Editor's Note: Have you ever tested the recently popular MBTI personality test? I'm ENFP – Happy Puppy, what are you? The author of this article elaborates on the attitude and gameplay of today's young people to the MBTI test, and interested partners take a look at it.
The MBTI personality test is almost broken by young people.
Luo Zhi, who wanted to find his other half, sent an unusual marriage post on the social platform:
"IntJ female, Zheng likes Dali and is willing to come to Dali to live as an object. I hope that you are also an INTJ or ENTJ, EN department, the basic type of personality can meet the needs of chat. I hope you are logical, expressive, and comprehensible, because INTJ likes smart boys, after all, INTJ's IQ is quite high. ”
In the past, strangers used to break the ice by asking "What zodiac sign are you?" but now throwing a string of mysterious letters is a more trendy way. More and more young people like to stick four letters in their social profiles, and each string of letters represents a personality type.
For example, ENTP represents a curious debater, INTP is an idealist with no dispute, and INTJ is a robot with strong rational thinking power.
This mysterious set of letters is THE MBTI, full name MYERS-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality test compiled by the Myers mother and daughter in the United States in the 1940s. It is based on Jung's psychological type theory, dividing personality into eight letters of E (extroversion) - I (introversion), N (intuition) - S (real sense), F (emotion) - T (thinking), P (perception) - J (judgment), which are arranged and combined to form sixteen personality types.
MBTI sixteen personality classifications, screenshot from Baidu Encyclopedia
Luo Zhi believes that the USE OFI as a marriage condition is very targeted, and the threshold of the first screening can be established. If the other person also knows about THE MBTI, then at least there are people who have a common topic and are happy to explore the spiritual world.
Wang Fang, a professor at the Department of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, explained to the author the reason why MBTI became popular: MBTI has the function of quickly classifying people. In this era of rapid change and extreme efficiency, when everyone shows this label with a certain "consensus", people can quickly understand a stranger, saving time and energy for greetings and temptations.
But can MBTI really classify each unique person?
First, use MBTI to find young people who identify with themselves
From the zodiac sign, enneagram personality, tarot divination to the personality test of the NetEase Cloud Music Brush Screen Circle of Friends, these different types of "cyber fortune telling" are ever-changing, all aiming at people's spiritual needs to understand "who I am".
The MBTI personality test, which has a name in psychology, seems to be more scientific than constellations and eight characters, providing a detailed and praiseworthy analysis of each personality type, making it an excellent tool for young people to express themselves. Contemporary young people are eager to see their unique soul through this mysterious set of letter combinations.
On social platforms, you will see young people who are well versed in this set of alphabets, and can write a paper of several thousand words around "what kind of person is XXXX", covering many fields such as dating preferences, job search tendencies, behavioral logic, hobbies and even life ideals, etc., and raise the level of "knowing yourself" to the realm where Socrates must bow to the inferior.
Douban's MBTI group gathered more than 260,000 people
In order to "sort out himself", Duning once wrote a self-statement in the INFP group of Douban at 3 a.m. In the more than 3,000-word essay, she mentioned that she had difficulty "communicating with the spiritual world" with a good friend of the INFJ. She lamented that she was faced with the trouble of "not being able to find her position in the real world", and after doing the MBTI test to know that she was an INFP, she suddenly felt that there was a group of people in the world who were similar to her.
Others who don't like to talk at length indulge in self-deprecation with MBTI memes (which can refer to memes, pop memes, and other derivatives). These vivid and funny pictures, which simply and intuitively summarize the differences between different personality types, have boosted the popularity of MBTI.
After brushing a set of ENFP stems, Fang Rui rushed to the circle of friends in the next second and sent a "nine-square grid". The picture depicts ENFP as a happy star who is enthusiastic, overexcited, and lively. Fang Rui laughed and said, "It's me!" In her opinion, these memes accurately and humorously convey who she is.
A network of meme graph sources about the "ENFP" personality
Like Fang Rui, when many people forward their MBTI type descriptions, they will sigh "every one of them has been hit" and "Have you given me security monitoring?" "Too real!"
Many respondents agreed that the measured MBTI type description was very accurate. They found that "I was not alone, I was not a strange person", and thus gained a sense of identity.
Since learning he was an INFP through the MBTI test, Duning felt "a sense of affirmation." "My mother used to say that I wasn't realistic, that I hung in the air every day and didn't touch the ground with my feet..." And one of the descriptions of INFP is "idealism".
Some OFI "ashes scholars" not only gain insight into themselves through MBTI, but also use this set of tools to guide daily behavior.
"This set of tools is subtly written in my mindset." Mancheon will adjust its behavior according to the eight latitudes of the MBTI. "Each dimension represents a different functional level of personality, and I will think about which of my functions is not very mature, and then develop it accordingly."
For example, as an N-type personality, Man chuan believes that he is more interested in theoretical things than in transactional things. At the time of graduation, facing the threshold of stepping out of the ivory tower and going to social work, she realized that "I may be too N, I want more S things", so she deliberately let herself not read books and brush up on knowledge every day, but more into real life to deal with specific tasks in order to successfully graduate.
There are not a few people who have the same habits as Manchuan. Many MBTI enthusiasts are struggling to study idol stars, writers, historical celebrities, characters in fictional works, and THE TYPES OF MBTI of different nationalities and countries.
For example, among the representative figures of the INFP type, there are Hans Christian Andersen, Van Gogh, Camus, Lin Daiyu, Li Qingzhao and other figures of various dimensions and national boundaries, and their common denominator is that they are "fully focused on the spiritual world, and have little concern for the worldly things and the elements that make up daily life." ”
Netizens generate a large number of derivative analysis content around various personality tags, such as "Which type is the least likely to be PUA?" ", the student days of the sixteen-type personality, the reaction of the sixteen-type personality falling in love... These secondary creations not only enrich the discussion latitude of THE MBTI, but also make it interesting and easy to spread.
Everything seems to be a MBTI.
Around the derivative content of MBTI, screenshots from station B
Second, you and I ARETIS are not compatible, and it is not appropriate to meet
When MBTI is used in social scenes such as dating, marriage, and the workplace, it becomes an extremely efficient screening tool.
Each set of opposing letters in the MBTI can classify two very different types of people. "I think the most important thing is the pair of N and S, and I can even smell whether a person has an N-type or S-shaped smell." Man Chuan said.
N type means intuitive type (Intuitive), S type means real sense type (Sensory), the two reflect the difference in the way of collecting information and perceiving the world: N type personality attaches importance to abstract concepts, good at summarizing, S type personality is more sensitive to the details of changes in the real environment, focusing on practice; N type tends to introspect, S type will adjust its behavior according to the actual situation.
This theory can become the law of survival in the workplace. Man Chuan commented that his leader A was a typical S-type and particularly liked to get timely feedback. When Man Chuan realized this, he sped up his response to him; Leader B was a typical T-shape (Thinking, thinking, thinking more than emotion), he did not care much about the feelings of others, and especially liked to be reasonable. "If I have one thing to convince him, I have to follow his logic and come up with a reason he can accept."
Man Chuan believes, "When I use this set of tools to understand the logic of the other party's behavior, the frequency of my conflicts with others will be greatly reduced." ”
Yang Dayi was once pulled into an MBTI WeChat group, after observing for a period of time, she concluded: the group has a lot of words, quarrels are ALLTP, watching the hilarity is not a big thing is INTJ, advising "everyone not to argue" is INFJ, and many of the same type of people have surprisingly similar views.
Type N Yang Dayi said that he and type S people are not very compatible. "The friends I can talk about around, there are very few S-shapes, I think S-types are relatively utilitarian and realistic, they will feel that the things you pursue are all superficial and inexplicable." 」
Luo Zhi also believes that knowing the type of MBTI of others can more efficiently judge whether the two parties are suitable for communication, so she uses the MBTI type as a criterion for judging marriage.
After sending out the blind date, Roche received dozens of invitations. In the end, she only met an INFP-type boy. "This guy is the only one who can make a clear statement according to the logic required by the post." After the reality meeting, Luo Zhi had a good impression of the boy, believing that the two could at least achieve "spiritual communication." ”
But when people took the labels given by the MBTI as stereotypes, problems also began to arise.
The different personalities of the MBTI are gradually divided into different circles, and even the "chain of contempt" is spawned, and even people with the same personality are subjectively divided into low, intermediate and high order.
An anonymous netizen of ISFJ said that ISFJ was evaluated by many people as "the most vulgar and common personality" and was labeled as a "boring and dull old and good person". He then took a sharp turn, saying that some of the NT types that criticized THE ISFJ always exuded an uncomfortable sense of superiority.
Fang Rui admitted that when she was addicted to MBTI for a period of time, she would unconsciously put a type on the people she knew, and then she would no longer see herself, but four letters.
The following table lists the degree of friendship between the sixteen personality types. This guide simply and crudely distinguishes who is naturally related to whom and who is not compatible with whom, which is essentially different from statements such as "Gemini and Aries are naturally mutually exclusive, and Aquarius and Libra are attracted to each other".
Image source: Network
On the Internet, there are often people of the same type gathered in interest groups to discuss "how our type of people are doing". Wang Fang believes that this process will lead to "group polarization", that is, to make people who may have only a little similarity become more similar after constantly exchanging similar views, which in turn will make the labels on the body more tightly attached.
"It's okay to use THE MBTI as a talking point for entertainment or as an ice-breaking tool for making friends. But once it is used as a tool to know yourself, guide career development, and evaluate others, the consideration of whether it is scientific or not is highlighted. Wang Fang said.
Third, is it reliable to use MBTI to guide work and life?
MBTI is not a new species, and its overseas business marketing has become very mature, and it is widely used in business management, career consulting, personal growth and other fields. CCP, which owns the legitimate rights to MBTI, operates psychological tests worth up to $2 billion a year and sells nearly 800 peripheral products worldwide.
In the past two years, led by social media, MBTI has re-ignited in the Chinese Internet, attracting a new group of young believers.
Man chuan saw in the Principles that Ray Dalio had most of Bridgewater's managers do THE MBTI test, deepening their trust in the MBTI. "My first reaction was, wow, the big guy is using this too."
In China, MBTI is no longer a simple personality measurement tool, as a medium to spawn a lot of personality testing business.
Even if the MBTI official website has free test questions, there are still merchants in the market that take advantage of the poor information and sell various versions of the personality test. When Fang Rui first came into contact with MBTI, she randomly searched for a public account, and after painstakingly doing more than 90 questions, she found that she had to pay 6 yuan to learn the test results.
Interpreting MBTI content has also become profitable. Man Chuan once spent 100 yuan to buy a course to explain various types of personality of MBTI. There are also institutions that use the banner of the MBTI test to introduce trainees to subsequent career planning courses.
In the field of cultural and entertainment industry, South Korea has taken the lead in launching the observational variety show "MBTI inside" and the web drama "See Your MBTI".
Wang Fang introduced that although the MBTI can be said to be the current "most popular personality test in the world", in stark contrast, there are many criticisms of the test in the psychological academic community. On the one hand, the theoretical basis of the test has not been empirically tested, and on the other hand, the psychometric quality of the test is not up to standard. The commonly used method of forced selection (that is, two choices) in the MBTI test is not scientific, and most people in the middle are "forced to take sides", but in fact, there are many differences between people in the same type.
Chestnut believes that the MBTI is abused. She feels that the entertainment of THE MBTI is not the biggest problem, the biggest problem is that over-reliance on the MBTI has made people lose the possibility of knowing more about themselves.
Man chuan also admits that the MBTI itself has certain limitations, and now she does not use this tool when she meets new friends, but will use intuitive feelings to get along. Only when the other person exhibits more typical behavior, do you use this set of tools to explain the logic of other people's behavior. "If you rely on only a few comic strips to define what this type of person looks like, you become a stereotype."
"The career guidance given by the MBTI is often directional, but it is very unrealistic." Duning said INFP was advised to be a writer, poet, artist, psychological counselor, and she did not refer to MBTI's career advice, but worked for an Internet education company.
Wang Fang said the MBTI's manual also explicitly discourages it as a predictor of job performance because it measures preference rather than ability.
Many of the new influx of MBTI enthusiasts don't seem to care much about whether it's science or metaphysics, leaving only memes and jokes. "Picture music" and "fun" have become the biggest meaning of THE popularity of THE MBTI, because it really cannot completely classify every specific person.
After meeting with the boy who passed the online MBTI examination, Luo Zhi did not choose to continue to develop with him in the end. "He is indeed a good boy, but when two people get along, they can't only look at the communication at the spiritual level, but also look at whether their living habits, three views and other aspects are consistent."
Note: Except for Wang Fang, the rest of the interviewees are pseudonyms.
Author: more than eleven people; public number: semi-familiar finance
Original link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SX7LXv534IoZlqmUUB9iXQ
This article is published by @Semi-Familiar Finance with the permission of Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.