16 Personality Types

The 16 personality types grew out of Carl Jung's eight psychological types. Later writers organized these into four dimensions:

Each dimension is a scale. Where a person sits on that scale indicates a preference. Combining the four preferences produces 16 personality types, grouped into four families: SJ (Traditionalists), NF (Idealists), SP (Realists) and NT (Rationalists).

This test uses the popular understanding of the dichotomy method. It is concise and easy to follow, with 40 questions, and takes about 8–10 minutes.

The Jungian cognitive function test is a more accurate alternative to the dichotomy method.

The Barnum effect is a psychological phenomenon named by psychologist Bertram Forer in honour of P. T. Barnum. People tend to rate vague, general personality descriptions as highly accurate when they believe the descriptions were written specifically for them — even though the same statements could apply to almost anyone. The Barnum effect explains much of the appeal of astrology, divination, personality quizzes and other widely accepted pseudosciences.

Still, these tests can be useful. Like someone who flips a coin to make a decision, what matters is what you were hoping for at the moment the coin left your hand — not the coin's answer. A test can also reveal your subconscious expectations about your own image.

So it is worth looking back at the result together with the process of answering. For a positive suggestion, recognise that it reflects what you hope for yourself, and then act on it. For a negative suggestion, recognise that it is only self-suggestion, and consciously avoid letting it shape you.