Hi, I’m Molly Owens, CEO & Founder of Truity – the personality assessment company. You can ask me anything about personality types and personality research, including the Enneagram, Myers-Briggs theory or the Big Five system of personality.

Submitted by truity_psych t3_11t0szw in IAmA

EDIT: I'm done answering questions for now—thank you so much for talking with me! You can visit Truity.com to learn more about our personality tests and research. 

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I’m Molly Owens, CEO & Co-founder of Truity. As a former therapist and organizational consultant with a Master’s in Counseling Psychology, I saw firsthand the power of personality science in helping people grow and find their paths. I started Truity in 2012 to help make high-quality personality assessments more accessible for individuals and businesses.

Truity has helped more than 60 million people better discover their true selves. Our tests and research have been covered by CNBC, Entrepreneur, The Today Show, Bloomberg and more. Truity has the most popular Enneagram test in the US, and has been named to INC Magazine's Top 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list for the past two years.

I’m happy to answer questions on any of these topics, including:

  • Enneagram – applications, typing questions, benefits, caveats and challenges
  • Myers-Briggs theory – applications, typing questions, benefits, usefulness, caveats and challenges
  • Does personality predict our income levels, political views, careers, etc.?
  • Have our personalities changed since the pandemic? [Related research here]

Proof: https://twitter.com/mollmown/status/1635734443372707840

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berael t1_jcgii9h wrote

Since all personality tests are debunked junk science, how does your company help?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgl4pb wrote

This is a common misconception that I'm glad to clear up to get things started!

People use the term "personality test" to describe a lot of things, from Buzzfeed "what pie are you" quizzes, to more popular systems like the Enneagram. But strictly speaking, a personality test is any instrument that's intended to measure individual differences. Personality assessments are used in a variety of very serious applications. Clinical psychologists use them to help diagnose mental disorders; academic psychologists use them as a basis for studies on how our traits and characteristics influence nearly everything in our lives, from lifespan to divorce rates to happiness.

So, I hope this helps to explain why it sounds very uninformed to say "all personality tests are junk science." I know what you're trying to say, but the phrasing shows a lack of understanding.

To address what I think you were trying to say, yes, there are some valid challenges to more popular personality theories like Myers Briggs and the Enneagram. One of the most valid issues with these systems is that they sort people into "types," and really, people don't actually sort neatly into types. Personality is more accurately described as traits on a spectrum, rather than types. That's why we love it when people take our Big Five assessment, which measures five major dimensions of personality, and take the time to understand what those traits mean to them.

But that doesn't mean that type assessments are useless. The human brain naturally processes things in terms of categories, and type-based systems are a lot more approachable for laypeople. So long as they have some grounding in real human variation (which all our assessments do) they can be a useful shortcut for understanding fundamental differences.

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Canucklehead_Esq t1_jcgiux4 wrote

IHi

I've done Enneagram and Myers-Briggs. They're entertaining and possibly informative, but I never found them useful in informing me about career path, or life choices or anything else.

How can such testing be used in a way to benefit our everyday life?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcglh0r wrote

Both of those assessments are most useful as a source of self-knowledge, and are often more useful when you're in a situation where you are not being true to yourself, or have lost touch with some aspect of yourself that needs to be revisited. For instance, if you're in a job you hate but you don't know why, Myers Briggs can be really useful to help understand what aspects of yourself may not be a fit.

If you haven't found them useful, it could be that you're already in an environment that's a pretty good fit for you, so those a-ha moments aren't as necessary!

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black_flag_4ever t1_jcgk0k2 wrote

How do you feel about people losing out on job opportunities they are qualified for because of these stupid tests?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcglmqu wrote

We don't offer assessments for use in the hiring process for just this reason! We have an ethical objection to helping companies deny work to qualified applicants based on information in a personality test.

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PeanutSalsa t1_jcgmnmn wrote

What data and statistics are there that show how being in a certain personality group influences how your life turns out and the worldview you choose (ex. belief system, career choice, etc.)?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgndcz wrote

This is a huge question with a lot of answers! Just a few things that personality has been shown to influence:

- Politics: people higher on the Big 5 dimension of Openness are more likely to be politically liberal

- Relationships: people higher in Neuroticism (Big 5) are more likely to get divorced

- Career: people higher in Agreeableness are less likely to hold executive management positions

If there's something more specific you're curious about, happy to comment on that!

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snowpeech t1_jcgotbs wrote

That's super fascinating! Does that stat on Career & Agreeableness hold true internationally/ other cultures?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgprps wrote

That's a great question! The research I've seen (including our own) is skewed toward the US. There may be culture specific studies out there, but I don't know the data off the top of my head!

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meganmalo t1_jcgkubu wrote

What is your personality type, and how has understanding your personality helped you in your career?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgqddh wrote

I'm an ENTP. When I discovered this, I was also in the process of starting my first business, so it was very affirming to learn about my type and how many fellow ENTPs are entrepreneurs!

In the long term, it's been helpful to remember that the way I think is not the way my colleagues (or even most people!) think, and to be aware of tailoring my communication to people with different perspectives.

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amandagov t1_jcgou8i wrote

Do events like mass trauma--or globally Covid, change personalities in measurable or meaningful ways?

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Doktor_Wunderbar t1_jcgj46k wrote

According to these personality tests, do personalities tend to fall on a Gaussian distribution centered around the mean for any given parameter, or do they separate into distinct peaks?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgmdax wrote

Personality traits are almost invariably distributed in a bell curve shape. I can't recall ever doing a statistical analysis that found two peaks in the distribution.

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tbbhatna t1_jcgl0u9 wrote

In the professional world, what would you suggest are good 'personality exploration' tools that almost every organization should use, and why? (i.e. why should I allocate time to such activities?)

And maybe a bit harder Q - again in the professional world, how can personality evaluations support JEDI principles (Justice, equity, diversity, inclusion)?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgox82 wrote

I don't think there's any tool that every organization should use. It really depends on the organization, its culture, and its needs at a given time. It can be really helpful, in general, to open up a conversation about individual differences and how to support different work styles in the workplace. Many personality assessments are great at doing just that.

However, the specific assessment you choose should be well matched to your team's culture and your bandwidth for actually putting your learning into practice. For instance, DISC is a really popular test that's easy to understand. It's great for organizations that want a straightforward way to get that conversation started.

On the other end of the spectrum, we've seen organizations do trainings on the Enneagram, which is a much more in-depth and even spiritually oriented system. This works best for orgs that already have a lot of language around personal development and have the time to dig deep into what the system can teach them.

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[deleted] t1_jcig4fo wrote

[removed]

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tbbhatna t1_jciue84 wrote

I can’t describe to you the revulsion I experienced when I read your suggestion of not asking questions in an AMA.

My unsolicited advice as a trade for yours - if you want to influence someone, be less negative and more constructive.

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Adventurous_Fan_4319 t1_jcgo6n0 wrote

What personality test do you consider the most accurate and science-backed -- is it the Big Five? Or Myers Briggs?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgpbec wrote

By a large margin, the Big Five. The Big Five model is used as the foundation of almost all academic research on personality, and accepted as the standard by the vast majority of research psychologists.

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amandagov t1_jcgmpul wrote

are there in-built biases that might disproportionately categorize women in a specific way?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgo8t7 wrote

On average, women score as more Agreeable on personality assessments, and sometimes higher in Neuroticism (this doesn't necessarily mean women are more neurotic; generally, women are socialized to be more free with expressing emotion, both positive and negative, which is what Neuroticism is about). What to do with this information is less clear.

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amandagov t1_jcirk33 wrote

u/truity_psych Why would test makers use this word when its conventional definition has nothing to do with the traits they are trying to describe?

Also, this seems conspiratorially anti-women. Why don't they just change the label for this trait to something more accurate?

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Adventurous_Fan_4319 t1_jcgmkx2 wrote

Does personality stay fixed over time? Or does it change over your lifetime?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgnqb2 wrote

Personality is traditionally understood as those aspects of yourself that don't change, but recent research has shown that this isn't strictly true. Although people don't generally undergo a complete personality change (apart from edge cases like major brain injury), people's personalities do shift over the lifetime. There are some predictable shifts, i.e. most people do become more introverted and more conscientious as they age. And then there are individual shifts that may have to do with changing careers and discovering a new side of yourself, or starting a family, or even adapting to a new culture.

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diesiraeSadness t1_jcgxh2n wrote

Would you be able to link to that research? I am interested.

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PutResponsible1807 t1_jcgq4kv wrote

I've often wondered about the accuracy of these tests, since they're based on people's responses. I'd think some people are self-aggrandizing. How do the tests account for that?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgrhtp wrote

Yes, that's true with any self-report instrument—they're only as good as the honesty of your responses. This is more of an issue where people are trying to achieve something other than insight with their responses (i.e. taking a personality test to get a job). Of course, sometimes people do lie to themselves as well!

Since our tests are really designed for personal exploration, we don't try to control for whether people are being truthful. As with so many things in life, you get out what you put in!

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DrCalamity t1_jcgrub4 wrote

How do you respond to the fact that MB tests were designed as a parlor trick by a pair of unqualified authors with a eugenicist streak and a firm misunderstanding of Jung? And before you respond with weasel words, Myers was never cagey about her inspiration being famed eugenic bastard William Grant Hague. "Multitudes of people are utterly worthless or worse than worthless, having no just claims whatsoever upon the civilization which they burden with the dead weight of their existence. This is a sound, incontrovertible judgment, which has to be shunned, because our feeling for the ‘underprivileged’ is so strong that such truths can hardly be mentioned."

So how do you, uh, reconcile the fact that your field is just eugenics laundered through a lens of "empower yourself!"

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PeanutSalsa t1_jcgljld wrote

Do companies' marketing departments use these personality groups to try and help in marketing their products and services?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgmi00 wrote

This isn't my area of expertise, but I've heard a bit of buzz about it. My best guess would be that they might try to target marketing to personality types, but the effectiveness of doing so would be mixed at best.

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Daimentricen t1_jcgpy4j wrote

can you make the pie chart on your enneagram test easier to understand (not that it's hard to understand but some people act like it is) or like. list which types you scored highest on. because people are constantly posting their results in the enneagram sub asking "what does this mean?? what do my results mean?? how do I read this chart??"

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgqymo wrote

We actually communicated with the mods of the Enneagram sub to try and work on this issue a while back! We did make some changes, but always open to suggestions if you have thoughts on what is confusing people.

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PutResponsible1807 t1_jcgrm2s wrote

How many people are taking these tests every day? And have you seen a big growth in popularity in recent years. If so, why is that...pandemic? Particular demographic?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgszwb wrote

On our site, we have about 30,000 people complete tests each day. We definitely saw changes over the pandemic! Our traffic went up when people were stuck at home and down when the restrictions were lifted.

Over time, as well, we're seeing a growth in traffic. Most of our visitor demographic is younger, so it seems that personality is a growing area of interest for people in their teens and twenties.

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mapledonutdelicious t1_jcgsru8 wrote

People always say I'm an extrovert because I like going to parties and stuff but I also really hate people and want people to leave me alone. So am I an introvert or an extrovert?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgu56a wrote

You don't have to be either! You can embrace the middle and call yourself an ambivert.

However, hating people has less to do with extroversion and more to do with a trait called Agreeableness in the Big Five (roughly equivalent to the T/F preference in MBTI). If you're extroverted but not agreeable, you may want to be around people, but more in a way that creates competition or friction rather than cooperation—like starting a lot of bar fights.

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cleon42 t1_jcglcqr wrote

Do you lose any sleep over the fact that qualified individuals are being passed over for jobs and promotions because of the pseudoscientific bullshit you sell?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgmt48 wrote

We don't develop tests for hiring because we don't like them either and we do like to sleep.

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IAmAModBot t1_jcglvu6 wrote

For more AMAs on this topic, subscribe to r/IAmA_Health, and check out our other topic-specific AMA subreddits here.

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amandagov t1_jcgq34g wrote

If you had to select a partner from a group of 100 candidates to spend the rest of your life with, isolated on an island, and the only thing you could know about them was a personality test result, which test would you use and what would you be looking for in the results?

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truity_psych OP t1_jcgs7zh wrote

OMG, what a nightmare scenario! Well done, ha!

Putting aside my horror, I guess I'd pick the Big Five. I'd be looking for high-ish Openness, since there's some indication that partners who share a level of Openness are more compatible. I'd want higher Agreeableness, but not overly high, since I don't want everything to be a debate but also don't want nothing to be a debate. And finally, lower Neuroticism, because that's the trait most associated with relationship longevity and happiness.

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TylerJWhit t1_jchel0c wrote

Is there any substantial study that gives credence to other personality classifications outside of the big five?

Have any of them been reproducible?

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truity_psych OP t1_jchn3op wrote

The Big Five is a sort of meta-theory, in that it more or less encompasses all other models of personality. For instance, Myers Briggs describes four preferences that are roughly equivalent to four of the dimensions of the Big 5.

So, I would say that there aren't really a lot of personality models that can be considered unrelated to the Big Five; many of them are different angles on similar constructs, or mashups of select parts of the Big Five.

This means a couple things—first, that any system that can be related back to the Big Five can be lent credibility by that relationship (for instance, people love to say the MBTI is bunk, but it's hard to take these arguments seriously when they ignore the fact that the constructs are so similar to Big 5). It also means that none of these systems are likely as complete or accurate as the Big 5, which has been shown multiple times to be the most comprehensive way to understand personality.

To answer your question more directly, yes, most commercial assessments have been studied for reliability and validity. Most have some predictive power, for instance results on our TypeFinder assessment show correlations with real-world outcomes like income.

However, these findings can generally be related back to similar findings with the Big Five, i.e. Judgers in MBTI tend to earn more, as do people high in conscientiousness within the Big Five. So this research is less about pitting one system against each other, and more about discovering commonalities across ideas.

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FlattopMaker t1_jcid318 wrote

How accurately do The Big Five, MBTI, DISC and Kolbe results reflect the test subject's suitability or fit in any organization or relationship over time?

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stinky-richard t1_jci35kp wrote

Hi!

Do you always wear a mask to take pictures in?

Thanks!

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