Impersonal tests
Personality tests – nearly a billion $ industry – have been used routinely by employers and universities. They are supposed to reveal the true orientation of an individual – extrovert v/s introvert, perceiving v/s judging and many other such concocted dimensions of personality. Humans always liked characterizing things neatly into buckets. Initially, they used observable characteristics such as color of skin and eyes, weight and height and body odor. As they became more "sophisticated," more intangible but measurable attributes were used for the same – including ethnicity, nationality, religion, political affiliation and blood type. Later, this urge to characterize, took them to invent horoscopes and personality tests.
The personality test, thus, is yet another segmentation scheme invented by humans, with a robust and rich history of segmentation ever since they arrived on earth. Every human from inception had to endure rigid segmentations in many dimensions – each put down with elaborate definition and color. They divided people into the clergy and the warriors, financiers and farmers, the rich and the poor and the religious and the not so religious. They labeled people according to where they chose to live – some in Wall street, others in Main street and yet others simply street less, some in the cities, others in the suburbs and yet others in the farms, some in the East, others in the West and those in the middle. Segmentation has been the only enduring core competence of humans and they are getting ever better at it with every passing day.
The personality test, a more advanced segmentation scheme, are well liked by those who use it. Companies like "leaders," and some personality tests show clearly whether the next impending brick in the wall can be marked as such or sent back to the crusher. Universities like "thinkers," as they set out to groom the next crop of Nobel laureates from the raw and uncut inputs they are given and the personality test is an invaluable tool to select the most likely. Nuclear power plants and aircraft control towers seek those who can remain calm under stress and those who are balanced. Venture capitalists seek the creative types, who can not only create but also ride the bus to the next exit before the ink in the investment check dries. Investment bankers seek the "money types," who can simply make money without any consideration for humanity and personality tests reveal this as well. Personality tests have become an important tool in many areas of selection, design and management. However, there is little evidence that the labels invented by these arbitrary tests have any correlation to what they are used for. What may be missing in them is the person, herself, who is rendered incompetent by the tests administered on her.
Humanity should celebrate the complexity of the individual and not their ability to stuff everybody into a 4 x 4 matrix.
