Instinct stacking distribution

[glam]

couldn't find much info on this topic after some quick Googling - not sure if there's any reliable, hard data available out there.

i'm interested in your own observations here: have you noticed any instinctual variants being more common or rarer than others? is there a relatively even distribution of the six stackings or not? are certain variants more or less prevalent among certain areas/sectors of society? etc.

[The Exception]

On personality forums, there's a disproportionate number of SX firsts. Probably because the profile sounds more 'unique' and 'special.' Some of them are likely mistyped. In the real world, the most common stackings are probably SP/SO/SX or SO/SP/SC.

[lynn]

this is far from being objective, but from my experience so/sp, sp/sx and sp/so are pretty common. i don't see sp/so THAT often, however, and often when i think someone might be sp/so, they turn out so/sp. so/sp are literally everywhere (sp/so might just be a bit more low key)... sx/so and sx/sp i also know quite a few. maybe sx/so is a bit more common than sx/sp. and for whatever reason i don't understand so/sx is really rare (where i live? it's a bigger city). there are so/sp who sometimes appear like so/sx to me until i realise, nope, not at all. and when i say rare, i mean really rare. even in all my school years put together i was always the only so/sx around (most school mates can be definitely typed as contra-flow) and in my highschool years i knew exactly one so/sx IEE guy from afar.

[glam]

found a thread on Personality Cafe on this topic: http://personalitycafe.com/enneagram...l-variant.html

the posters in there are basically saying that so-instinct is the most common, and sx-instinct is rarest. i was wondering: are there actually more so-primary and so-secondary instinct people out there? or is it an easy conclusion to make, since the so-instincts are more likely to be socially "visible", the ones putting themselves out there, looking to make and maintain social connections? that is, i wonder if so-last types may not necessarily be more rare, but are just less obviously "out there", and thus may seem less prevalent.

also, i'm wondering if the relatively self-absorbed nature of the so-last stackings (sx/sp being troubled and contradictory, sp/sx's insularity, etc.) might lead them to feel that they are misunderstood, that they are different than most people, etc. and thus conclude that their stacking is more rare, even if it's not necessarily the case. one sx-primary poster in that thread admitted to having a "special snowflake syndrome".

mostly thinking out loud here. logically, i feel like a relatively even distribution of stackings would make the most "sense", but is it realistic? i don't feel like my own stacking is necessarily more common than others, though one post in that thread i linked said 40-50% are sp/so (!). i'm skeptical seeing percentages that high for any one stacking.

thoughts?

[Galen]

I theorize that all instincts are distributed equally, but some social environments will draw the appeal of certain stackings over others. IME I see a lot of sp-firsts where I work and in my hobby life, followed by a smattering of so-firsts and virtually no sx-firsts.

[silke]

I've had this same question couple years ago. With the absence of any kind of instinct typing databases, I've took my own typings of people I knew irl, added typings I've done through the forums, and simply divided by the total which was about 220 data points. The SOC-last / SX-last / SP-last distribution turned out to be relatively even 33-36-31 (+ error bars) with no "special snowflake" variants.

Locally there may be high variations, however, due to inter-stacking relations and possibly genetics. For example I currently live in a household with 4 other people all of whom happen to have so/sx instinct stacking, and, for the most part, they keep attracting even more so/sx's and other syn-chain people as friends and romantic partners. One side of my family is almost all sp/so with some so/sp's, which made me wonder if genetics plays a part. However, adding up samples from several different local groups, the distributions within this total turned out to be close to even.

These were the results from 2013:

My typings of people from irl + forum members:
Sp/sx – 19%
Sp/so – 19%
So/sx – 17%
So/sp – 17%
Sx/sp – 14%
Sx/so – 14%
Total: 100% (~220 typings)

SO-last - 33%
SP-last - 31%
SX-last - 36%
Which is close to expected even distributions of 33.3%.

[anndelise]

I wonder if natural selection will eventually kill off social lasts in the future with how important social media & networking is becoming...

Wouldn't that be like wondering if natural selection would kill off sp lasts since more and more generations aren't learning how to cook or care for themselves?

[Default]

The new generation of sp first had to evolve coping mechanisms for this, which is why we evolved hot pockets and ramen noodles.

[Default]

On personality forums, there's a disproportionate number of SX firsts. Probably because the profile sounds more 'unique' and 'special.' Some of them are likely mistyped. In the real world, the most common stackings are probably SP/SO/SX or SO/SP/SC.

I don't really relate to all the attraction with sx/sp and sx/so. On some level I think being a So-first would be better because people of those types are more inclined to stay connected with the world at large. When I consider that a multitude of jobs at the upper level rely on one's ability to network and maintain even superficial connections (even in more knowledge-based fields like healthcare, which is my area of expertise), I think that my propensity to live an "insular," isolated existence isn't preferable. I've learned so much from my So-first friends in this regard, and they've probably learned from me in a complementary manner (though I certainly can't speak for them).

[Froody Blue Gem]

Based on my experience, social first seems the most common. Understanding the dynamics of groups of people seems to be expected in many settings.

I think sp/so is the second most common stacking.

Sx-stackings, would be one of the less common stackings. I'd hedge my bets on sx/sp or sp/sx as being one of the rarer stackings. In Wisdom of The Enneagram, it indicates that a lot of people want to identify as sx at first and find it to be the more attractive variant stacking to be. I do believe that sx is more common in the typology community but in the general population, it's more rare.

[guac]

From my observations, Sp/so is the most prevalent.

So/sp is pretty common but not the most common.

Both Sx stacks are the least common, but for the moment I have trouble differentiating the two from afar.