Will Smith Personality Type MBTI, Big Five & Psychology

What personality type is Will Smith? Using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and the Big Five Personality Traits. We will also be looking into other aspects of his psychology, with a strong focus on Carl Jung’s theory of the Persona and the Shadow.

Will Smith in his early years was well known for the popular comedy, The Fresh Prince of Bell Air. Since then, he has moved on to movies. His most popular movies include, Bad Boys, Men in Black, Independence Day, I am Legend, Enemy of the State, Concussion, Ali, The Pursuit of Happiness, and Six Degrees of Separation.      

I became interested in writing about the psychology of Will Smith after the now famous Chris Rock slap incident. After hearing stories from others about his character, I felt Carl Jung’s theory of the persona and the shadow really seemed to fit well when coming up with an explanation as to why he snapped.

Persona & Shadow

The persona is the social mask that we show to the world. The shadow is the suppressed or repressed elements of the personality, usually the negative traits such as anger, or any trait or behaviour that is deemed undesirable.

This explanation is all speculation based on reports, individual statements, interpretation, and rumours.

Will Smith’s persona is the nice guy entertainer. Throughout the majority of his career, he seemed to be very calm and controlled, rarely putting a foot wrong. Some people that have known him have described him as having a near perfect public image.

This nice guy’s persona has been the target of attack over the years. The problem with being a nice guy is that people might think that they can walk all over you without retaliation. I believe this is partly true of Will Smith. Over the years, he keeps putting on his mask (Persona), while receiving criticism of his nice guy character. These criticisms start to build up over time.

Certain details about his open relationship with his wife (Jada Smith) likely contributed greatly to his shadow building up. This likely led to a new level of criticism, and on a very personal level. I speculate that this is what caused him to snap and slap Chris Rock on that night. The joke about his wife triggered his shadow to show itself, almost uncontrollably. It was like a defensive reaction, a strong and sudden impulse to not accept any criticism or tolerate any disrespect.

Will Smith Personality Traits – Big Five

Openness

Will Smith is an artist, actor and musician. This suggests he is high in openness, especially the interest in aesthetics aspect of openness.

Conscientiousness

He has had success in different areas, acting and in his music career. This suggests he is hard working and disciplined. So, this would indicate high in trait conscientiousness.

Extroversion

Will Smith fits a high extroversion description. So, he is high in positive emotions in general, but also sociable, confident and assertive.

Agreeableness

Being high in agreeableness is the main contributor to his outward persona, combined with being extroverted. He is a people pleaser. He usually tries to avoid confrontation, and generally he fits in very well with the sub-traits of agreeableness. These traits are; cooperative, trust, morality, compassion, and politeness. One major problem with being too high in agreeableness is that people may think that you are a push over. This can lead to that shadow side developing if they don’t speak out and defend themselves enough.

Neuroticism

Most actors and performance artists will be low in neuroticism. Generally, Will Smith seems calm, controlled, stable (generally) and seems to have low levels of negative emotion. So, he is low in trait neuroticism.

Will Smith Personality Type – MBTI          

Will Smith fits in with the ENFP personality type quite well. It’s possible he is also an ENFJ, because of his seemingly high levels of self-discipline, and high work ethic.