Myers-Briggs: The personality test that conned the world

It's a bit of a shame that the article goes about the history instead of the science. Personality is something that psychologists study, but they use the five-factor model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

One big problem preventing the five factor model from catching on is that the five factor model seems to have value judgements built in (agreeableness friendly/compassionate vs. challenging/detached seems to imply that it is a good thing, so a lack of it would be bad), whereas MBTI makes both ends of the spectrum sound positive (in Thinking vs Feeling, Thinking sounds equally good, vs challenging/detached).

Another facet is that MBTI assumes bimodal distributions, but as a result they can come up with catchy characters like "The Debater" and "The Entertainer" which five-factor doesn't do.

As a result, people tend to talk MBTI, even among folks who know about the five factor model, just because it's easier. It has some amount of predictive power, much better than a horoscope or tarot cards or blood type or astrology, and the reality is that people talk about that stuff all the time.

This article is laughable. Knocking the developers by saying Myers and Briggs had no training is akin to knocking the first powered flight by saying Orville and Wilbur Wright had no training.

It's not difficult to imagine evolution has discovered a way to segregate us into different personalities for the advantage to form cohesive social groups with specializations for survival. Who hasn't observed the difference between introvert and extravert in their own interactions? Is it a stretch to envision a couple more dichotomies exist?

Ask people to answer questions that will sort them into 16 bins and isn't it logical to assume those bins might have traits in common?

There are plenty of problems with MBTI and by all means, develop a better science. I tend to characterize people into their MBTI type in order to better interact with them. I find it useful and understandable, even predictive. Parlor trick? Perhaps, but on a couple of occasions now, I've accurately predicted a new friend's MBTI type simply by observing them and then having them take the test to confirm. You then have a useful basic mental model of them.

Unfortunately, while I can fly in a 777 nearly halfway around the world now due in part to the Wrights, there is no personality tool 777 equivalent.

The "Straight Dope" took a stab at characterizing the Myers-Briggs test [1]. They found the test lacked validity except it has a slight correlation (by accident) with one of the big five dimensions.

[1]https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2922/does-the-myer...