During the pandemic, COVID-19 confined us, leaving most to look for entertainment on streaming services and the internet. This time alone also caused a movement to find one’s identity, whether in niche online communities, sexuality, or any label one could place on oneself. This search to find one’s true self through the internet has long existed, but thanks to boredom, more people wanted to identify with others online as they could not connect in person. This led many to turn to personality tests: online quizzes that would “diagnose” which type of personality one has. The most notable of these are the DISC personality test, the emotional intelligence test, and, most notably, the Myers-Briggs test. Of course, 13 and 14-year-old me was obsessed with the idea of learning who I was, as most teenagers are, especially at a time when going out in public was a rarity. However, are these tests even accurate? And are they even helpful to teenagers’ well-being?
First, what do these tests even identify? The DISC personality test is one that I have only come across once researching these personality tests. This personality test is meant to determine which career is best for a person depending on four elements of their personality: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. There are also only four personalities one can be classified into, which limits how one can identify oneself and almost boxes one in. I took the test myself and earned a mix of I (for influence) and C (for conscientiousness), similar to how I work. Still, all four personalities seem broad and relatable. Also, there were only 24 questions on the test that were just as broad. I could pick all four answers or none for many and choose a random one. It is questionable if this test can be trusted, mainly as it is used by companies to determine where their employees can work.
The Emotional Intelligence test determines one’s EQ (emotional quotient) and reveals how well one controls and expresses one’s emotions. When taking the emotional intelligence test, there were fewer questions, with only two answer choices, but 40forty. They were much more fundamental and more accessible to answer compared to the DISC test, but I found myself selecting the more emotionally intelligent option when I could find this. This could be because I am more emotionally intelligent, but this could also be because the “right” answer is obvious. This makes it questionable how accurate these tests are as one would always want to choose the answer that sounds better rather than the one that identifies with them. Although these questions are more accessible than the DISC ones, they are still overly broad and complex to apply to my experience, with questions like “Do you follow your own goals or others?” How could these simple questions determine how well I deal with my emotions? Deciding this on situations rather than questions would be more accurate.
The Myers-Briggs test is the most famous out of all three of these. It was created by the mother-daughter duo Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, and the test classifies each person into 16 different personalities using acronyms that contain variations of four different letters. This test has to be my favorite out of all three, as it has 130 questions that are neither too broad nor too specific. For each, I could think of multiple scenarios that could assist me in choosing one answer in which I was confident. Also, the Myers-Briggs test uses a scale on how much one agrees or disagrees with a question and even has a neutral option, which is perfect for someone as indecisive as me. Ultimately, I got ENFJ, and when reading through the description, I did relate an incredible amount. However, many other personalities are relatable to me, which is unsurprising as I have taken this test several times throughout the years and almost always get a different answer including ENTJ, INTJ, INFP, ENFP, and ISFJ. This is not surprising as your personality should change as you age. My answers to these questions also change depending on my mood, the scenarios I use to determine my answers to the questions, and the recent events in my life. For example, one of the questions was, “After a long and exhausting week, a lively social event is just what you need.” Last week, I would have said no as I had just written my senior thesis and had been sick earlier in the week and knew I needed rest. However this week has been stressful, but I want to end it by spending time with people rather than alone, as it would lift my spirits.
Overall, we should keep online tests or labels and communities from burning us as we limit our potential. Taking these quizzes to learn which celebrity has the same personality as you or just because you are interested is fine. Still, if a test says you are introverted or should work in more analytical workspaces, you should not be inclined to listen to them as they are basing their answers on one 15-minute test, which you could have taken in any mood or at any point in your life. We should base our decisions on our intuition and on the opinions of those who know and care about us, not machines.
