If You're An Enneagram 8, This Is The Number You're Most Compatible With

In an age where knowing your attachment style, Zodiac sign, or Myers-Briggs type can translate to social capital, improved relationships, or a new sense of belonging in a sub-community, one more personality typing system can either seem like an exciting or exhausting prospect. However, unlike systems that view your attributes through a lens that is either negative or immutable, the Enneagram's growth mindset allows for continued personal transformation, according to The Enneagram Institute. It encourages you to collaborate with and learn from each of the nine Enneagram types, in order to find your healthiest, most balanced self.

Type eight is called the Challenger and is characterized by their strong-minded, no-holds-barred approach to their daily life. Per Truity, they are known to be protective of those they care about and unafraid to stand up for the vulnerable.

There is disagreement in the online Enneagram community about which types are best suited for each other, and analysis of personality compatibility, shared values, as well as reported relationship success, have been compiled to present a rounded assessment of which pairings may be lucky in love and which may be fighting a losing battle.

Personality data collected via self-reported participation has indicated that type eights may be most romantically interested in other type eights. This is based on participants' attraction ratings and relationship experience, as well as a comprehensive understanding of the Enneagram types. An eight-eight pairing makes sense for several reasons: Eights are likely to respect each other, challenge each other intellectually, and have similarly straightforward approaches to conflict. However, eights are known to struggle to approach more intimate emotional issues, and an eight-eight partnership may be missing the virtue of a partner who is more willing to unravel interwoven hurt feelings.

The Enneagram Institute's prime choice for the Challenger is a partnership with nine. Utilizing the elemental metaphor of matching fire with water, it argues that though the Challenger and Peacemaker appear to be total opposites from an outside perspective, per the Enneagram diagram, they share an Intelligence Center, in the Intuitive Center, or gut. This sector's dominant emotion is anger, and while each type manifests the emotion in their own way, the shared core feeling creates a grounded understanding of their relationship.

According to Personality Growth, this pair works well because both the Challenger and Peacemaker require space in their relationships, as well as freedom from external control. Though an eight may be more outspoken about these needs, both partners will benefit from their mutual independence.

Despite the balance that eights and nines could strike, there are moments of conflict that might arise in which an eight overpowers and alienates their less outspoken partner. The Enneagram Institute outlines the pairing's polar reactions to conflict as eights building up momentum in a fight while nines tend to retreat and ice out their partner. However, nine's anger may continue to bubble under the surface and release in unexpected ways, while eight continues to ask their partner for a compromise.

Nine types explained that the Challenger can be more forthright about expressing their frustration, while the Peacemaker tends to deny and suppress their anger, which potentially translates to passive-aggression. However, both approaches to problem-solving sometimes lack efficacy, and the types might be able to find a happy middle between passivity and attack. Eights can also grow frustrated if their partner isn't upfront about their opinions and goals, and will possibly condemn their indecisive tendencies (via Medium). And nine could begin to feel that the qualities they originally admired in the eight are manifesting in an unhealthy need for control in the relationship.

However, at their healthiest selves, each sign is naturally adventurous, per Truity, and an eight may introduce nine to new ways of seeing the world. Around a well-grounded nine, an eight can let down their guard, since their partner won't judge them as harshly as an eight might judge themselves. Trustworthy nine is also unlikely to attack an eight in their rare moments of vulnerability.