The last thing that people with the ENTP personality type (Debaters) want to hear is “you’re right” – not unless they have absolutely earned the distinction in a heated round of intellectual debate. If they’re wrong, they want to be told so, and they want every detail of the faults in their logic to be laid bare, partly in their quest for oftentimes arbitrary truth and partly just so they have to work to defend that logic with counterpoint and parry.

It’s often easy for these personalities to test compatibility with a potential friend. ENTPs are quick-witted, and their primary means of expressing this is in the form of arguments and discussions, where they will easily spend an entire evening debating an idea that they may not even believe in. Consequently, these personalities mainly seek out friends who can keep up with their rapid-fire thought processes and surprise them with original ideas.

These debates are rarely taken personally, no matter how heated they become or how striking the disagreement. Much as an athlete competes for the physical exertion and the spirit of competition itself, ENTPs debate for the sake of intellectual stimulation and for the debate itself. In overwhelming victory or crushing defeat, it’s never about dominance, only inspiration to try harder next time.

Never a Dull Moment

They know how to relax and have fun, too, it’s just that “fun” to these irreverent personalities – a bottle of wine and a discussion about the causes of and solutions to some global crisis – could be described as “an evening from hell” by many other types. But ENTPs are a genial and enthusiastic personality type for the most part, and pretty much any situation that allows for conversation and a little wordplay is an enjoyable outing.

ENTPs are actually remarkably good at communicating with friends and acquaintances of other personality types. Their natural tendency to argue as effectively as possible means that these personalities are accustomed to communicating in other people’s language and frame of reference, and this translates well into normal conversation. Where ENTPs do have difficulty relating to others is in emotional expression – the Achilles’ heel of all Analyst (NT) types.

Emotions Dismissed

Being inclined to suppress their emotions, when ENTP personalities are faced with a friend who, figuratively or literally, needs a shoulder to cry on, they sometimes have no clue how to handle the situation. They are perfectly willing and happy to offer a series of rational, reasonable solutions to the problem at hand, as they do for any situation where a problem needs to be fixed, but they are generally not known for their sensitivity or outward affection, no matter how intuitively they may understand another’s position.

Worse is when an ENTP friend tries to turn these emotional situations into something they find more comfortable: a debate. Given how remarkably good they are at arguing both sides of a point, they are remarkably bad at putting themselves in someone else’s shoes from an emotional standpoint. People with the ENTP personality type should avoid the temptation to turn a discussion about the causes of a friend’s recent breakup into competitive intellectual fodder.

So long as everyone understands not to take their words too personally, anyone who isn’t afraid to discuss new and compelling ideas is likely to find stimulating and thought-provoking friendship with ENTPs. It’s not a compatibility that clicks with everyone, but these personalities don’t really care about being liked by everyone anyway. As long as they get to alternate between being the sounding board and the megaphone, ENTPs and their friends are bound to enjoy one another’s company for a long, long time.