Ones on the Constraining and Misleading Factors of the MBTI Test

In a recent StarTribune article titled, “In the 1970s, it was zodiac signs. The new icebreaker? Your Myers-Briggs type” Deniz S. Ones provides insight into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test on how the tests may be fun but can also be misleading. According to Ones, the MBTI is not much  respected in the scientific community as it “doesn’t agree with the known data and facts about personality.” The MBTI tests result in test takers with a four-letter code, indicating what “personality type” they have. However, personality attributes are continuous characteristics and personality measures that categorize people into categories lose valuable information, create artificial groups, and can increase the risk of relying on stereotypes that may lead to bias and prejudice. Looking beyond, MBTI type tests,  scientifically reliable and valid personality assessments can help to explain who you are, but they “cannot capture the entire diversity of human experience.”

Deniz Ones, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Distinguished University Teacher, and Hellervik Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. 

Composed by Madison Stromberg, communications assistant.