Are Personality Profiling tools a SCAM?

People have been interested in the idea of personality and how it affects how we think, feel, and act for hundreds of years. From astrological predictions to online quizzes, we are always looking for ways to learn about ourselves and others and put them into groups. But as a facilitator who has given hundreds of personality tests over the past 20 years, I have often wondered how useful these tools are.?

IDEA 1 : People don't like Complexity

Research in psychology and neuroscience shows that the human mind has trouble dealing with complexity. Zhang and Munichor (2014) found that people like simple explanations, even if they are wrong, for things that are complicated. This could be because our working memory is limited and we tend to think in simple terms (Kahneman, 2011). In complicated or unclear situations, we often rely on simple heuristics, or "rules of thumb," which can be helpful but can also lead to biases and mistakes in judgment (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974).?

Also, the brain likes simple, familiar information over complicated, new information (Pocheptsova, Dhar, and Huber, 2009). This preference for simplicity is an adaptation that helps us deal with the huge amount of information we encounter every day. However, it can also cause us to misunderstand and misinterpret complex events.?

This research suggests that humans have trouble with complexity because our working memories are small, we tend to think in simple ways, and we use shortcuts. Because of this, we often prefer a simple explanation, even if it's wrong, to one that has a lot of caveats and assumptions. We want it quickly and right now.?

Personality profiling is at times problematic to explain because of this need that people have for simplicity. In the fast-paced world of workshops and quizzes that try to link our personalities with our thoughts, actions, and reactions, it's easy to forget that personality is more of a spectrum than a type. Most worrying to me is when people are shoehorned to fit into categories which are dichotomous.?We don't live in a world of this or that but rather this and that.

IDEA 2 : What is Personality in a nutshell?

Personality is a diverse part of a person's character that is formed by their upbringing, environment, and genetics, among other things. Personality is not something that can be readily classified into separate types; despite the fact that it is typically characterized in terms of "types," with people being classified into different categories depending on their qualities and characteristics, this is vital to keep in mind. Rather, it is a spectrum, with each person having their own distinct combination of features that define them.?

Gordon Allport, a prominent psychologist, argued that "personality is a dynamic arrangement, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that form the person's typical patterns of behavior, thought, and feeling" (Allport, 1961).

To put it another way, a person's personality is the sum total of their distinctive qualities and features. It's not something that can be neatly classified into a handful of bins.

Evidence from the discipline of psychology lends credence to the idea that personality traits exist on a sliding scale. A multidimensional model, in which each person possesses a unique combination of qualities and attributes that can vary over a wide range of dimensions, is one such example. This was the conclusion reached by Block and Block (2006). This method acknowledges the richness and diversity of the human personality and provides for a deeper, more nuanced comprehension of that nature.?

In addition, the concept of personality types is frequently based on a limited and narrow set of features that fail to convey the diversity and originality of human personality.

Paul Meehl, a renowned psychologist, has said, "typological ideas in psychology are usually often overly simplistic and hence erroneous" (Meehl, 1995).

Comparatively, viewing personality as a continuum provides a richer and more nuanced picture of each person's distinctive qualities.?

Viewing an individual's personality traits and features along a spectrum provides a more holistic and nuanced perspective of who they are as a whole. It gives a more realistic and comprehensive picture of a person's distinctive qualities and attributes by acknowledging the complexity and uniqueness of human nature. This perspective allows us to see and value the unique qualities of each person, rather than trying to fit them into neat little categories.

IDEA 3 : 4 things we can do better ?

Personality profiling tools aren't going away anytime soon so what can we do to ensure that we deploy them sensibly and ethically ?

1. Choose a personality assessment tool that has been shown to be reliable and valid: It's important for companies to choose personality assessment tools that have been rigorously researched and validated, and that have been shown to provide accurate and meaningful results. Don't take the vendor's word for it. Do your due diligence. Consult people in academia for their insights on the validity and limitations of the tool/instrument.
2. Use personality assessment results as just one part of the hiring or development process: Personality assessment results should not be used in isolation, but should be considered alongside other factors, such as skills, experience, and qualifications, to get a complete picture of an individual's abilities and potential.
3. Provide credible training and support to managers and employees who use personality assessment results: It's important for companies to help their managers and employees them understand how to interpret the results and use them effectively. Avoid packaging them into team building and retreats where games are played based on personality types. This tends to reinforce stereotypes, disincentivizes people too ; adapt, go out of the comfort zone or to deepen their empathy for differences. Personality profiling is a gateway to other topics such as workplace diversity so it's imperative that your team finds the best possible educators and facilitators who know how to deliver the ideas ethically and effectively.
4. Ensure that personality assessment results are kept confidential and used for the intended purpose: Companies should ensure that personality assessment results are kept confidential and used only for the intended purpose, and that they are not used to discriminate against individuals based on their personality traits or characteristics. Don't force people to share their traits if they are unwilling to. Respect their decision.

Overall, it's important for companies to approach the use of personality profiling ethically and responsibly, in order to ensure that it is a valuable and effective tool for hiring, development and a healthy respect for differences. A scam is a?dishonest?scheme intended to fraud and if personality profiling is tossed around frivolously, conducted as part of a team bonding exercise more for giggles rather than deepening self awareness we are all getting scammed big time. Anything worth doing is worth doing well isn't it ? To all the profiling facilitators out there, we need to take a stand and educate people who use these tools to stereotype and reduce humans into mere letters.

Personality revealed

In numbers and percentages

A glimpse of the soul