2 Aug 2006 wlach   » (Master)

apenwarr: A few years back, I remember reading an article (unfortunately I can't find it cited anywhere) about a little experiment that was conducted on a first year psychology class. Each student was asked to fill out a questionaire describing how they would react to a number of routine situations. A few weeks later they all received exactly the same analysis of their personality (containing such exciting generalities as "you are outgoing sometimes and introverted at others" and "you have abilities that you have not yet capitalized on"). As I recall, just about every student thought the analysis was tailored to their unique personality.

This isn't to discount the Myers-Briggs test entirely.. just that you have to take into account the mind's ability to fill in all sorts of blanks, especially when you're being told what you want to hear. The INTJ profile is pretty flattering as I recall (I scored as one too). Who doesn't want to be an independent and creative freethinker?

Update: A co-worker correctly attributed this experiment to Bertram Forer.

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