[War & Business] A Society Addicted to MBTI

Criticized as 'Unscientific' in the US and Europe
Growing Concerns Over Misuse in Job Applications and Beyond

The 16 personality types of the MBTI test. [Image source= Myers-Briggs Foundation]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] These days, MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) reportedly always check the 'MBTI' personality type of anyone they meet, whether friends or romantic partners. MBTI matchmaking and compatibility have become so popular that some public enterprises even require applicants to include their MBTI results in their self-introduction essays, sparking controversy.

Although MBTI has recently become a huge trend in South Korea, it is actually one of the personality type assessments created in the United States during World War II. According to The New York Times (NYT), the official name of MBTI is the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator," developed in 1944 by teacher and writer Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers.

Ironically, neither of these two women were psychology majors. Katharine Briggs, a teacher, became interested in personality type classification after reading Carl Jung's analytical psychology books, which were popular in the U.S. at the time. She created the MBTI test by categorizing the personalities of her students into 16 types.

The reason she developed this test with her daughter was to counsel female students who were struggling with career decisions. At that time, as most young men were drafted to the European and Pacific fronts, causing a severe labor shortage, the U.S. government and companies actively encouraged women to enter the workforce, and some women were even forcibly assigned jobs under mobilization orders.

Women, who had been accustomed to pre-modern roles focused on marriage, child-rearing, and household chores rather than social activities, suddenly faced the challenge of considering their careers. This led to increasing difficulties for female workers who were assigned jobs that did not match their personalities or tendencies. In interviews with the media, the Briggs mother and daughter stated, "It is inhumane to make people fit the job," arguing that companies should understand employees' personality types through this test and assign suitable roles accordingly.

After World War II, MBTI gained tremendous popularity starting in the 1980s, especially in the U.S. and Europe, because it was much simpler than other personality tests, provided immediate results, and was inexpensive. The test, which has spread to 29 languages and 115 countries, was once so popular that it was used for personnel evaluations not only by the U.S. military but also by international corporations like Nokia.

However, in the U.S. and Europe, its popularity sharply declined after the 2000s as it was criticized for lacking scientific evidence and being created by non-experts. The MBTI test has never undergone scientific validation. It has also been criticized for oversimplifying the extremely complex nature of human personality into just 16 types.

Nevertheless, MBTI remains extremely popular in Northeast Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China. Taking over the place of ABO blood type and zodiac personality tests popular until the early 2000s, MBTI has now reached a level where concerns about its overuse and misuse are warranted.

In particular, rumors have spread that companies exclude applicants labeled with 'I'?indicating an introverted personality?from the start in their self-introduction essays, creating a new form of discrimination. The test, originally designed to prevent forcing people to fit jobs, is ironically being used in the exact opposite way in Korea. Interestingly, both women who created the test were said to have 'I' personality traits themselves.