How many D’s are there in the population?
We get a lot of questions about the distribution of DiSC styles in the population. “How many people have a primary D, I, S, or C style?” It’s an understandable question and a very simple one. 
Now, the answer to the question is also quite simple, but the explanation for that answer is very theoretical and, in my experience, almost always unsatisfying. One would think that we could estimate the number of D’s in the population the way we could estimate the number of males in the population. Unfortunately, we can’t.
So let’s start with that simple answer. 
The percentages of each of the DiSC styles in the population (as we measure them) are equal. That’s right…25% D, 25% i, 25% S, and 25% C. In fact, they are designed to be equal. This is the way the current assessment works and this is the way that the original 24 box assessment worked.
Understandably, that answer doesn’t sit well with some people. “How could all of the DiSC styles be exactly the same?!? Certainly there must be more of one style than another! There aren’t exactly the same number of men and women in the population.” Here’s the problem: when we talk about categorizing something like gender, there are objective, outside criteria that can be used to judge if someone is a man or a woman. At this point in life, you should probably know where you fall on this one. With the DiSC styles, we have no such luck. There are no objective, outside criteria that we can use to determine if someone is a primary D. There’s no saliva test. There’s no my-way-or-the-highway chromosome. We do not, therefore, have a good option to ‘criterion-reference’ our assessment of DiSC. We instead use a ‘norm-reference’. In essence, this means that the meaning of your D score (i.e., is it high, medium, or low?) is determined relative to how other people scored. If you scored about the same as most other people, your D score is going to be interpreted as mid-range. If you scored much higher than most others, it will be interpreted as high.
The key word here is relative. A person is only D relative to the people around her. A person is only C relative to the people around her. For example, imagine that we a have a plane full of S style folks and the plane crashes on a remote island. We, of course, would have an island full of very, very polite people. But imagine that isolated community of people 10 years later, once they got to know each other really well. Some of those people would now probably be considered D’s – because they are more dominant relative to everyone else. If DiSC is going to be useful, it must help us understand our individual differences, not what everyone has in common.
But let’s get back to our conversation about population distributions. Again, we have no objective criterion for determining how many D’s, for example, are in the population. And since DiSC classification is relative, the determination of the proper distribution of styles is somewhat arbitrary. The decision was made from that original PPS DiSC assessment to assume that the distribution was equal among the four styles (because, again, no better assumption was, or is, available). The reasoning behind that decision is as true today as it was then, and, consequently, we have our simple answer: The percentages of each of the DiSC styles in the population (as we measure them) is equal.
I love the way you put this! It is so true that your style is relative to those around you and I can see myself switching styles depending on where I’m at and who I am with. Great post!
Thanks for the post Mark, very informative. Would I be right that there is another way of answering the question and that is to refer to the distribution of styles in the Inscape database that is used as a Norm reference in the Disc Group Culture Report. I believe the number of respondents is 20,000?
The Facilitator Report contains more information on this reference group.
Brain, that’s a really good question. As you noticed, the distributions in the facilitator report are not exactly equal. This page is really offering a comparison to other people who’ve taken the DiSC profile and efforts were not made to make this representative of the general population on important variables like education and occupational level. You reference the info in the facilitator report that describes the sample, which indicates that we do have more professionals and managers in this sample, for instance. These are all data that have been collected from the EPIC platform. We provide these as a reference group instead of the general population, reasoning that groups would be more interested in comparing themselves to their peers (others who are taking the profile for developmental purposes) than the general population… but I think both can be useful for discussion.
Great info, Mark; I forwarded it to a couple customers. One question a seminary customer asked is, What is the distribution of the DISC styles among theology students?
Can an answer to this question be determined from your research?
Another excellent example of how our team at Inscape Publishing is so good at bringing research and psychological theory to an “everyday” understanding! Thank you Mark! One thing I really appreciate about this post is it is helpful in explaining the difference between “natural” and “adapted” behavior. My understanding is we have “natural” styles based on the personality we are born with. When we understand our natural styles, we can more readily identify and tap into our natural strengths – as well as being more aware of the natural challenge areas and limitations we need to manage. Yet, effective people learn to flex their behavior based on the environment they are in and the needs of the situation. So, it seems to me, that not only would some of the people with a natural Steadiness style on the island would seem more relatively Dominant than others, but wouldn’t it also be that some are flexing/adapting their style to use my Dominant behavior to meet the needs of the situation?
Thank you for sharing all of your insights and helping us learn and grow!
Sharon Wingron
Diamond Level Inscape Publishing Authorized Distributor
Shop our selection of DiSC assessments securely online at http://store.developpeople.com
Hey Sharon,
I think that’s a great observation. I think one aspect of maturity is our ability to move beyond our comfortable responses. Work on the interpersonal circle suggests that some personality disorders may be characterized by an inability to move beyond a very narrow region of the circle… although, of course, we’re steering clear of getting into the mental health field…
Jerry,
Sorry I didn’t respond to your ealier email. I just realized that I wasn’t getting the notices I thought I was getting. So, two months late… unfortunately, we don’t currently have a large enough sample of seminary students in our database (or at least people identified as seminary students) to put together such information. Again, sorry for the long delay!
Excellent post Mark. I will be able to use this in my own client consultations. Thanks.
Don Jackson
Leadership Edge International LLC
9585 E. Windrose Drive
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
602-692-8179
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