Month: August 2023

Struggling to figure out who you are in this world? Never fear – there’s a test for that! In fact, there’s A LOT of them. In this episode, we discuss the historical origins of personality tests, and discuss two popular ones available today – the MBTI and the Big Five – with a focus on what’s “real” and what’s pseudoscience. You’ll even get to hear our results! Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and more.

The free MBTI we took: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

The Big Five test we took: https://bigfive-test.com/

A comparison of our Big Five results: https://bigfive-test.com/compare/W3sibmFtZSI6Ik1lYWdhbiIsImlkIjoiNjRkMTE0NDNiZWZlZDgwMDA4ODM5NGViIn0seyJuYW1lIjoiTWUiLCJpZCI6IjY0YzMyNTM1OGVkNGJkMDAwODczZmU2MCJ9XQ%3D%3D

Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/spookyscipod

Here are our sources:

General:

1. https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/leisure/personality-tests#:~:text=The%20tests%20capitalize%20on%20our,isn’t%20a%20bad%20thing.
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/201909/your-favorite-personality-test-is-probably-bogus
3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/201909/why-do-we-personality-tests-even-the-bad-ones
4. Stuff You Should Know podcast – How Personality Tests Work
5. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/03/they-become-dangerous-tools-the-dark-side-of-personality-tests
6. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-personality-test-was-developed-during-world-war-i-180973192/
7. https://vervoe.com/history-of-personality-tests/
8. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-personality-tests/
9. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-enduring-allure-of-the-personality-quiz
10. https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/brief-history-personality-tests/
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments
12. https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/ancient_history/humor_theory.html

Myers-Briggs:

1. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/22/650019038/how-the-myers-briggs-personality-test-began-in-a-mothers-living-room-lab
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbarthur/2018/09/16/the-strange-history-behind-the-mbti-and-what-that-can-mean-for-career-owners/?sh=674490ae2fb3
3. https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless
4. https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-problem-with-the-myers-briggs-personality-test
5. https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/tools/MBTI/Myers-Briggs-history
6. https://www.myersbriggs.org/about-us/myers-briggs-jung-legacy/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator#CITEREFLilienfeldLynnLohr2014

The Big Five:

1. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/assessment-and-selection/other-assessment-methods/personality-tests/
2. https://www.retorio.com/blog/big-5-history-psychometric-test
3. https://www.verywellmind.com/trait-theory-of-personality-2795955#:~:text=The%20first%20trait%20theory%20was,traits%20into%20three%20levels%3A3
4. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-big-five/

Several times throughout human history, people have experienced extreme events that made them believe their world might be coming to end. In this episode, we discuss two of these terrifying times, the Late Antique Little Ice Age that began around 536 CE, and the Dust Bowl that plagued American and Canadian prairies from 1930-1936. We then journey further back in time to discuss the mass extinction events that have occurred several times across Earth’s history, and take a look forward at what might ultimately destroy the planet we call home. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and more.

Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/spookyscipod

Here are our sources:

536 CE “The Worst Year to be Alive”

1. https://www.science.org/content/article/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379122005674
3. https://sciencenorway.no/archaeology-climate-cultural-history/the-long-harsh-fimbul-winter-is-not-a-myth/1613223
4. https://radiolab.org/podcast/worst-year-ever
5. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/five-apocalypses-humanity-has-survived

Dust Bowl:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
2. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/dust-bowl
3. https://benjaminleebison.com/pages/the-dust-bowl
4. https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/
5. https://www.weather.gov/media/oun/newsletter/spring2010.pdf

Mass Extinction:

1. https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-ancient-fossils/extinction/mass-extinction
2. https://kottke.org/18/06/the-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-that-struck-earth-was-unbelievably-huge-and-fast
3. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/mass-extinctions
4. https://www.livescience.com/mass-extinction-events-that-shaped-Earth.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event 
6. https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/if-humans-dont-finish-it-when-will-the-world-actually-end/