Why Most Personality Tests Are Wrong

Now when you first meet me you might not realise that my personality matches iced coffee, my mental age is 71 years old, I'm an ENFP and...

I'm also a greyhound.

After I start running I guess that would become clearer.

We're fascinated with this idea of personality typing.

But throughout history it's been fraught with junk science and results that can't be replicated.

So... are all personality tests wrong?

Now, we've tried to explain personality from using everything from lumps on your head to your birthday.

The signs of the zodiac are a surprisingly common type of "personality typing", by trying to group people according to the month you're born.

But... sorry if you love astrology... we know it's not science.

In a paper published in 2003, scientists looked at over 2,000 babies, many were born at the same time on the same day.

They called them "time twins" and their development was monitored for decades.

The research looked at things like anxiety, IQ, sociability, and even marital status, all things that astrologers claim to read on a birth chart.

But they didn't have similar personalities, and astrologers who attempted to "read" their signs did no better than chance.

Everyone grew up into their own unique personality, and the stars had nothing to do with it.

Some early psychologists tried a different approach.

You may have heard of Carl Jung, who looks very serious and had the idea that you could describe an individual's personality based on where they fell on four spectrums: the thinking spectrum, the feeling spectrum, the sensation spectrum, and the intuition spectrum.

Later, Briggs and Myers adapted this idea into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, where there are eight personality characteristics, in four either-or pairs.

You're either an introvert, or an extrovert.

You either sense or intuit things.

You're either thinking or feeling, perceiving or judging.

This means there are 16 personality types and ways that people view and interact with the world.

And it's also not scientifically sound.

Ideally, any personality test would show consistent results over time, but when a bunch of people took the Myers-Briggs test twice, five weeks apart, about 50% of them were a different personality type the second time around.

But more importantly, the Myers-Briggs test doesn't have any real predictive power.

Studies looking at how people respond to different situations show that your choices and behaviour can't be explained by your Myers-Briggs type, neither can how well people perform at their jobs, or the types of jobs that people choose.

Screenshot this and send it to the next person you come across that has their Myers-Briggs type in their dating profile.

Factors like agreeableness and conscientiousness are better indicators, which brings us to the Big Five.

It's the most accurate personality test according to science and looks at five main traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Everyone has each of these five traits to some degree, but the extent of these traits varies from person to person.

Rather than lumping everybody into one of 12 or 16 groups, this type of test looks at where we each fall on a spectrum of personality.

Compared to any other personality test out there, the big five gives the most consistent and valid results, meaning it actually has some ability to predict how you'll behave in work situations, or in your relationships.

Screenshot this and send it to your crush with no context.

We're fascinated with this idea of a personality type because we want to define how we're similar and different and fit into the world.

But you're not a static "type" and there's no evidence tests like the Myers-Briggs are accurate.

What we can see is where you sit on a spectrum of personality traits.

And this can be really powerful because your personality traits can influence your well-being.

People who are more agreeable and conscientious, for example, tend to experience higher life satisfaction and report feeling happier more often.

But research has also found that your well-being can influence your personality traits.

So if you want to be more agreeable and conscientious, you can try to boost your well-being by practicing gratitude as well as visualising your best possible self.

While easy personality tests you can find online are wrong, the big five is the most scientifically sound.

It can tell you some information about who you are, but more so, you can use it to help shape who you want to become.