“Myths and Misconceptions about Personality Traits and Tests”, 2022-02-01 (; similar):
This study examined the prevalence of myths about personality traits as set out in a book (2021) and beliefs in the predictive validity of personality tests. In all, 616 participants completed a questionnaire in which they rated the extent to which they thought statements/facts about personality traits were true or false, and whether personality test scores could predict behaviors like health, wealth and marital satisfaction.
In total, 12 of these myths were rated as true (definitely or partly) by the majority of the participants, particularly those that implied personality change and instability over time. Only 6 were rated as probably false, 2 as definitely false, and 5 as “Don’t Know” by the majority of respondents. Overall, participants thought tests predicted leadership and depression best, and longevity and future earnings least well. There were a number of systematic individual correlates of these beliefs which indicated that participants’ religious and political beliefs were related to these myths and misconceptions.
Limitations of this, and similar studies, are noted, and implications are discussed.
[Keywords: misconceptions, myths, personality, tests]
…Table 1 shows that overall participants believed the majority of people believed 11 the myths to be “definitely or probably true” and around the same number of “be definitely or probably false”. Greatest agreement was with item 14 which suggested that trauma greatly shapes personality; followed by item 6 which suggested personality was difficult, if not impossible to measure. The 2 items (13, 19) that were endorsed by most people as false related to the same issue namely the instability of personality. Overall, 5 items attracted a majority “did not know”, possibly because they required some technical knowledge to understand them. Given the nature of the data there were no obvious ways (like factor analysis) to categorise the statements empirically.