Personality tests are one of the most popular tools used by entrepreneurs to understand themselves. They can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, how to improve yourself, and how to better lead others. But, self-reported personality tests have a major flaw that holds back their true potential: unconscious bias.
What Are Self-Reported Personality Tests?
Self-reported personality tests are any assessment that requires you to answer questions to get the result. These include but are not limited to:
- Meyers Briggs
- Entrepreneurial Archetype
- Enneagram
- Strengths Finders
Non-self reported (more of a mystical science) that have you enter your birth information for results include:
- Human Design
- Astrology
- Gene Keys
The Problem With Unconscious Bias
Most of us are familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is one of the most popular of self-reported personality tests. The Entrepreneurial Archetype Quiz has been formulated with the same algorithmic testing framework.
This type of assessment does not require any background knowledge, making it accessible to many people.
However, this also means that we must rely on our own understanding and interpretation of how to answer the questions in order for them to be valid. The problem here is that unconscious bias can easily influence our answers without even realizing it.
This is why you may get different results each time you take it.
9 Reasons Why Unconscious Bias May Be Skewing Your Personality Test Results
- Self-reported personality tests are not always accurate because they rely on the person’s memory and self-assessment of their own behavior.
- People can also be dishonest about themselves, which skews the results of a test.
- People may not be able to accurately self-report their personality traits.
- Personality tests may not have enough questions to accurately measure all aspects of a person’s personality (our new quiz has 73 possible questions).
- Personality traits are subjective and change over time.
- Many people don’t know themselves well enough to accurately assess how they behave in certain situations, which can lead to inaccurate results.
- The way a person answers questions about themselves can be influenced by unconscious biases or stereotypes that have been absorbed from society.
- Personality tests are subjective and people can easily misinterpret the questions.
- Self-reported personality tests do not account for external factors that influence a person’s behavior, such as family upbringing, culture, or socioeconomic status.
The more you know about yourself and the unconscious biases you hold, the easier it is to:
- Walk through life as a better human being.
- Get accurate results on personality tests that reflect the most inherent, authentic version of you.
How To Improve The Accuracy Of Your Results In Personality Tests
When you take self-reported personality tests, go into them knowing that every single quality, strength, weakness, shadow, and trait is completely neutral.
One is not better than the other.
You may hold judgment, shame, lack of experience, or conditioning around certain things, and that’s perfectly okay.
Do your best to remove your emotions from the act of answering, and remember that you are the only person who needs to see the “result”.
These questions are malleable with you and your development, revealing to you a lot more than just your answer.
Do not allow yourself to enter into this process with any preconceived notions about what an answer should look like and instead allow yourself to give honest answers based on your current state without judgment or criticism.
At the end of the day, answering a question with what you ‘hope to be’ will ultimately produce inaccurate and possibly unhelpful advice.
An exciting and highly relevant update:
The new, V.20 Entrepreneurial Archetype Quiz will be launched this week. An entrepreneurial answer to personality tests – built with the same rigor and calculation accuracy of the most popular and respected assessments today.
Close to a year in the making, you’ll be able to receive your full, 4-Quadrant Breakdown (with percentages: yay pie charts!) that includes how all 4 Archetypes sit within your chart.
Across a possible 73 total questions (we’ve built a conditional logic learning system) you’ll be matched with your full Entrepreneurial Archetype Breakdown, and receive a personalized assessment of your strengths, skills, opportunities, and weaknesses.
Learn how to position, monetize, market, organize, and develop a brand through the lens of your unique Archetype Breakdown.
Get immediate insight on which areas need attention, and build an integrative approach to achieving success in business and life.
Of most importance, you’ll be delivered an all-new suite of insights, tips, and action steps to take with your breakdown – entirely contextual to who you are and where you are in your entrepreneurial journey.
Stay tuned, and remember to answer each question as best you can.
After all, this is for you, not anyone else.
