I went through a personality test phase a few years ago. I "knew" it was pseudoscience, but wanted to believe they'd give me some grand insight into myself anyway. Then one day I was melodramatically complaining to my husband about the results of one (it was supposed to give you a personality word cloud and all of mine were synonyms for neurotic) and he said "You only take personality tests when you're PMSing."
And thus cured me of ever taking a personality test again
New reader/subscriber. I'd been skeptical of MBTI to be much more than a party game, but didn't have some of the deeper research you've presented here. Thanks for a good read! I'm glad I found your 'Stack.
The addition of the validity chart showing correlation with life outcomes is key here. Yes Big 5 is more valid, but it’s still only a small correlation. In general practice, the cultural coupling of personality descriptors and future outcomes is over applied beyond this small correlation. It amazes me how even at Xmas my well educated family got into a whole conversation over star signs.
Wow, put that MBTI right up there on the shelf with the 5 Love Languages - supposedly developed by church pastor in the southern mid-west, of all places. And here I was thinking as an INFJ I was <insert Ralp Wigham "I'm Special" meme here> 🤣 Thanks for the little bit of ego death, great peice!!!
Epistemic Humility now *thats* a closer! I had to look it up. Now I know it me.
I did Myers-Briggs many times in various team building exercises at MSFT; but there was another system that used colors - even simpler tags on complex data - and I do remember that, I was Blue!
It was supremely cringy in team calls and even manager reviews where we'd talk about people in terms of their colors. Do you know of something like that? ChatGPT says it's something called True Colors. But in one more click I think it's really DISC because I remember we had Yellow people not Orange.
Appreciate this, Tommy. One other aspect of these so-called tests worth investigating is the degree to which a test taker can force an outcome according to how they wish to be perceived, or perceive themselves. In business, those tests that assign a color, red for leadership, for example, are relatively easy to hack via the questions.
Mostly it just irritates me that work training events and things include MBTI tests, but sometimes I come across people who introduce themselves with their “type” then ask for mine, at which point I usually (politely) explain that I don’t believe in the MBTI and decline to give “my” type.
I'm the same Meyer-Brighs type as Tyrion Lannister, an ENTP. 😁 Or when I feel "the architect" is cooler I choose to answer as an INTP. I'm sort of in the middle of the I/E-spectrum.
Jokes aside, I agree the MBTI's are obsolite and pseudoscience if applied directly to work environments. But they can be a fun tool for introspection, if you understand the model's short comings.
I'm not ready to give up this artificial self-definition of my personality I boast about all over the internet to like-minded sheep (I'm not pointing fingers at you, Quora).
There is a colour system embedded in HBDI, which evaluates your dominant thinking styles. Loosely, there are analytical (blue), experimental (yellow), relational (red), and organizational (green) thinking styles that we all use to some degree -- we just lean more to some than others.
It was a more useful way to think about how we managed relationships with others than the black and white categorization of Myers Briggs. The categorization is helpful in some cases, but we do have to keep in mind, to your point, that most of us exist on a spectrum. Great read!!
I’m starting to rethink my “INTJ” neck tattoo now.
Just grow your hair out to cover it, you'll be fine
😆
I went through a personality test phase a few years ago. I "knew" it was pseudoscience, but wanted to believe they'd give me some grand insight into myself anyway. Then one day I was melodramatically complaining to my husband about the results of one (it was supposed to give you a personality word cloud and all of mine were synonyms for neurotic) and he said "You only take personality tests when you're PMSing."
And thus cured me of ever taking a personality test again
New reader/subscriber. I'd been skeptical of MBTI to be much more than a party game, but didn't have some of the deeper research you've presented here. Thanks for a good read! I'm glad I found your 'Stack.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the article! And welcome, glad you found Cognitive Wonderland 🙂
The addition of the validity chart showing correlation with life outcomes is key here. Yes Big 5 is more valid, but it’s still only a small correlation. In general practice, the cultural coupling of personality descriptors and future outcomes is over applied beyond this small correlation. It amazes me how even at Xmas my well educated family got into a whole conversation over star signs.
Agreed!
Wow, put that MBTI right up there on the shelf with the 5 Love Languages - supposedly developed by church pastor in the southern mid-west, of all places. And here I was thinking as an INFJ I was <insert Ralp Wigham "I'm Special" meme here> 🤣 Thanks for the little bit of ego death, great peice!!!
Epistemic Humility now *thats* a closer! I had to look it up. Now I know it me.
I did Myers-Briggs many times in various team building exercises at MSFT; but there was another system that used colors - even simpler tags on complex data - and I do remember that, I was Blue!
It was supremely cringy in team calls and even manager reviews where we'd talk about people in terms of their colors. Do you know of something like that? ChatGPT says it's something called True Colors. But in one more click I think it's really DISC because I remember we had Yellow people not Orange.
Lots of money to be made in business consulting.
I don't know about the color system -- luckily I've been spared those kinds of systems in my corporate career
Appreciate this, Tommy. One other aspect of these so-called tests worth investigating is the degree to which a test taker can force an outcome according to how they wish to be perceived, or perceive themselves. In business, those tests that assign a color, red for leadership, for example, are relatively easy to hack via the questions.
As corporate cults go, this one is pretty benign. Doesn’t demand much lip service.
Yes! I’ve had arguments with people about the ridiculousness of using MBTI for years.
My experience is that they behave like ardent cultists. What's yours?
Mostly it just irritates me that work training events and things include MBTI tests, but sometimes I come across people who introduce themselves with their “type” then ask for mine, at which point I usually (politely) explain that I don’t believe in the MBTI and decline to give “my” type.
I'm the same Meyer-Brighs type as Tyrion Lannister, an ENTP. 😁 Or when I feel "the architect" is cooler I choose to answer as an INTP. I'm sort of in the middle of the I/E-spectrum.
Jokes aside, I agree the MBTI's are obsolite and pseudoscience if applied directly to work environments. But they can be a fun tool for introspection, if you understand the model's short comings.
Thanks for this! I knew it's definitely not precise because I was in the middle of some scores and always one question away from getting another type.
But still when I went over the characterization, analysis and when I got the mbti profile book I got my value out of it, as it did help me.
Good to know it's not as incorrect as astrology and things improving is probably not 100% placebo.
As a Capricorn and an INTP, I neither believe in Astrology nor the MBTI.
But...but...I'm an INTJ!
I'm not ready to give up this artificial self-definition of my personality I boast about all over the internet to like-minded sheep (I'm not pointing fingers at you, Quora).
If I am not an INTJ, I am nothing. :(
There is a colour system embedded in HBDI, which evaluates your dominant thinking styles. Loosely, there are analytical (blue), experimental (yellow), relational (red), and organizational (green) thinking styles that we all use to some degree -- we just lean more to some than others.
It was a more useful way to think about how we managed relationships with others than the black and white categorization of Myers Briggs. The categorization is helpful in some cases, but we do have to keep in mind, to your point, that most of us exist on a spectrum. Great read!!
is the pseudoscientific vs scientific divide better defined as binary or spectral?
Haha probably spectral. MBTI isn't as pseudoscientific as, say, astrology.
Spoken like an SJ!