[Wikipedia-l] Re: MBTI

[Arvind Narayanan]

On Tue, Jun 01, 2004 at 03:40:19PM +1000, Tim Starling wrote:
> Anthere wrote:
> > http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_by_MBTI_type
> > 
> > How do you explain the current majority of NTs ?
> > 
> 
> 
> MBTI is pseudoscience. I don't know why people bother with it.

The wikipedia article gives the answer: confirmation bias. 

"Some even demonstrate that profiles can apparently seem to fit any person by confirmation bias, ambiguity of basic terms and the Byzantine complexity that allows any kind of behavior to fit any personality type."

People have a natural craving to "belong"; they want to be accepted
into whatever social group they see themselves as part of. By
deliberately ambiguous wording, the test lets you answer questions
in such a way that you can deceive yourself into finding external
confirmation of your perception of yourself. That's the lure.

Arvind
> 
> http://skepdic.com/myersb.html
> 
-- 
Its all GNU to me