No, the MBTI isn’t psychic

In an attempt to escape academic responsibilities and procrastinate, many of us have been guilty of spending hours taking BuzzFeed quizzes that supposedly inform us more about our personalities instead of doing practice quizzes that will most likely help us out on our upcoming tests.

These quizzes, with names like “Choose Some Condiments And We’ll Tell You What Job You Should Have” and “Which Ex-Trump Administration Official Are You?” are clearly not intended to be taken too seriously.

But while it’s obvious that these BuzzFeed quizzes aren’t based on any science or verifiable truth, even some personality tests marketed as credible are actually similarly unreliable.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI) is the most commonly known and widespread example of these allegedly reliable personality tests. Through a series of questions that deduce whether someone is introverted or extroverted; sensing or intuiting; feeling or thinking; and judging or perceiving, test-takers are able to determine their own personality type out of a possible 16.

At first, the characteristics measured by the Myers-Briggs Test come across as quantifiable human qualities. As it turns out, while the tests bears some semblance to an authentic scientific experiment, it’s more pseudo-science than real science, predicated on faulty studies that are methodically unsound.

For example, 50 percent of test-takers who retake the test after five weeks draw different conclusions. Much of this discrepancy can be explained by the way the Myers-Briggs test separates people into categories; the test can only classify people in binaries, strictly labeling them as either  “introverts” or “extroverts” without any room in between.

Someone who responds to the test’s questions in an extroverted way 51 percent of the time will be classified as a functional extrovert on the MBTI spectrum — even though an individual who exhibits slightly extroverted tendencies may not be strongly extroverted at all.

Moreover, inconsistencies like these permeate the MBTI: For instance, studies have shown that the thinking/feeling spectrum may not actually be a spectrum at all, as people who have strong cognitive skills also have high emotional intelligence. An experiment conducted on 152 Vietnam veterans who took both emotional and cognitive intelligence test showed that as their IQ scores increased, so did the their ability to decode social cues. Some personality traits are inextricably linked, yet the Myers-Briggs test attempts to view them separately.

Furthermore, because test-takers answer the questionnaire themselves, the test is labeled an “introspective” test, meaning that subjects are “typed” how they see themselves, and not how other people see them. Self-esteem can easily affect how easily an individual would agree with statements such as “you are usually highly motivated and energetic.”

And when taken out of context, statements such as “winning a debate matters less to you than making sure no one gets upset” may be difficult to respond to honestly.

The MBTI also fails to measure several defining human characteristics, one of which personality psychologists call “emotional stability versus reactivity,” which measures an individual’s ability to stay calm under high pressure situations.

And students are also affected by this test. After a test-taker has been assigned a personality type, that becomes a reference point for potential careers they would presumably be best suited for. But with a test that doesn’t accurately measure personalities, students are probably better off using that BuzzFeed condiment quiz.