Quote Originally Posted by ILI View Post
I could see EII. I also considered LII, but, honestly, Ti seems better for role function than Fi does.

What is meant by LII being merry but EII being serious, anyway? Are Ti-leads more likely to be goofy/playful than Fi-leads?
Much of how Socionics tries to describe people is rather difficult to get a sense of in abstraction, but this in particular is easy to spot once you've seen it a few times. LxIs can come off as serious initially, and LSIs in particular might come off as acerbic, but under the surface they don't really tend to make harsh judgements of people* and are fairly tolerant and easygoing, or at least are open to being easygoing. You can also spot introverted merry types by looking at their smiles. Again, it's difficult to explain, but I would describe Merry types' smiles as generally 'softer' than Serious types'. They also seem quicker to laugh or to smile; introverted Merry types' faces also revert to 'normal' much quicker. When Serious types smile it seems like more of an effort is involved, and they seem to have larger smiles, as if they do it almost consciously. Finally, Merry types' eyes seem to get brighter, warmer, and more 'engaged' when they smile or laugh, as if they're more caught up in the emotion they're expressing than Serious types. SEEs, for instance, I think smile like sharks -- typically very socially extraverted, and they give wide, toothy smiles and loud laughs, but their eyes even when they smile look cold and as if they're hunting for someone or something.


*though LSIs are Aristocrats, I think it's generally easier to "prove yourself" to an LSI than, for instance, an EII. With LSIs you mostly have to just establish rapport; with EIIs it feels more like you have to prove you're a certain type of person.