The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Test is Astrology for Businesses

The pseudoscience of the MBTI

Pictured: About as useful as the MBTI. Photo by Ouassima Issrae on Unsplash

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most commonly-used business tools around. If you’ve applied for enough jobs, you will almost certainly have come across it at least once. The test takes the form of a series of binary questions like “I prefer the big picture” vs “I prefer details”, which are added together to produce a four-letter code describing the main features of a person’s personality. If you’ve ever heard someone mention that they are an INFJ or ESTP, you’ve been exposed to the MBTI yourself.

The MBTI is, according to the Myers-Briggs foundation, used by millions of businesses across the world each year. You can purchase your own test for just $60 online, or buy a gift card or bundle for your colleagues. People use the test so that they can more easily understand how they interact with the world, how they can do better at work, at home, and in other aspects of their lives.

The problem is that the MBTI is, broadly speaking, useless. The initial test developed in the 40s was straightforwardly pseudoscientific, and it hasn’t improved much since then. While the field of personality psychology has many high-quality constructs that give you some useful insights into how you think, the MBTI isn’t one of them.