Episode 67 Sources: The Cult of Personalities

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 PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsAmazon MusicPandoraiHeartRadio, 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

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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/