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9 Reasons the Myers-Briggs Personality Test is Trash and Companies Should Never Use it Again
Your ISFP shouldn’t keep you from getting a promotion
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or the MBTI as it’s commonly called) is an outdated, poorly designed test that has little value. It’s not accurate or useful. There’s also new data emerging that personality tests could be culturally insensitive, sexist, and creating more bias in the workplace. I would argue that it’s dangerous for companies to continue using it. Don’t believe me? Want to cling to your ESTJ? Please read on.
1. The test was not created by experts
The MBTI was the hobby project of a home-schooled aristocrat and is based entirely on her opinions of people. Katherine Briggs read a book about personality by psychologist Carl Jung and her daughter, Isabel Briggs-Myers is largely responsible for creating the test. Neither woman had any training in psychology, test design, or education. Isabel was interested in seeing how personality mapped onto different jobs, but performed no rigorous testing or research into her theory of personality, just finding confirming instances where her test was supported, and eventually selling the test to a large company.
There are countless instruments that are created each year to investigate all sorts of human behavior. These tests are put through rigorous standardization procedures, tested for reliability, validity and put through the peer-review process. The MBTI has undergone none of these. This brings me to the second point.
2. The MBTI is not reliable, or valid
If you’re throwing darts and you always hit the same spot, you are reliable. If you always hit the bullseye, you have validity. If you only hit the bullseye 50 out of 100 times, you might have validity but not much reliability. If you always hit the same spot, but it’s a foot from the dartboard, you have reliability, but no validity.
For a test to be useful, it must be both reliable and valid. You should expect to get the same result every time, no matter where or how you’re taking it. And the test should accurately measure what it claims to be measuring.
