Tell Me My Story: From Myers-Briggs to BuzzFeed

From the Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram to the “Golden Retriever Energy” TikTok Trend, there is no shortage of ways to measure and think about personality. Whether it's a personality tests administered by professionals or one of the many pop culture-inspired quizzes found on the Internet, they all have one thing in common. The ability to “measure” or type our personality gives us a story to tell about our favorite subject: Ourselves.

Even the most frivolous BuzzFeed quiz taps into something deeper: Our desire to be known, to find clarity in chaos, and to share something meaningful about ourselves to further our sense of connection and belonging. Finding out our “type” paints a picture in our minds of who we are and how we interact with the world. Even a Disney Princess can give us a moment of pause and introspection. As we think about her core characteristics, we can’t help but compare them to our own. Even if fleeting, we have a moment of “why Arial and not Moana?” Introspection enhances self-awareness, which is central to identifying personal values and strengths (Carden et al., 2022).

A Short History of the Longing to Be Understood

The human desire to define personality dates back through recorded history. The ancient Greeks developed a system based on four humors to explain how temperament was linked to specific bodily fluids and used to guide moral and medical decisions. By the 20th century, personality theories had largely evolved, although many still retain interesting connections to the four dimensions. New theories led to the development of new models to assess traits and diagnose disorders with increasing scientific rigor. Conceptualizations of personality evolved from Freudian drives and Jungian archetypes through Eysenck and Cattell’s factor analysis of personality traits to the Big Five framework. The Big Five is recognized for its scientific validity in multiple contexts and is common in academic research.

One of the most well-known measures, the Myers-Briggs, was not created by psychologists, but by a mother-daughter duo inspired by Jung. Focusing on psychological preferences, it brought personality typing to the mainstream due to its accessibility and relatability. It remains widely used in team building and career counseling despite its lack of scientific rigor. Today, whether it’s DISC profiles (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness) at work or “Which Taylor Swift Era are You?” on Instagram, personality typing is everywhere.

Why Are Personality Quizzes So Popular?

There are several reasons why personality quizzes remain popular.

1. They Feel Good. We want to find something that speaks to us. Self-image is complicated, a jumble of selves from our worst to our ideal. We are always looking for ways to move the needle toward our best selves. When a personality description resonates, offers insight or gives hope, it activates the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain linked to self-relevance and reward (Tamir & Mitchell, 2012). This self-referential processing feels good—it’s like hitting the “you get me” jackpot.
2. They Streamline Information. Personality tests satisfy our need for cognitive simplicity. They are heuristics that facilitate our understanding. We humans are cognitive misers and we rely on mental shortcuts to make sense of the world (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011). Labels like INFJ or Enneagram 8 offer a tidy way to organize messy personal data. They are like mental file folders for organizing social and emotional life.
3. They Create a Social Shorthand. Personality tests and quizzes give names to behaviors or feelings, making them easy to describe and, more importantly, to share. Labels are metaphors for a large amount of information. When you say “I’m a Type 2 wing 1,” “I’m high in Openness,” or even “I’m a Moana,” you are revealing something meaningful, but without risking the vulnerability of real disclosure.
4. They Offer Hope Disguised as Insight. Every personality test result contains an implicit explanation that alleviates self-esteem anxiety and restores ego consonance. You're not broken; you're a type. Got social anxiety? You're "just an introvert." Struggle with boundaries? You're "a natural helper." Personality labels enable us to reframe our self-criticism, transforming perceived flaws into strengths. This makes us feel better, which, in turn, can inspire us to be more confident and take more positive actions.

Storytelling as Self-Discovery

Narrative identity theory posits that we construct our sense of self by telling stories about ourselves that connect our past, present, and future (McAdams, 2001). Personality frameworks help us tell our own stories. Sometimes we retell the same stories. But, we also continually rewrite them when new experiences and understandings give us new perspectives on what we believed in the past. Insights about ourselves can help us reframe past events, challenge negative beliefs, and expand our sense of self.

Personality labels add to our inner narrative, creating roles in our personal mythologies: The Helper, The Explorer, or The Introvert. Every role offers a glimpse of our strengths and possibilities, combining insight to spark hope that helps us understand our past struggles, current behaviors, in ways that support our future aspirations. Typologies help us write a plotline that connects the dots.

Curated Self-Expression & Disclosure

We love to talk about ourselves. Self-disclosure activates the same reward systems in the brain as food or money (Tamir & Mitchell, 2012). Personality tests are a socially acceptable excuse to do that. This desire is evident in the popular Quantified Self movement that uses technology to track and analyze personal data to improve health, well-being, and self-knowledge. Wearables and wellness apps turn personality, mood, and behavior into metrics. Data, like sleep scores or chronotypes, are interpreted to infer personality (Krizan et al., 2021; Li et al., 2024). With Apple Watches, Oura rings, and AI-generated trait maps, self-exploration is increasingly measurable, visual, and shareable.

Meaning Over Accuracy

While some personality quizzes are clearly nonscientific (e.g., those based on Disney princesses), there is debate regarding the scientific validity of certain popular typologies. Personality psychologists, for instance, have long challenged the reliability of the Myers-Briggs and Enneagram. But psychological accuracy isn’t the measure of value I’m talking about here.

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Personality systems endure because they offer a symbolic structure that helps us feel seen, gives us a starting point for reflection, and acts as a mirror to our inner lives. Even when they’re not remotely scientific, they're useful in meaning-making and fostering social connection.

It’s Not About Being Labeled, It’s About Being Understood

Personality quizzes can be fun and silly, but also useful. They help people identify patterns, express themselves, find belonging, and connect with others in a shared language—even if it’s just to share a joke. Whether in therapy, at work, or on social media, personality frameworks provide a way to think about identity in our fragmented world. They help us feel knowable and a little more in control.