Contents
Personality tests are successful, why do we like to know each other so much?
Psychology
The classifications of our personality help us to promote self-knowledge and reinforce our identity
Make a personality test it is a hobby like any other. Just like we do crossword puzzles or we like sudoku puzzles, there are those who take a while doing a test that tells them which character in “Game of Thrones” they resemble or what color is associated with their personality. From the tests of the adolescent magazines (the time of the «Super Pop» and their: What Physics or Chemistry character would your partner be?) to the tests that we find today on social networks, these types of forms continue to appear from time to time.
In his “theory of social identity”, Henri Tajfel, a British social psychologist, spoke in 1984 that each person applies characteristics to himself according to the group to which he belongs. This is the way that an individual forms his social identity and your own self-esteem. That is why the tests in which we are assigned a category (be it the character in a series or a song that fits our mood) attracts us so much attention. Pilar Gil, a Therapy and Emotion psychologist, says that in general we are attracted to the idea of «rank among us and to others and to determine which social group we belong to ». For this reason, these types of questionnaires attract us, since “we seek to label ourselves and to be labeled in order to define ourselves.”
Tests as a validation tool
Likewise, personality tests can be tools that help us to find a validation. This is how Pilar Gil explains it: «We are attracted to the idea of fitting in with ideals of beauty, fame, prestige, culture, or intelligence recognized by a great majority, and there we find fictional characters or famous people. We want to be like someone who is socially recognized in a positive way by the majority.
On the other hand, the search to “understand” ourselves is always attractive to us. “People generally have a self-referential bias that makes content related to oneself interesting,” says Robin Rica, psychologist and clinical co-director of the Centta Institute. For this reason, the professional comments that, both with these personality tests, “always with entertainment value and not psychological”, as with other “verdicts” about our personality, such as horoscopes, however vague or diffuse the analysis is what does he do with us, always we tend to great identification.
Pilar Gil says that both these tests we are talking about and, for example, horoscopes, cause us interest because they define us, they tell us how we are and what the day will bring us. “Ultimately, they guide us. Sometimes we need them or we look for them because we feel lostWe do not know what we are like and we need someone or a publication to tell us where we are in the world, ”says the professional.
Self-knowledge
With these tests we skim the surface of a much more complex concept: the self-knowledge. This term, explains the psychologist Robin Rica, refers to the construction of a broad mental representation of ourselves. Cultivating knowledge is then “having the feeling of being able to answer questions about what kind of person I am, what I like, what I need or how I feel.”
Even contradictory, on many occasions we explore self-knowledge through others. This is constructed in a complex way, since in this construction one’s own experience and also the relationship with the other come into play. “Sometimes our self-knowledge can be impregnated with labels and expectations that are not ours and that can become a burden and generate difficulties “, adds the clinical co-director of the Centta Institute. That is why, although many people yearn to get to know each other better, others prefer to avoid it. «Many people live dissociated, avoiding knowing each other, since sometimes knowing or connecting with what one feels or what one is can cause suffering, and therefore, they prefer to remain in the unknown as a form of protection ”, points out Pilar Gil. “The difficulty is in looking at yourself in a mirror that not only gives you back your lights, but also your shadows,” adds Robin Rica.
Observation and internal dialogue
There is no knowledge without observation or attention. Robin Rica explains that for this reason, if we do not observe ourselves and pay attention to ourselves, we will not be able to develop the self-knowledge that allows a friendly and integrated self-concept. «Tools like newspapers, wondering things, in short, encourage internal dialogue contributes to this idea, ”says the psychologist.
Even so, he points out that it must be borne in mind that, although human beings usually tolerate uncertainty poorly, we don’t always have to have all the answers. “Self-knowledge must be a curious and exploratory attitude with oneself, which is why it is in process throughout the entire life cycle,” concludes the professional.