Summary: This article explains why certain personality types struggle to trust their aesthetic preferences, how cognitive functions create doubt, and why your genuine preferences actually align with what looks good on you.
An ENTP friend/colleague once asked me a question about wearing purple. To buy myself time, instead of answering directly, I asked her about her relationship to purple.
That’s when she revealed it was a trick question. She showed me her custom color palette and pointed out there was no purple in it.
I asked if there was a purple she actually liked. She told me which one. It harmonized perfectly with everything in her palette.
But she kept doubting. She was convinced that if she wore what she liked, she would choose something wrong for herself. That her preferences couldn’t be trusted.
So, it wasn’t about purple. It was about whether she could trust herself at all.
That conversation with my ENTP friend wasn’t an isolated incident. I kept hearing the same question from specific personality types: “What if what I like doesn’t actually look good on me?”
Why do some personality types struggle to trust that what they like will actually look good on them? Is it their cognitive functions? ENFPs, INFPs, ENTPs, INTPs. They all asked some version of this question. They all doubted whether their preferences could be trusted.
Here’s the thing. In all my years working with women on style, I’ve only seen genuine aesthetic preferences contradict what actually works for someone once. I’ll tell you about that exception next week, because understanding when and why it happened reveals something important.
But under normal circumstances, what you’re genuinely drawn to aesthetically does reflect what works for you. Certain cognitive functions just make that truth almost impossible to trust.
What Are Cognitive Functions?
Your Myers-Briggs type isn’t just four random letters. Those letters are actually a code for how your mind processes information and makes decisions. To learn more, watch the free video masterclass: THE MYERS-BRIGGS KEY TO SIGNATURE STYLE.
Cognitive functions are the mental processes underneath your type. There are eight of them total, and each person uses four of them in a specific order. That order determines how certain you feel about different things.
Your dominant function, the one you use most naturally, operates with the highest certainty. Your second function has less certainty. Your third even less. And your fourth, your inferior function, operates with the least certainty of all.
This descending certainty pattern matters because it determines how much you trust yourself in different areas.
How Extraverted Intuition Creates Doubt
Extraverted Intuition, or Ne, is a cognitive function that perceives information by exploring possibilities in real time. It sees patterns, connections, and alternatives. It asks “what if?” and “what else could this be?” (Here’s a previous article about extraverted intuition style.)
If you’re an ENFP or ENTP, Ne is your dominant function. If you’re an INFP or INTP, it’s your auxiliary function. Either way, it’s one of your strongest cognitive functions.
Ne is brilliant at generating options. It keeps you open to new ideas. It helps you see connections others miss.
But here’s what happens when you try to make a decision about your aesthetic preferences. Ne immediately generates alternatives.
You see a color you love. Ne says, “But what about this other color? What if that one’s better?”
You’re drawn to a certain style. Ne says, “But there are so many other options. How do you know this is the right one?”
You feel confident in a choice. Ne says, “But what if you’re missing something important?”
This isn’t a flaw in your thinking. This is Ne doing exactly what it’s designed to do. It’s keeping you open to possibilities.
The problem is that staying open to possibilities makes it nearly impossible to feel certain about your own preferences.
Cognitive Functions: Ne and Certainty
Every cognitive function in your stack operates with a different level of certainty. Your dominant function feels the most certain. But for Ne users, your strength is uncertainty.
Not uncertainty in a negative sense. Uncertainty as in remaining open, exploring alternatives, seeing multiple valid options.
You can’t easily be your own expert on preferences because your cognitive wiring keeps you questioning. You see too many possibilities to settle on one answer.
This is why Ne users often need external validation. Not because you’re incompetent or lack good judgment. But because your cognitive function literally doesn’t produce internal certainty about preferences the way other functions do.
Introverted Intuition, for example, arrives at singular insights with conviction. Introverted Feeling knows its own values and preferences with clarity. But Extraverted Intuition stays perpetually open.
So when you ask “what if what I like doesn’t look good on me?” you’re not being paranoid. You’re experiencing the natural output of your cognitive function.
Your Preferences Are More Reliable Than You Think
Here’s what I’ve observed working with hundreds of women. Your genuine aesthetic preferences don’t contradict what actually works for you.
When you’re drawn to certain colors, they typically harmonize with your natural coloring. When you love certain styles, they usually complement your features. When you collect images of looks you find beautiful, they almost always reflect what would look beautiful on you.
Working to Find Your Preferences
Here’s where Ne can actually help you instead of creating doubt. Ne is excellent at seeing patterns once there’s enough data to work with.
I had an ENFP friend who brought images to an online workshop I was running. She brought many more images than I’d asked for. But when we looked at them together, the visual themes were obvious. Certain colors kept appearing. Certain silhouettes repeated. Certain moods showed up again and again.
That’s Ne working for you. It explores broadly, then spots the connections.
If you’re struggling to identify your aesthetic preferences, don’t fight your Ne. Let it collect. Save 20, 30, even 50 images if that’s what feels natural. Then look for what repeats. What visual patterns keep showing up?
You’ll see the themes. And those themes are your preferences revealing themselves.
Testing Your Preferences With External Validation
Once you’ve identified patterns in what you’re drawn to, you might still wonder if those preferences actually work for you. That’s where external validation becomes valuable.
The Aesthetic Mirror & Palette Party provides exactly what Ne users need. It’s not just my perspective on what works for you. Your friends and family are there too.
You get to test whether your aesthetic preferences actually reflect who you are with feedback from multiple sources. Not rules to follow. Not rigid guidelines. Just confirmation that what you’re drawn to does harmonize with who you are.
That external validation can quiet the Ne doubt enough to let you move forward with confidence.
Here’s something simple you can do this week to integrate these principles:
Start collecting images of looks you find beautiful. Don’t limit yourself to 10. If you’re drawn to 30 images, save all 30. Let your Ne explore without judgment. Then look for the visual themes that repeat. What colors keep showing up? What silhouettes? What mood or energy? Your preferences are already creating a pattern. You just need enough examples to see it. Screenshot them, pin them, save them to a folder. Just start gathering.
If you’re tired of second-guessing every style choice and want confirmation that your preferences actually work for you, The Aesthetic Mirror & Palette Party gives you exactly that. You’ll get external validation from multiple perspectives, not just mine, so you can finally trust what you’re drawn to. Email hello@signaturestylesystems.com to learn more about hosting your own and discovering that your preferences are more reliable than you think.