Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Myers-Briggs Test for Serious Results
Most of us have taken the Myers-Briggs personality test at some point in our lives. A quiz that gives you a simple four-letter acronym to summarize your personality. While it’s a graceful way to learn about yourself, you probably shouldn’t use it to do something serious, like deciding what career to pursue.
As the news site Vox explains, the Myers-Briggs test is based on personality types developed in the 1940s that have little to do with any real data. More problematic, however, is that he classifies individuals according to a binary preference for a particular trait. In reality, however, most people are on the spectrum between the two and can vary from week to week:
For most traits, people fall on different points on the spectrum. If you ask people if they prefer to think or feel, or if they prefer to judge or perceive, most will give you a little bit of both. Jung himself acknowledged this , noting that binaries were useful ways of thinking about people, but wrote that “there is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert. Such a person would end up in a madhouse. “
We often see that this is exactly the case when we talk about introverts and extroverts . However, when it comes to the Myers-Briggs test, we tend to take it. Of course, there is nothing wrong with doing a simple test to get a little more information about your personality for fun. We all do this when we learn about ourselves. However, it is worth taking a step back and questioning the test before using it as career advice or guidance in your relationship.