It comes down to both nature and nurture, says Carol Pinchefsky in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show:
Paul Allen, a reader of science fiction and a practicing clinical psychotherapist for 22 years, says my temperament predisposes me to a love of science fiction.
Each of us has a temperament, that is, a part of our personality that may or may not be genetically based. A quick Myers-Briggs test has informed me that I’m a Thinking iNtuitive (NT), that is, a “Rational.” According to the Keirsey Temperament website, “Rationals are very scarce, comprising as little as 5 to 7 percent of the population.”
Allen says, “NTs are non-conformist critical thinkers. The NTs idolize the science fiction writer as the real architects of change. They can see the cleverness and competency in science fiction. Back in the day, when you could sell a book with a rocketship on the cover, you were selling to the NT.”
According to a Wikipedia article on temperament [1], Rationals “excel in any kind of logical investigation such as…conceptualizing [and] theorizing.” Science fiction readers require a “willing suspension of disbelief” to enjoy the material as well as the ability to conceive and extrapolate beyond what the writer has written….
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In addition to nature, there is also nurture.
From my interviews, it seems that many people who read science fiction as children had similar experiences: raised outside their mother countries, moved frequently, had health problems, troubled childhoods, and/or were academically gifted. These circumstances led these people to delve more deeply into books than to reach out to other people.
I don’t know if I’d show up as a “Thinking Intuitive” on a Myers-Briggs test or not, but that last paragraph struck a chord: raised outside their mother countries? Check! I was a Texas kid in Saskatchewan. Moved frequently? Not so much, but health problems? Check! Rheumatic fever kept me bedridden for a few weeks when I was about nine. Troubled childhood? Not at all–very happy childhood, actually, thanks for asking–but academically gifted? I skipped Grade 1 because I could already read, and that combined with my summer birthday made me a good year and a half younger than pretty much everyone else in my class.
School seldom challenged me very much, and I still remember my outrage when I got 100 percent on a science test in junior high and the othe kids assumed I must have cheated–and said so!–because “No one could get 100 percent on a science test without cheating.” Yeah? Well, I’ll show you! I’ll go read a book…
…a science fiction book, of course.
UPDATE: Just for fun, I took this Myers Briggs-based test, because what could possibly give you a more accurate description of yourself than something you did online in about five minutes flat? It tells me I’m not an NT, I’m an INTJ, which apparently stands for Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging. However, I much prefer this description of the INTJ: they call people with this temperament “Mastermind Rationals.”
I’ve always wanted to be a Mastermind. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Of course I read science fiction. I’m researching ways to rule the world! Tremble before me, puny Earthlings!
Or…maybe not.
