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Do personality tests work? - Merve Emre

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In 1942, a mother-daughter duo named Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers developed a questionnaire that classified people’s personalities into 16 types. Called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, it would go on to become one of the world’s most widely-used personality tests. But do these tests actually reveal truths about personality? Merve Emre examines their design flaws.

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Additional Resources for you to Explore

Personality tests can be fun and entertaining, but they also have real consequences. As this Wall Street Journal article explains, personality tests used by companies to evaluate their employees can be unfair and lead to discrimination. SciShow Psych shows why results of the Myers-Briggs test and the Enneagram test are not accurate descriptions personalities. So why are personality tests still so popular? Watch this video by Vox to understand why people are drawn to personality tests and why the Myers-Briggs test in particular is so popular.

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Meet The Creators

Educator
Merve Emre
Director
Seoro Oh
Narrator
Bethany Cutmore-Scott
Sound Designer
Seoro Oh
Music
Jellysound
Director of Production
Gerta Xhelo
Editorial Director
Alex Rosenthal
Producer
Bethany Cutmore-Scott
Editorial Producer
Elizabeth Cox
Script Editor
Emma Bryce
Fact-Checker
Eden Girma

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