Are Personality Tests Useless or Useful?

Whether it was online or in school, you’ve probably taken a personality test before. But you’ve definitely never thought of personality tests like this before. Check out this video to learn more!

What’s up all, it’s your sis Shay Sayss. Welcome back to Bold In The Know. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell for pop culture, current events, news headlines, and all things Bold.

Joining Shay Sayss today is writer, researcher and contributor at Young Voices, Steven Zhou. We talk about personality tests and all you need to know about them.

Do you think personality tests are outdated?

We know there are meaningful differences between individuals’ personalities. But it’s hard to measure. These tests could be useful in terms of a self-reflection tool, but from a PhD perspective, personality is very complex. It’s not as simple as a one-to-five scale. So most of these random online personality tests are not very accurate.

Do you think people have one stable personality or is it constantly changing?

Well, since personalities are so complicated, it isn’t something you can easily label or put into a box. It’s a complicated interplay of thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Things are better explained on a scale. Individuals aren’t just an introvert or just an extrovert, there's an area in between and people may lean more to one side over the other.

And yes, the expression of personality can differ from day to day. An individual may act much more extroverted on camera versus sitting at home alone reading a book.

What are your thoughts on the psychological effect of personality tests? Could it be damaging to sort people into boxes?

On the positive side, it can help with understanding yourself more and understanding that you are more introverted and like sitting at home or are more extroverted and like going out to parties. On the other hand, it can be negative because there are downsides to labelling people. It’s not great to put people into boxes because in actuality you don’t always prefer being alone. Various situations may bring out various sides of you. But if you have this mental image that you're an introvert and you can’t be in front of a camera, this could prevent you from doing extraordinary things you would’ve been able to do without this label.

Why do you think personality tests are so popular?

It’s fun. Personalities are extremely important and predict things like work experience and even some general psychological health outcomes. Since we know there are differences between us, we like to identify what makes us different from other people around us. Take these online tests with a grain of salt so be careful not to let these tests boss you around.

What do you think about personality tests? Are they useless or useful? Let us know in the comments below.

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