear distinction between me and most people around.

Finnish tradition and nature is to "keep it to yourself", which would, at first, seem like an intovert trait. Except that it's not - the Finnish socialize basically identically to others, but are simply more reserved.

There's even a traditional national song in our culture, which addresses this quite well. It goes something like this: "And to others I don't shout out my woes or heartaches -- the dark forest and the clear sky understand my feelings."

Ok, it translates horrendously, but you get the idea.

 

[The Gopher]

A high Percentage of INTPs are not INTPs, so I'd say a strong No on that one.

Makes perfect sense.