Are some MBTI types Teto and others Egen? What the research says

When Teto and Egen took off in Korea in 2025, posts like “Teto and Egen by MBTI type” and “the most Teto MBTI types” followed on social media and blogs. Some pair the labels with MBTI letters (“E plus T means Teto, I plus F means Egen”), and others give every type a side (“ENTJs are Teto, INFPs are Egen”). A Korean newspaper even quoted someone who checks a blind date’s MBTI type and whether they are Teto or Egen (Korea Herald, 2025). But if you are an INFP who tested Teto, or you and a friend share a type and got opposite results, you may wonder: does your MBTI type tell you whether you are Teto or Egen?

The short answer: Teto and Egen are internet labels made for fun, not personality measures used in research. We could not find any study that gave the same people both the MBTI and a Teto–Egen test, so there is no research-backed ranking of the 16 types. Judging by what the test items ask, Extraversion (E) and Thinking (T) may lean slightly toward Teto on average, and Introversion (I) and Feeling (F) toward Egen. That is only a guess no data has checked, and every type includes people on both sides.

This guide looks at what each test sorts, how closely the hormones behind the names track personality, and where the two might overlap through the Big Five. The last sections cover how to read a type ranking with a critical eye and how to line up your own two results.

The MBTI turns four preferences into letters. Extraversion-Introversion (E–I) is about where your attention and energy tend to go, Sensing-Intuition (S–N) about what kind of information you pick up on first, Thinking-Feeling (T–F) about what weighs most when you decide, and Judging-Perceiving (J–P) about whether you like things settled or open. The side you lean toward on each axis gives one letter, and the four letters together name one of 16 types.

Teto and Egen are Korean slang made by shortening the hormone names testosterone and estrogen. Teto usually points to a take-charge, push-ahead vibe, and Egen to a sensitive, empathetic one. Our guide to what Teto and Egen mean covers where the words came from and how they spread. Because the idea does not come from psychology, there is no official test, and each test maker uses its own number of questions and its own scoring.

So this guide uses the mind.io Teto vs Egen test as its reference. You rate 20 statements, five in each of four areas: talk, love, work and daily life. Ten describe the Teto side, such as summing up a split group chat and making the call, giving feedback without sugarcoating, and saying what needs saying even when things get uncomfortable. The other ten describe the Egen side, such as adding an emoji so a text does not sound cold, noticing right away when a partner’s tone or reply speed shifts even a little, and comforting someone before arguing about who is right.

Your answers add points to the Teto side or the Egen side, and the difference between the two becomes your Teto percentage. Your result is named Teto at 50% or above and Egen below that. The badge says Teto at 60% or above (Strong Teto from 80%) and Egen at 40% or below (Strong Egen at 20% or below), and 41–59% is the balanced middle where both sides mix, shown as “Balanced, leaning Teto” or “Balanced, leaning Egen.” In short, the MBTI asks about four separate things, including how you take in information and make decisions, while the Teto vs Egen test asks about one thing on a single line: whether you tend to take the lead or read the room. The two were never built to measure the same thing.

The names make it tempting to think a high Teto score means more testosterone and a high Egen score more estrogen. But the Teto vs Egen test is a questionnaire about how you talk and act; it takes no blood or saliva sample. Your result says nothing about your hormone levels or your health.

So how closely do real hormones track personality? One research team ran a registered report, a study whose plan is peer-reviewed before the results are in. It pooled 25 samples into one group of 3,964 people (50.3% women) and compared their saliva testosterone and cortisol levels (cortisol data covered 3,518 people) with their Big Five scores. Among the team’s predictions was that people with more testosterone would be more extraverted and less agreeable, much like the image the word Teto calls up. Instead, the links were mostly weak and not statistically significant. The few significant ones were tiny: testosterone and conscientiousness correlated at r = −0.05. The predicted links with extraversion and agreeableness did not show up, and the results were mostly similar in men and women (Sundin et al., 2021).

The study did not measure estrogen, and it did not use a Teto–Egen test. Still, the point is clear. Even testosterone measured directly in saliva barely moved with questionnaire personality scores, so a questionnaire that only borrows a hormone’s name cannot tell you about your hormones. Teto and Egen are closer to nicknames for how you come across with other people than to anything going on in your body.

With no study measuring the MBTI and Teto–Egen side by side, the Big Five, the model most widely used in research, can serve as a go-between. McCrae and Costa reported that the four MBTI scales partly measure four of the five Big Five dimensions (McCrae & Costa, 1989). When a later team gave both tests to 900 people, the same pairs held: Extraversion-Introversion went with extraversion, Sensing-Intuition with openness, Thinking-Feeling with agreeableness and Judging-Perceiving with conscientiousness (Furnham et al., 2003).

Now sort the Teto vs Egen items by what they ask. The Teto items come in two kinds. Making the weekend plans and rounding people up, or just deciding when a choice drags on, is about taking the lead, which sits close to extraversion. Telling a friend their new outfit does not suit them, or offering a partner solutions before sympathy, is about saying things straight out, which sits on the low side of agreeableness. Most Egen items sit close to agreeableness: softening a correction, reacting with “That must have hurt” first, or valuing a decision everyone accepts over a fast one. A few, like noticing a friend’s new hairstyle right away, are about attentiveness instead.

Chain those two links together and you get a guess. Since E–I lines up with extraversion and T–F with agreeableness, E and T types might lean slightly Teto on average, and I and F types slightly Egen. If the guess held, ET types such as ESTJ and ENTJ would turn up more often on the Teto side, IF types such as INFP and ISFJ on the Egen side, and EF and IT types, pulled both ways, near the middle. Sensing-Intuition and Judging-Perceiving have no clear link to what the items ask.

But this is a guess from item content and nothing more. We found no study that gave both tests to the same people and compared the results. The MBTI letters and the Big Five traits only partly overlap, and the step from the Big Five to Teto and Egen has never been tested, so the guess crosses two shaky bridges. And even if it held, it would describe averages: every type would still include people on both sides.

One more thing is worth noticing. In the Big Five, extraversion and agreeableness are separate traits, so plenty of people take the lead and are warm at the same time. The Teto vs Egen test, though, puts those two sides at opposite ends of one line and scores the difference. Answer “Strongly agree” to all 20 statements and the Teto and Egen points pile up equally, giving 50%; answer “Neutral” to all of them and you also get 50%. The balanced middle can hold people who are strong on both sides as well as people who are strong on neither.

First, there is no data behind them. In November 2026 we searched the PubMed, OpenAlex and Crossref research databases for Teto and Egen and found no peer-reviewed study. If a ranking does not say how many people took both tests, it is probably just the writer matching type descriptions to the image each label carries.

Second, a small gap in averages cannot predict the result of the person in front of you. Even if ET types did average a slightly higher Teto percentage, as guessed above, some ET people could still come out Egen, and some IF people Teto. A ranking erases that overlap and gives each type a single label.

Third, both results come from cutting a continuous score into names. On the Teto vs Egen test, 55% Teto and 45% Teto differ by only a few answers, yet one is called Teto and the other Egen, and both sit in the 41–59% balanced middle. The MBTI works much the same way. McCrae and Costa reported that it measures four fairly independent dimensions rather than truly distinct types (McCrae & Costa, 1989), and an axis near the middle can flip when you retest. So a line like “ENTPs are Teto” stacks two borderline results on top of each other. Our guide to MBTI accuracy explains why MBTI results change.

Fourth, both tests are self-report. Someone who thinks “I’m an ENTJ, so I must be Teto” may agree more readily with the Teto statements, which can make the two tests look more in sync than they are. Answers also shift with context. The mind.io test scores talk, love, work and daily life separately, and you can come out Teto at work and Egen in love.

Fifth, a description that holds both sides, like “acts tough but is soft inside,” feels true for almost anyone. Psychologists call the pull of descriptions that fit almost anyone the Barnum effect. The more eerily a type description seems to fit you, the more it is worth keeping that effect in mind.

Rather than looking up your type in a ranking, take both tests and look at your own results. On mind.io, the Teto vs Egen test (20 statements, about 4 minutes) and the MBTI test (32 statements, about 4 minutes) are both free.

The Teto vs Egen result shows your overall Teto percentage, a five-level badge from Strong Teto to Strong Egen, and separate results for talk, love, work and daily life. The MBTI result shows how far you lean on each of the four axes, in percent. Put the two side by side and check whether your Extraversion-Introversion and Thinking-Feeling percentages point the same way as your Teto percentage, as the guess above would predict, or the other way. If they point the other way, nothing is wrong: a guess drawn from averages often misses for any one person.

There is also an “MBTI × Teto–Egen” combo that reads the two together. On your own Teto vs Egen result page, it uses the MBTI result saved in this browser, or, if there is none, lets you pick a type you already know. On your own MBTI result page, it appears once a Teto vs Egen result is saved too. The combo uses only the T or F in your type and three Teto bands (Teto at 60% or above, balanced at 41–59%, Egen at 40% or below). As the item breakdown above shows, the trait that comes up most in the Teto and Egen items is agreeableness, and the MBTI axis that pairs with agreeableness is Thinking-Feeling. It is a side-by-side reading for fun, not a combination any research has checked.

The optional Male or Female choice above the questions only changes the name on your result, such as Teto Guy or Teto Girl, and never your score. If you skip it, your result is called Teto Type or Egen Type. Comparing with a friend who shares your type can be fun, too. When a friend opens your result link and finishes the same test, a reading of your two results together appears on their result page. Two people with the same type can land at quite different Teto percentages.

If you are curious where you stand on extraversion and agreeableness themselves, try the Big Five test as well. It gives a separate score to each of the two traits the Teto vs Egen test folds into one line.

Both tests are for fun and self-reflection, not diagnosis. The mind.io MBTI test is not the official MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator); it is a free MBTI-style test built around the same four preference axes. The Teto vs Egen test is an entertainment quiz built from mind.io’s own statements around a trending meme; it is not a validated personality measure.

Please do not read Teto or Egen as traits of men or women. Online, the labels are often gendered, as in Teto guy or Egen girl, but the test scores everyone the same way, and anyone can land on either side. Treating one side as right for one gender (“a guy should be Teto”) only hardens stereotypes. Rather than judging a partner or coworker by their result, use it to talk about how differently each of you speaks up and makes decisions.

References: Sundin et al. (2021), Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 7(3); McCrae & Costa (1989), Journal of Personality 57(1); Furnham, Moutafi & Crump (2003), Social Behavior and Personality 31(6); The Korea Herald, ‘Teto’ or ‘egen’? Young Koreans turn to hormone-inspired identity tests (12 July 2025), https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10528796 (accessed November 2026).