From: FiveThirtyEight
Most Personality Quizzes Are Junk Science. I Found One That Isn’t.
If I were a witch, my Hogwarts House would be Ravenclaw. Or possibly Slytherin. It depends on what publication is directing the Harry Potter Sorting Hat’s work.
I am also a mild extrovert, my moral alignment is neutral, and the Star Wars character I’m most like is the Tauntaun Luke sleeps inside of in “Empire Strikes Back.”
Another big part of my personality: I really like online personality quizzes. Maybe you could tell.
But I’ve never really taken these tests seriously. Not even the Myers-Briggs — a test that is frequently used in professional development and hiring settings and costs $50 to take online. ($55.94 with tax. I’m an ENTP.) Call me cynical. Call me a skeptic. Call me a Ravenclaw with a dash of Slytherin. The point is, I always regarded personality quizzes as strangely addictive horse hockey, good for trading memes with friends, excellent at consuming your cash (or your employer’s — sorry, Nate), but not much more. “Astrology for nerds,” I called it. And as my colleagues and I compiled a list of the junk science we were resolved to let go of in the new year, I fully expected to be writing about how I was going to stop taking these damn things.
Instead, I get to spend 2018 immersed in a new series of personality tests — ones that are actually evidence-based and scientifically sound. That’s because, while most of the personality tests shared around the internet are, indeed, bogus procrastination devices, there is a science to personality, and it’s something that researchers really can put into a quantified, testable format, said Simine Vazire, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis.
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Comments
I guess I’m a bit puzzled by the masses being duped by fraudulent personality tests. I assume most do these “movie character” tests just to have fun…not necessarily believing that they are a Princess Leia or Hermione. However, it is also hard to believe some people are duped, given how internet literate our society has become.
Rule of thumb is to look for authors and check them out (e.g., using Google Scholar) to see if they’ve published any research in reputable scientific journals.
I’m always interested in personality tests as well. I guess my mentality is, “how can you know others if you do not fully know yourself?”. The problem I always face is that self-administered personality testing fluctuates based on moods and randomness all the time. I’m hungry so I’m less agreeable and whatever.
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