The Sorting Hat

Hidden Brain | 15 April 2019 | 0h 50m | Listen Later | iTunes
The desire to know who we are and where we belong has led to a thriving industry built on the marketing and sale of personality tests. These tests offer individuals – and, increasingly, employers – quick and easy insights that can be used to make some of life’s biggest decisions. But most fail to stand up to scientific scrutiny. An exploration of the world of personality testing, and the many ways we assess personality and potential – from the Chinese zodiac to Harry Potter houses to the Myers-Briggs test.

1 thought on “The Sorting Hat

  1. Rather than spending almost all the episode on presumptively nonsensical systems of classifying personalities, they should have focused on the Big Five (OCEAN) system.

    Hard to reconcile the explanation for the Chinese Zodiac results with the Judith Rich Harris thesis. Maybe parental involvement is more significant in a relatively deprived country like China?

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