性格测试真的可靠吗？



申请工作时，你很有可能要接受性格测试(personality assessment)。许多雇主都相信这种测试能避免选错员工，同时也希望确保员工能够应对压力。

Personality assessments are popular. If you are applying for a job, you might need to take a test. Many employers believe the tests can help them avoid picking the wrong people.

性格测试很流行。如果你申请一份工作，你就可能要接受这样的测试。许多雇主相信测试能避免选错员工。

Companies also want to make sure their employees can cope with stress. Disagreements can be costly and inefficient.

同时企业也希望确保员工能够应对压力。工作分歧会导致高成本和低效率。

According to the BBC, in the US alone, there are about 2,500 personality tests on the market.根

据BBC的报道，仅在美国，市场上就有将近2500种性格测试。

One of the most popular is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI. Used by 89 of the Fortune 100 companies, it has been translated into 24 languages and has been adopted by governments and military agencies around the world.

其中最流行的一种叫做迈尔斯•布里格斯类型指标，即MBTI测试。《财富》杂志100强企业里有89家采用这个测试，此测试被翻译成24种语言，被全世界各地的政府和军事机构广为采用。

Perhaps its attraction lies in its simplicity – according to the MBTI, we all conform to one of 16 character types.

也许这种测试的吸引力在于它的简单——根据MBTI测试，我们每人都符合16种性格的其中一种。

But that simplicity is precisely what makes some people skeptical.但是这种简单也的确让一些人持怀疑态度。

“There is something about the wish to put everything in neat little boxes so that we can manipulate them and make them serve our purposes,” says American author Annie Murphy Paul.“

这就好比把所有的东西都塞进整齐划一的小盒子里，便于我们使用，适应我们的需求。”美国作家安妮•墨菲•保罗如是说。

Her book, The Cult of Personality Testing, claims such tests are leading people to miseducate their children, mismanage their companies and misunderstand themselves.

她的著作，《性格测试的狂热》，认为这样的测试会导致人们误导自己的孩子，或是对公司管理不善，还会误解自己的性格。

To someone unfamiliar with it, MBTI may look like random combinations of letters, but the first category is relatively straightforward – are you E or I? Extrovert or Introvert?

对于不了解MBTI测试的人来说，它可能看起来就是字母的随机组合，但是第一个类别相对直接——你是E还是I？即：外向还是内向？

The second is a choice between S or N – Sensing or Intuitive – which means some people interpret the world by collecting data through their senses, others reply on their gut feelings.

第二个是S或N的选择——即理性还是感性——这是指有些人靠理性搜集数据来认识世界，而有人则依靠本能的直觉认识世界。

Are you a T or an F? A Thinker or somebody more governed by their Feelings? And, finally, are you J or P? Judging types prefer to regulate and manage their lives whereas Perceivers favor spontaneity.

你是T还是F？即：理智思考的人还是感情冲动的人？还有，你是J还是P？即：判断型的人倾向于有条不紊地规划和管理自己的生活，而凭感觉走的人更喜欢随性自在。