An Overdependence and Obsession for MBTIs

"What is your MBTI?" We all ask this question when we meet someone new these days. MBTI is a self-reporting personality type test designed based on Carl Jung's psychological typology. The four preference indicators describe the attitude, perception, and judgment preferences of an individual. The attitude types are divided into I (introversion) and E (extroversion) depending on how individuals draw energy. Functions are categorized as perception and judgment functions. The perception functions include N (intuition) and S (sensing), and the judgment functions are T (thinking) and F (feeling). Lastly, there are the lifestyle functions J (judging) and P (perception). A person’s MBTI personality type is expressed according to 16 personality indexes by combining the energy, perception, judgment, and lifestyle functions. This test is often used by people to better understand their own personality and characteristics as well as that of others. MBTI tests used to be something that people did for fun, but now they are considered when recruiting new employees and are even used to divide people into different groups. However, an overdependence on a simple psychological test can cause people to jump to impulsive conclusions about themselves. As a consequence, people are becoming less aware of who they are as a person, resulting in them being overly confident in their abilities as they cannot view themselves through an objective lens.

The reason people become overly reliant on MBTIs is because they want to feel a sense of belonging. Korean society revolves around the belief that a person’s life values stem from their connections with those around them, and there is a strong emphasis on pertaining to a sense of belonging as a collective community. This means that people act accordingly to fit in a collective group since they fear being alienated if they are not accepted by others. However, with gatherings coming to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people's sense of belonging began to fade, and their self-identity fell to ambiguity. People could no longer establish their identity through interactions with others. Furthermore, while our society in the 21st century has become rigidly structured so that there are clear cultural rules when it comes to how people should and shouldn't act, it demands its members to pursue change and live in a more flexible manner since a sense of belonging has become of the highest priority. MBTIs grant people this sense of belonging, and this is why people are becoming overly immersed and dependent on these personality types. Moreover, people use MBTIs as a means of eliminating anxiety and building self-confidence. According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, Korea has an ‘uncertainty avoidance index’ score of 85. This index describes the degree to which people try to avoid being anxious about the future, and a high score indicates that people feel very anxious and threatened when faced with unpredictable situations. Today, many Koreans in their 20s live feeling helpless, empty, and fearful of the future. As a consequence, they have turned to MBTIs as a source of confidence to overcome the uncertainty surrounding them.

People’s obsession and overdependence on MBTIs has given birth to new popular buzzwords. As an example, videos and images contrasting the differences between T-type personalities and F-type personalities are gaining popularity on social media. The question "Are you a T?" has become quite popular, but this has led to people being quick to judge those with T-type personalities without actually trying to understand them. If a person cannot relate to or sympathize with something, they are branded as a typical T-type personality even if the situation is not relatable to begin with. Everyone is inherently different and unique from each other, yet when faced with a conflict or a sticky situation, people start placing the blame on their MBTI type and restrict themselves. After finding out their MBTI test results, people try to rationalize their personalities by saying, ‘I guess I am just a person who thinks and acts like this.’ Since everyone is judging themselves and others within the limited framework of the 16 categories of the MBTI system (which to begin with is a simplified system used to categorize general characteristics), people are turning a blind eye to their unique strengths and weaknesses and are missing out on the opportunity to develop their personal characteristics and preferences.

We are forgetting the fact that the MBTI test is a simple psychological test that can produce different results depending on one’s current situation or condition. It is said that there is only a 50% chance for an individual to end up with consistent MBTI results upon re-examination. This inconsistency in measurement tarnishes the reliability of the test, suggesting that it may not be very valid. This stems from the fact that the test deals with the sensitive and intimate emotions involved in human-human relationships with questions that only cater to two binary selections. There are questions with an unreasonably sensitive dichotomy where even the slightest discrepancy can result in the opposite answer. Psychologists say that an overdependence on the MBTI test is dangerous due to the Barnum effect, where an individual considers a classification of their psychological characteristics as something that perfectly describes them, when in reality the results are vague and can be generally true for a wide variety of people.

It is true that MBTI tests can help people form bonds with others, especially if it is their first time taking a personality test. However, this comes with the unfortunate downside where people start perceiving and judging others solely based on their MBTIs. This results in people jumping to conclusions about others while ignoring the value of diversity. It is not right to judge every individual based solely on the results of a simple personality test – everyone’s personality is unique and different. Rather than blindly devoting ourselves to MBTIs, we should just have fun with it and consider it as an interesting cultural phenomenon