The Myers Briggs Personality Test (MBTI) is an self questionnaire designed to indicate how people perceive the world and make decisions. I still remember the first time I was introduced to the MBTI test, never knowing that this would be the first step into my full on obsession with personality types and determination to analyze every single human being I come into contact with. This is what it’s like to be obsessed with personality tests:
1. The first time you take the test and suddenly, everything makes sense. Reading more about your personality and seeing yourself in the text makes you feel a certain type of comfort that can’t be explained.
2. Spending hours and hours trying to read more about your personality and that of others. This is actually…freakishy accurate and it’s kind of scary?
3. It also gives you an excuse to kind of be self-centered. Yes, please give me a full-page report on how my personality type is the actual life of the party and what my ideal career would be.
4. Knowing you’ve found an immediate friend when you ask them if they know what their MBTI is and they say yes. So I know we just met but how would you feel about sitting down and reading about our four-letter personalities for hours upon hours?
5. When you meet someone with the same MBTI as you. Kindred spirit? Competition? Who knows but now I have an excuse to show you all 50 of my bookmarked tabs about our personality. (Where are my ENFPs at?)
6. Forcing literally everyone you meet to take the Myers Brigg test. (You can take it here https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test). Friends, family, co-workers, people you’ve talked to for five seconds, the list goes on and on.
7. Judging people by their personality type. Not in a bad way, more so in a “Oh, you’re an INFP? You must be so sweet!” or “You’re an ISFJ? That explains a lot…”
8. Trying to guess what personality type everyone is. The more you know about Myers Briggs the better you become at guessing, and the more satisfied you feel when you guess the right type. Though it is very cool when someone is completely different than what you expected.
9. Literally rolling your eyes so hard whenever someone complains about how long the actual test is. Like, what do you mean you don’t know to know every single aspect of your personality and what makes you, you? I mean like, your loss, but also I want to know what your type is.
10. Being shocked when you get along with someone that all the reports said that type should clash with. What do you mean MBTI isn’t always 100% accurate to everything that is happening in my life?
11. Justifying behavior by using someone’s MBTI. Yeah, they’re an INTP. That’s why they’re the way they are. No getting past it, really. No, ESFP’s probably never run out of energy.
12. Spending actual hours debating whether or not to pay for the official MBTI test. It’s not worth it…but ugh, it would just be so cool.
13. Having the chance to write an article about personality tests and getting distracted by all the cool articles you’re finding. Ooo, I haven’t seen this before! Wait, I have to read this!
Overall, knowing about MBTI is a fun way to learn about yourself and others, and it certainly makes for some great conversations!