Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Myers-Briggs, the Fad That Won’t Die

Years ago – heck, decades – and more than once, I was given the Myers-Briggs personality test in church settings.  I always found the results interesting – hey, I find myself interesting.  However, I did not find the results particularly useful or insightful.  I did not fit well into any of the stereotypical personality types of the test.  All the test really told me is that I am a complex person hard to pigeonhole.  But I could have told you that without wasting time on the test.

So now I am heartened to see Wharton prof Adam Grant agrees that Myers-Briggs is not that useful.  But I am not heartened to see this test is still popular.  It is still taken by 2.5 million people a year? Die, useless fad, die!

Grant well sums up the problem with Myers-Briggs and its popularity – “four letters don't do justice to anyone's identity.”
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Hat tip to Dr. Robert Munday.

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Housekeeping: I just now noticed that I neglected to publish valid comments from back in June.  I get so many spam comments that these must have gotten overlooked.  Still, I regret this error and apologize, especially to the commenters in question.

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