In my experience, getting close to people requires a different strategy depending on a person’s personality type. And at least for me and the people in my immediate environment, the MBTI is a very useful & highly accurate classification.

For example, personality type determines whether a person is more drawn towards “feeling” or “thinking”. And in case of the latter, you might be more succesful with asking fact-based questions than “feeling” questions.

As an INTP, the easiest way to connect with me is not through “the heart” but through “the brain”. And an INTP, I’ll be far more likely to appreciate your company and consider your friendship after an interaction that deeply intellectual, like geopolitics or existentialist philosophy.

Feelings is not something an INTP is deeply involved in. And even when an INTP talks about feeling, it’ll usually be from a rather objective & dispassionate theoretical perspective rather than an emotional, subjective perspective.

In my experience, the better you understand the 16 different personality types, the easier you can assess the personality type of an individual by observing their body language and how their ask or answer questions. And the more you align your own body language and communication style to that individual’s personality type, the easier it will be to gain their trust, respect and friendship.

While differences in sex/gender and race/ethnicity/culture most definitely play a role as well in how you need to approach a person, my experience has told me that personality type often has a greater impact than sex/gender and race/ethnicity/culture combined.