Personality Tests Are Dumb... And Dangerous

[@sandhillfarmer1]

Sounds totally like something an INFP would say

[@sandhillfarmer1]

Actually I meant ENFP. -T, of course.

[@des_antilles]

Right? Most of my close friends are so I would know

[@saranonimus9211]

Like, literally...INFPs hate the idea of being categorized 😂

[@detach103ff4]

Hahahaa fuck, WINNER

[@DrVictorVasconcelos]

As someone with an actual PhD in psych testing let me just say how much Myers-Briggs is not a thing in the field. It only came to my attention through Tinder actually.

[@SDPh.D.]

I concur as a fellow Ph.D. psychologist. 👍

[@Newton-Reuther]

I mean, it was created by "experts" but so was drapetomania and excited delirium, so .... /s

[@ijustawannaprivicie8031]

I had some HR flunkie do a Meyers-Briggs thingy for my department (IT) where we all took the test, then discussed our results and how to use that information to interact with colleagues. I all but laughed at her during the group pow-wow about how unreliable and pseudo-scientific it was. I altered the test results so that the print-out said my personality type was PBNJ.

[@Emilio1985]

Interesting. I was taught about the Myers-Briggs in my early psych education, but it was always heavily caveated and presented alongside the criticisms of it. Largely it was presented as kind of an historical thing that lots of people think they know but that they don't know. Kind of like Freudian psychoanalysis. Granted, my PhD was eventually in Cognitive Science and not Psychology per se, but I did/do have a heavy Psych background.

[@CaptPeon]

That checks out

[@Corey.Coolidge]

Day to day what I hate the most about personality tests is when people use them as an excuse for bad behavior. "Of course I'm going to act this way, I'm a(n) (introvert, Gemini, New Yorker, etc.)." No, you're a bad person and you need to go fix yourself.

[@WisecrackEDU]

that's the worst.

[@block4562]

My favourite part is when people keep taking the test until they get a result they view as favourable and then stick with that one

[@qew6686]

You live in LA. Everyone cries in LA while driving. Road Rage is just misprocessed sorrow and fear.

[@WisecrackEDU]

this is true.

[@popdop0074]

Just wanna say that while MBTI is flawed as shit, this isn't MBTI. 16p uses big 5 and labels it as MBTI, the actual thing uses cognitive functions based on Jung's work and aren't meant to be a cohesive personality description, just an explanation for internal information processing.

[@albedz7759]

I liked taking them for fun, in the same way you'd take a quiz on which character from the Avengers you are.

[@lukeluke333lukeluke]

Same! I never taken them too serous. I do know people that take them serous and try to conform their personalty around results.

[@TheR999]

But I like those tests. I always end up as a girl for some reason and it’s oddly consistent.

[@uniquedisplayname6051]

I'm Wolverine!

[@Notius]

my favorite part of personality tests is the really ambiguous questions like "Would you nearly kill Iron Man to protect your 80-year-old brainwashed warcrime buddy?"

[@K1ng1995]

@@lukeluke333lukeluke People like that need to do some soul searching

[@Jedidiah_McCain]

But making a video basically saying “what’s the whole point of personality tests anyways?” is totally ENTP energy, Wisecrack.

[@Maniac0007]

Are you saying that the collective of "Wisecrack" is ENTP? :D

[@SoylentSystem]

Back in 2008 my university's career counselors had their Meyers-Briggs type posted on their door, even American academia took it seriously. I became skeptical of Meyers-Briggs when I realized these types are very similar to Dungeons and Dragons (I'm chaotic good) types and are made for a fictional world.

[@BantuEconomicServices]

The world runs of fictional narratives

[@joshv.1490]

This video was a vindication for how much I've hated corporate personality assessment and the upper management suckers that buy into them.

[@WisecrackEDU]

If you want to support our channel while getting early videos without ads, extra content, and even access to a book club led by Michael, check out our Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/wisecrack

[@johnnygoodman2003]

Personality tests are only useful in a job after being hired. Being hired based on a personality test is just plain discrimination.

[@KittyinAnotherCity-qy1lu]

Everyone wants to believe that they're special whilst simultaneously believing that they're 'normal'. Please do a deep dive into the Love Languages bs. That carp's been intermittently pooing me off for years. Do you remember the song that accompanied the book?

[@jaeric]

I've consistently gotten the same type for the past 20 years across multiple versions of the test. The best use of the test is as a small stepping stone on the way to self discovery. Using it to determine someone's path in life is dystopian.

[@cooltimetravel4959]

I know personality tests are fake, but seeing that Michael is also an INFP makes me more attracted to him

[@jk_lol9266]

I love when companies use broad categorical sorting mechanisms to determine who is worthy of a raise

[@xIQ188x]

People call me Dark Triad, but I’m actually Shadow Triumvirate. It’s really frustrating.

[@section9999]

Those bastards

[@cannondebris]

An under discussed tinder red flag.

[@ilovemesomme]

The philosophy personality tests are the best and most useful. Either that, or I just like being compared to Epicurus and Diogenes.

[@johnstajduhar9617]

Which existentiaist philosopher are you? Find out here!

[@wrongname2702]

Yay! A topic we can agree on! Personality tests can be like buzzfeed quizzes and super fun to take but most of the time they are garbage and cant tell you anything you dont already know. My employer was trying to implement them recently but its gross and discriminatory

[@NoNotThatPaul]

The CEO category of worse guy ever is spot on

[@jerrydne2912]

Took a personality test by going for a walk, ended up awakening in a snow bank. Test came back "drunkard".

[@JaredBruner]

I love that there's no ad on this video, but I'm not sure what it means for you Michael. Hope the channel is well, and thanks for the reminder about meconium.

[@lamarbone1265]

I've taught at two different schools that paid thousands of dollars for a "color personality test" to administer to all students. When I pointed this stuff out, and that the creator hadn't published any research based on his test, or even how he developed it, I was told I was being negative and just needed to "get on board". When I also pointed out that the program was the literal opposite of relationship development and individual instruction, I was reminded that compliance was mandatory.

[@XanniTheBlue]

ashamed to admit JREG was first to make me question my early "introvert" diagnosis and find out it was just trauma

[@xtieburn]

I love that when hes describing his classification as 'Good ethics, creative spark, and great listener' you could right there realise that just about everyone could think (and would certainly like to think) they have those traits. More seriously, or depressingly, when the place I worked at was bought up by a US company they ran these tests and it was just wretched. They reorganised staff around it with disastrous results, (Moving clueless people in to supervisory roles, moving a warehouse supervisor off the major day time shifts, it was a complete mess and they had to revert most of it to stop the store falling apart.) and everyone that got a particular colored sticker on their name badge found themselves side lined and looked down on, like a version of the brown eye blue eye test that teacher once did. They actually had to notify staff that 'None of the colors are bad guys! Just different!' Thankfully most of this fell away because it was such a disaster, but it took a while and longer still for the damage to be fixed. (Presumably also because managers involved in implementing this nonsense dont want to admit they had been massive idiots.)

[@MmKayUltra1]

it sure would be weird if someone had Jung erotic fanfiction. hah anyway please don't look me up on AO3

[@afeeser]

How many sexual dreams is "too many"?

[@WisecrackEDU]

69 in one night.

[@deadhead4077]

Perfect Futurama reference

[@paulpeterson4216]

Meyers-Briggs is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is a perfectly reasonable way to categorize personalities. As with any extant "personality test" it is not deep enough to predict who will do well in what job. I find it extremely useful in writing so that I can have characters with differing traits. I am INTP and that provides a perfectly reasonable description of my personality. It also fits me vastly better than any of the other types. But again, it is a description not a prescription of what you should do given any particular personality type. By the way, yes, I am INTP, but on movie nights I am IMDB

[@deadhead4077]

I wonder what the earliest known written record of an erotic fan fiction?

[@WisecrackEDU]

there's some stuff in the Old Testament

[@williamprince9589]

Probably some caveman drawings somewhere

[@elcidleon6500]

​@@WisecrackEDU - Boy, it will tinder this thread...

[@alexast1457]

As an INFP, i have never felt so attacked yet enlightened

[@ashleyyyy8833]

My personality type is being the one in the friend group who rolls their eyes and refuses to participate in the personality test conversation. This video is so vindicating.

[@Ciek0Karanthus]

I was tested and deemed an INFP in high school, by my guidance counselor, and then gaslit into taking the test again and being labeled an INTP, because no other boys tested as INFP. So as an INFP, naturally I sometimes daydream how my life would've turned out if I didn't take that test at all and didn't feel like my young adult psyche had to be put into a box, where I blamed myself for not having robust friendships or pursuing the goals and career that I wanted before being "guided" into trying and failing at intense STEM fields in college. So yeah, personality tests suck.

[@sankarchaya]

My Aristotelian and Hegelian sympathies make it hard to complete because I don’t think reason and emotion are entirely independent and can’t complete the feeling/thinking questions. Why do I have to choose? It presupposes a hard divide. Reason and thinking can be opposed but do not need to be.

[@melusine826]

Exactly!!!

[@lilchief1117]

10:17 honestly nurses are so undervalued in our society, as many important professions are, I think. My grandma was a nurse throughout my childhood & I remember seeing her as a kind of hero for that. I always wanted to go to work overnight w her & see the work that she did, but sadly that never happened. Stillyet, I think we need to take better care of & give more props to our caretakers & nurturers, like nurses, teachers, parents, etc. A tangent, I know, but a thought was sparked & it went from there 😅

[@WisecrackEDU]

Nurses are so incredibly important.

[@neizha]

My mom was an ICU nurse for 40 years and is very much an introvert. She doesn't really interact with new people well and usually will find one or two people she knows well at a party and cling to them the entire time or sit by herself. She was a fantastic nurse, I think being an introvert helped her keep a necessary level of emotional distance from patients while still being kind and caring for them.

[@balsalmalberto8086]

>Wisecrack: Personalities don't change >Phineas Gage: I beg to differ..

[@christophermiller2075]

The personality test that i just took said I would never lie about something small. Engagement!!!!

[@ItalianCanadianGuy94]

Another big problem with personality tests is that idea that personality and behaviour are all nature and no nurture. Otherwise the age you take the test would matter, and if it does, then what age should we be taking these tests? 18? 25? Any date would be arbitrary.

[@Ex_Arc]

I initially pushed myself into an engineering job. However, after taking a personality test, I realized that software engineering isn’t a field I truly enjoy. While the test may not be perfect, it does offer valuable insights into one’s preferences that we might overlook in pursuit of a higher salary. Now, I’m enduring this job for a while longer, but my goal is to eventually pursue a career that aligns with my true interests, as suggested by the personality test.

[@pennywaldrip3774]

There was a very recent episode of Bob's Burgers about this. Tina noticed all of the "descriptions" were wrong for the people getting them - but all the kids were trying to be that. In the end, Mr. Frond was outed as a fraud. Also, these tests never told me that I am just super-great at taking tests. (not terribly useful as an adult)

[@Will-r5r]

The fact that they were baked into the first several years of public school since at least the early nineties kind of shows what i feel is the issue with them.

[@camadams9149]

McKinsey bro horoscopes. Change my mind

[@WisecrackEDU]

nah you're right.

[@christoffer886]

The big-5 test is supposed to show where we gravitate towards in our personality. It's a starting point to explain certain behaviors and comforts, but someone scoring high on introversion does not need to be placed into their lone corner, they should be "trained" to function as extroverts and vice versa. Our neuroplasticity makes us malleable and able to improve on areas that we're lacking in. I'm an introvert, but in my line of work I had to work with people all the time and nowadays people view me as extremely extroverted whenever I'm in social situations, but I'm still able to be comfortable working alone by myself, so rather than ending up in a single personality spot I function across the introvert/extrovert spectrum. It's important to remember that we're born with certain pre-programming through our genes, and that our upbringing enforce certain personality traits so that we're set into a specific personality when growing into adulthood. The key is to keep building on that and improve in areas that are lacking. Instead, we're actually blind to the real differences in society. Things like how our internal clock is fixed but our society is structured for early birds. Or how some are more creative than others, some better with math than others. Society is terrible at spotting the strengths individuals have and nurture those strengths. And these strengths are consisted of one side being a seemingly natural tendency to be good at it and the other side being interested in it. Society is still very bad at helping people find what they're good at and instead more focused on trying to mold everyone into the same system. Which is kinda ironic seen as the criticism of the freemarket neoliberalism is that we shouldn't conform like those damn communists... but we're all conforming to the needs of the market and capitalist requirements of production. Oh, the irony.

[@graciousbaker1422]

I love that you are talking about this. I used to be trapped by the personality type that I got on that test (which was also INFP) and didn't allow myself to grow as a person. I suppose I was a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way, as I adopted my personality type traits. I now realize that there is so much more nuance to this than being stuck in a category.

[@VexylObby]

One can use these tests to educate themselves about themselves. They don’t need to feel defined, but can use this sort of information to consider one’s own behaviors/tendencies and preferences.

[@section9999]

"That you're definitely not going to shit yourself at work!" 😂 Touche good sir, touche

[@abider5108]

There is a non zero chance in the future that I lose out on a job based on how I scored on a "Which 80s Pro Wrestler Are You" personality test.

[@Person7537]

From an INFP to a fellow INFP, thanks you've changed my perspective on this!

[@WisecrackEDU]

we understand each other.

[@bailey12321]

Are you telling me I may not ACTUALLY be a Gryffindor???

[@500werewolf]

The Myers-Briggs did such a great job letting me know what my personality is so well, I had an identity crisis the next year. It was a fun grade 12 that year, especially for someone who struggles in their English classes.

[@ArtFlunky]

I test as an INFP too, even when I try not to. And we are a lot alike. Listening to you, is like listening to a much smarter version of myself, but still very much myself.

[@stephengriffin615]

Thank you! My fellow INFP-T , for exposing this as total nonsense.

[@Akentrophyta]

I worked for the USDA (for a long time). In leadership classes they used to give us Myers Briggs as a self-awareness tool. We observed that people in similar professions tended to have similar profiles. Is this just self-sorting or social compliance?

[@heaththeemissary3824]

The first time I was given one I noticed how truly fawning the descriptions were. They were like horoscopes. You could smell the marketing coming around the corner.

[@2headed]

I remember taking this test for an effing retail job. I think I got the same as you Michael.

[@nannywhumpers5702]

Had to do one for work: INFJ. When we did a 'what's your personality type' in a train the trainer class and all but three of us came in as INFJ. Odd I thought cause I don't usually put much stock in this kinda stuff.

[@ericjome7284]

Astrology for MBAs.

[@tenen2105]

I'd say the same thing for zodiac signs. It's another way to discriminate people based on sudo science without any scientific proof.

[@AnnPorkins]

As a Californian Italian-American, I constantly talk with my hands, love my mama, call everyone dude (including my mama), and I’m good at chillin’. My personality type is LRHW - Laidback Ragu Hella Wahoo (said in a Mario voice)

[@ThunderChickenBucket]

Mr. Burns is my favorite quirky parisian woman

[@traydevon]

Having BASELINE personality type “preferences” does not mean a person can’t improve themselves in areas where they are naturally weak…if they “prefer.” You explained as much in this video while simultaneously assuming the model doesn’t indicate that.

[@CiaoRooster]

I’m an ENTP. If I remember correctly it’s sort of the “can’t suffer fools” type. At McKinsey about a year in, you go on a two week retreat (hopefully to the company chalet in Switzerland-but mine was in Chicago) where you analyze your results over several days. Nominally this is so when teams form for projects, we can review our types and understand how best to work with each other. Yes, everybody knows and references their types often. At the training retreat we are told that there are no wrong types and that firm membership is pretty balanced among Es and Is, etc. Although, there is the caveat that there are somewhat fewer Fs than Ts. And yes. You can get injured. Friction can wear away at the top layer of skin, making further activity unpleasant until it heals. A&D ointment usually helps.

[@venmis137]

Got obsessed with this at one point. Was torn between INTP, INTJ, and INFP. Found some amateur practitioners, one of whom claimed to be a psychiatrist. They typed me as ISTJ. Figured that if that was "true" I was such an atypical ISTJ that I could take it as carte blanche to pretty much ignore the whole system. In retrospect, I am much happier having stopped caring about that shit. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm an ISTJ :)

[@victorhsluiz]

I understand the bad history, the bad use of it, those are definitely factors to not take MBTI too seriously, but the "results changing" each time you take the test is kinda bs if you're honest while answering. The fact that the results were always consistently the same for me is what made "believable" to me in the first place. I did had a change since the first time I took the test (from ISTJ to INTJ), which is fair since I'm not the exactly same person in my 30's that I was in my 20's, but I'm definitely not gonna have a "E" in my results ever if I'm a introvert my whole life.

[@kosmokoshka6232]

I took one of those online tests and it said I have Internet Connectivity problems! 🙀

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

At this point, why we don't just use the horoscope... it's equally scientific...

[@connorletkeman5002]

You jest, and yet I've seen people make the argument that insurance rates should be determined by astrology

[@Newton-Reuther]

You may be an INFP, but I'm a Leo /s

[@Nerd_Rage255]

Great video and important points.

[@jKristofor]

In one of my Psych classes, we took a personality test, and we all got different "titles" but everyone got the same description

[@natashabjoseph7961]

Lol this is such an interesting topic, coz each time I take it MBTI test, I get a different result, not too drastic but significant nonetheless, and i have always wondered why. Okkay lemme watch the rest of the video.

[@WitchHazel13]

Same here

[@magnusvir8]

i remember someone telling me to take the dark triad test. as someone that is a forever game master to a tabletop RPG group; it turns out i have a high machiavellianistic tendency to control and manipulate people to do certain things. i was shocked. who would expect someone that spends 8 hours a week telling a bunch of nerds a story that involves throwing plastic dice and hoping to achieve goals i told them they wanted would make me seem machiavellian

[@Al-cm8ny]

I think the ending, with how to think clearly and replacing the lens we should view ourselves instead of millers was beautiful. sometimes videos will just kick one idea out but not help show examples of how to think of new ideas and why these ideas are better. u did it well with various examples. I slowed down the video then to properly take it in also i dint realize how big personality tests were in the us coporate/army sector! Sheesh

[@Dodgerzden]

I also knew the Myers-Briggs personality test was obvious pseudo-science because my result as an INFJ just did not match up with my zodiac sign or numerology chart.

[@rifroll1117]

Ah yes, the college girl’s horoscopes

[@CheezeeBoi]

I, too, am an INFP-T. At first, I found this knowledge reassuring ("Hey! There's a reason I'm like this! It's not my fault!"); now, however, it's just become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[@GuyPerson3]

your quizzes was just a few percentage off on the introversion extroversion scale

[@TwinRiver100]

i think despite these categories being problems and stuff I think they still kind of help mainly becasue personality and mind stuff is so difficult and compliated to think of all the different details and stuff all the time as oneself and all that it feels like kind of a relief and break to have a category that reduces it to just one simple thing to help us focus on maybe one trait of ourselves that stands out to us personally and embrace that. even though there's other aspects that standout way more and build and make you up way more than the main one you might've picked i think it's just a relief for our human brain sizes to just have the categories as mental short cuts that save us on processing space at least that's a guess i have and why i think i kind of like personality tests at times don't cover all my sense of me, but it's nice to see a small thumbnail for part of it that helps me feel good knowing something and gives me less of a thing to worry about knowing for a bit

[@BantuEconomicServices]

The most unbiased video I have ever seen. Nope, not a heavy Fi user attached to his original world view at all. I mean, listen to your voice, so calm and analytical and absolutely no sarcasm at all. Like a 4 year who is told the tooth fairy isn’t real.

[@WisecrackEDU]

what?

[@spacedonut8157]

For what it's worth, I've always thought of you as an unholy conglomeration of Kelly Clarkson, Will Smith, and Carrie Bradshaw.

[@CaptPeon]

My exwife would fixate on the Meyer's Briggs and Love Language results and let them direct her behavior. It got pretty toxic!

[@scottlurker991]

My personality type is cranky old philosophy dude.

[@Radhaun]

I really like using these tests when I make characters while I'm writing. I think it's a fun way to get a good feel for the character.

[@AnnPorkins]

Buzzfeed’s “Which ‘Daddy Wisecrack Dr. Michael B. Wisecrack Unhinged Livestream Rant’ Are You?” is the only personality quiz worth a heck

[@cyfertau1975]

I like the goblin versions of these personality tests. They give me a good laugh. >first time i took one i got INTP >now when i take them i get INTJ or INFJ or INFP depending on my mood It's nonsense.

[@cham888]

I wouldn't mind getting lower insurance premiums for being a introvert.

[@fredhuot9279]

Nurse introvert here. Nothing to say really.

[@Thrna_1]

If you look at the most prevalent personality type by country, most of them will say INFP-T, almost like not just making friends all the time or liking creative things is more just a ubiquitous human trait.

[@pokedoctor2087]

As a really eskeptic guy, I can see the allure of knowing oneself al little better and kinda get why people like to put lables on themselves and others using pseudoscience to justifiy their beliefs. Yet I enjoy all the comedy on personality types and get oddly called out with it on ways that other BS like horoscopes don't... - INTP

[@illusion-xiii]

"Your unique personality type is suited to particular types of roles..." How effing unique is a personality that is literally 1 out of 16 possible combinations (or 32, apparently there's another letter now)?

[@emtoprma]

How many sexual dreams are supposed to be too much?

[@paddys1595]

I did the MBTI a while ago, saw it on a Game theorie video, never heard of it before, isn't really known in europe. According to test I am an INFJ, or INTJ, by switching the answer to one question. Did it several times for fun, switching some of the answers arround. After arround 5 test I had 5 Personalitys, and I red every one of those. Then I googled the MBTI results for several historical and fictional characters. Was really interesting. Never woul have thought that Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Hitler an Jesus are all INFJs.

[@wentencel]

I strained my left shoulder by switching to my non-dominant hand for a couple weeks and going a bit overboard with *that whole situation* I went to the doctor's office about it and was as vague as you'd expect when the doctor asked me what I'd done to hurt my shoulder 😅

[@breniesunbird3276]

Jung did not think his types were static either. Myers-Briggs may have thought pretending they were made her test an easier sell.

[@gustavomarquez1856]

I am a INTP-T .... finally, my life is solved! Thank you Wisecrack

[@Fusilier7]

You should have a follow up - horoscopes are dumb ... and dangerous. Someone once said - "MBTI is a horoscope for nerds", remember - the Myers-Briggs test began and is used like Greek and Chinese horoscopes, basically as fortune telling and forecasting the future, all of which is pseudoscience. Astrology in general is a legacy enterprise; millions of dollars of revenue are generated by preying on and fuelling human superstitions, I tried to take the MBTI but it was charging 60 CAD for the results, I didn't want to part with that much money, but think about the dozens who have, ultimately, I found out I was an INFJ, paradoxically the rarest yet everywhere personality type.

[@Furysonofrage]

My Myers-briggs comrade is 50 cent. We're both mother fucking P.I.M.P.s

[@mrmaxin53]

So it’s like the modern horoscope? I always thought it was crazy that some Asian countries require you to put your blood type on your resume

[@llsilvertail561]

5:58 Yeah, that tracks (considering early psychology’s…everything)

[@unusedTV]

Your unique 1-out-of-16 personality type that we shoehorn the entire world's population in. Apparently we have at most 16 people on this planet?

[@Alex-ne6fm]

Missed opportunity to name her fangirl band "Jung the Giant"