Do you think with your emotions or do you think with logic?

Our (Me and my roommate) lease was up in May 31st and we needed to submit a termination of lease letter 60 days ahead. So we figured April 1st is the 60th day and went into the rental office yesterday (April 1st) to turn in our Termination of Lease letter. The ladies in the office would not accept our termination letter since the lease also implied "2 full months before" and they kept saying that we should have submitted the termination letter on March 31st rather than April 1st. No matter how many ways we argued (most important point - 60 days is in the contract) they wouldn't budge and kept repeating that it was not their policy and they couldn't do anything about it.

This entire experience made me wonder why some people follow the 'book,' word to word. They follow rules and principles and never consider other people’s situation. If I were in their position I would have accepted the ambiguity of the lease and let the tenants go off the hook. After all it is just a day's difference. It’s not as if I and my roommate went in 5 days later (not even 2 days) to terminate the lease.

So what does my experience have to do with Build Personality Blog? Well Thinking vs. Feeling is one of the debatable topics in psychology personality studies. In my story I and my roommate are the feelers while the landlord ladies were the Thinkers.

ChangingMinds.org has a small description of people who are Thinkers verses people who are Feelers

They describe each personality type as follows:

Thinking
1. Thinkers decide based primarily on logic, and when they do so, they consider a decision to be made. They tend to see the world in black and white and dislike fuzziness.
2. Perhaps because people are so variable, they focus on tangible things, seeking truth and use of clear rules.
3. At work, they are task-oriented, seek to create clear value. Interacting with them tends to brief and business-like.
4. They may be seen as cold and heartless by Feelers.

Feeling
1. Feelers decide based primarily through social considerations, listening to their heart and considering the feelings of others.
2. They see life as a human existence and material things as being subservient to this. They value harmony and use tact in their interactions with others.
3. At work, they are sociable and people-oriented and make many decisions based on values (more than value).
4. They may be seen as unreliable and emotional by Thinkers.

I am a Feeler. (Look at Post "What Personality are you? ".) I feel that mistakes and misinterpretations happen (not that we made a mistake in my case) and every individual should be given a fair chance to rectify. However the Thinkers (my landlords) feel that they should follow the book and not bend the rules even for a minor violation. But after reading the Thinkers vs. Feeler's article above I understand my landlords better (well not really, since I got screwed.) I understand that they need to make decisions based on logic and rules since that’s their personality. Also, a little voice in my brain just won’t stop saying they are out for my money! Hummm