scrimp and bullshit. one must question the veracity of online personality tests, or just personality tests in general. when we take these tests, many times, the results seem stunningly accurate. "wow, i can't believe they figured me out!" and then you forward the answers to everyone you know in an attempt to have yourself described back to you. "you are so this! but oh, not so this." i've witnessed this phenomenon personally, through taking many personality and psychology tests. stuff like "where's your inner player?" and "how much do you really want -it-?" -it- being a substitute for anything you could think of.



of course, let's not kid ourselves, personality tests are pretty general. when you break down all the people in the world into nine categories or four out of eight traits, something will inevitably strike home. but personality tests aren't like horoscopes -- trying to just give broad answers to broad questions. personality tests are meant to pinpoint exactly what you are like. so far i've found that the majority of personality tests get me at about an eighty percent level. sometimes more if i'm not lying to myself and others. this might make me pretty generic and easily categorized but it's an interesting observation.



now. to think about why this happens. see, we all have this image of ourselves. who we think we are and also who we want to be. i just might want to be that asshole who is the last man on earth, so i (sub)consciously skew my answers in that direction. no wonder the test results come out the way i expected it to. is anyone truly shocked by what the personality tests reveal? if you answer in a certain pattern, you will end up with a certain answer.



there is an interesting world of thought in-between what you are and what you present or want yourself to be. and it is this in-between area that can skew your personality quiz results. this coefficient i will call the "ego differential." i have no clue what differential means but i think it sounds right for our purposes. actually i have no idea what a coefficient is either but i'm trying to sound mathematical. anyway. this ego differential is the part of ourselves that makes us mold our answers to personality tests (and to strangerse and friends). if we want to seem wild and crazy, we will look at the ink blot and say "bazooka." if we perceive ourselves as more plain and down to earth, we might say "shoe horn." see how that works?



i'm willing to hypothesize that -- unless a test is designed poorly and too generally -- most people who take personality tests are only revealing who they want to be as opposed to who they actually are. gp, are you with me?