Loki is both one of the most beloved and most contradictory villains and antiheroes of Marvel’s superhero world. Now with his very own TV show, Loki is more popular than ever. So let’s take a moment to break down this popular character’s personality type.
Loki has been described by some as a narcissist and by others as a psychopath. Other people have broken down Loki’s personality in terms of other psychological disorders that he may have.
At the same time, Loki manages to go beyond these labels and embody a complex, multilayered, often ridiculous, but ever fun and intriguing character who is a favorite with fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“What can I say? I’m a mischievous scamp.”
Can we personality type a character who is this layered and complex?
A lot of the psychology that so many professionals focus on with Loki is beyond the scope of personality typing. The basics of personality typing deal with core personality tendencies that don’t have anything to do with these pathologies.
Personality typing isn’t the be-all and end-all of explaining the complexity of any one individual’s personality, but we can break down Loki’s basic personality traits to get a good idea of his 16Personalities type.
“That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats.”
Extraverted
Loki: I don’t like to talk.
Mobius: No, but you do like to lie, which you just did because we both know you love to talk.
Whether it is an endless need for attention, a humorous quip, or the unfolding of another of his great plans, life is always a performance for Loki. He tends to be outgoing, effusive, and always in the spotlight or interacting with someone.
The few times that Loki gets locked away by himself, he quickly turns to moodiness, brooding, and introspection. Being locked away with nothing but his own thoughts in his head is something that he can’t stand and will gladly take any opportunity to get away from.
So, yes, definitely an Extravert.
Observant
Loki wanted to take over Earth and rule it all. He wanted to be King of Asgard and manipulated his way onto the throne. This seems like it would require a decent amount of Intuitive-style imagination. But let’s remember that Loki is someone who was raised to be a king and ruler by a person who gained his throne by conquest. Conquering Earth or ruling Asgard actually seems to be a reasonable expectation in his own mind.
Overall, Loki tends to be an Observant-natured person. His motivations, ideas, plans, and strategies tend to reflect the reality around him. His inability to imagine futures very far beyond his current environment leads him to repeat the same actions and behaviors over and over again.
Bruce Banner: Last time we saw you, you were trying to kill everyone. Where are you at these days?
Loki: It varies from moment to moment.
Loki is intensely intelligent, but his cleverness doesn’t lie in theoretical or abstract directions. Loki has an Observant style of cleverness. He is always tracking everyone and everything going on around him. He knows more than everyone because he is always gathering information.
When he then uses this knowledge and his own quick thinking, it is to game the system for his own advantage in a more Observant way.
Thinking
“Every villain is a hero in his own mind.”
We’ve mentioned Loki’s unresolved emotional issues, and we see it throughout the character’s various story arcs. It is one of the things that makes him most relatable and appealing as a character. Wouldn’t that mean that he is a Feeling type?
Thinking personality types can often have very deep and difficult feelings, as Loki does. What really differentiates Thinking types from Feeling types is how they relate to their emotions. Thinking types tend to be directed by their thoughts, whereas Feeling types tend to take more direction from their emotions.
Loki tends to treat emotions as a weakness, something that others have that can easily be manipulated and a weakness that he tries to avoid in himself. Emotions get in the way of his big plans and goals. Emotions for him are pretty much a distraction. There are so many bigger and better things to do.
We see Loki, through Tom Hiddleston’s performance, flicker his way through actual emotions and shut them down in an instant all the time – deferring to the comfort of his grand ideas and ambitions.
Prospecting
Loki really gets into the idea that he thinks everything through and is a good 10 steps ahead of everyone – he often isn’t, though. He is good at observing. He is good at ferreting out information and then waiting for the right moment to act. In this, he is much more of a Prospecting type.
“FYI, that wasn’t even a plan… Plans have multiple steps. Dressing as a guard and getting on a train is just doing a thing.”
Loki is the god of mischief – and it is natural that he gets bored easily and will ultimately go find something more interesting to do, chaos usually following in his footsteps as he does.
Despite all his talk of “Glorious Purpose,” he actually doesn’t tend to plan beyond vague goals, e.g., “take over Earth.” If he does manage to obtain a goal, he winds up winging it when he gets there.
This is not to say that he doesn’t have plans at all. He does come up with intricate little plans, but they tend to be short-lived and improvisational. He is definitely the master of winging it – and usually with a very winning smile.
Turbulent
One of the things that makes Loki such a popular character is definitely his chaotic nature. There is a lot going on in that head of his as he works on getting the upper hand on the world around him.
With rare exceptions, Loki’s nature tends to be all Turbulence, all the time. We see it in his tendencies toward intense and reactive emotions, underlying insecurities, innate restlessness, and his inability to be satisfied with anything.
We definitely love watching Loki’s Turbulence in action, and we never really know what he is going to do or how things will turn out with him. It is what ultimately tips the scales for people to view Loki as an antihero rather than an outright villain. We are always rooting for him to get to the other side of his conflicted emotions and engage with a more heroic side of himself.
Turbulent Entrepreneur (ESTP-T) Type
“You can be whoever, whatever you want to be – even someone good. I mean, just in case anyone ever told you different.”
In the end, we are going to say that Loki’s personality type most closely matches a Turbulent Entrepreneur (ESTP-T).
Is that to say that most ESTP-Ts are going to be like Loki? Um, no, fortunately for all of us.
There is the normal range of behavior of a personality type – and then there are individuals who tip the scales into some extreme behaviors.
In stories, it is common for characters to have exaggerated personality types and behaviors. This makes for a great character and one who can be strangely relatable. Such extremes can make it easy for us to learn positively from the character’s example and see and understand aspects of our own personalities.
When typing fictional characters here at 16Personalities, the type we present is determined only by what we’ve seen of the character’s behavior and actions in the movies or books in which they appear. Ultimately, they are fictional and are used as a way to help others better understand aspects of personality type.
This personality typing is based on the character Loki as portrayed in Marvel’s Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok movies dating from 2011–2017, and the Disney+ Loki series dating from 2021.
We’ll wrap it up here and welcome you to share your thoughts. Loki is such a popular character, and we are sure that everyone has their own opinions about him. What do you think of his personality type? Do you think his personality and behavior have changed over the years?
Further Reading
Avengers Personality Series: Summary
What Is Personality Typology and Why Does It Matter?
Assertive Entrepreneur (ESTP-A) vs. Turbulent Entrepreneur (ESTP-T)
Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man: The Personality Type of a Webslinger