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OK, so there's a 93-question test called the Myers Briggs type indicator.
有一个 93 道题的测试叫做迈尔斯布里格斯类型指标。
You've probably heard of it.
你可能听说过它。
It's the most widely used personality test in the world.
它是世界上使用最广泛的性格测试。
The most definitive personality test of them all is the Myers Briggs.
其中最明确的性格测试是迈尔斯·布里格斯。
And the company that makes, CPP, reportedly earns about $20 million dollars from the 2 million people that take it and companies that administer it every single year.
据报道，研发出该测试的公司，CPP，每年从参加测试的200 万人和管理测试的公司那里赚取大约 2000 万美元。
So you take the test and you answer these 93 questions and it tells you you're one of these 16 different personality types.
你回答了这93个问题，测试结果就会告诉你，你是这16种不同性格类型中的一种。
The only problem is that this test is completely meaningless.
但唯一的问题是，这个测试完全没有意义。
Clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, anyone working to understand human behavior who doesn't have a stake in the financial success of this test doesn't actually believe in it.
临床心理学家和精神病学家，以及任何致力于理解人类行为，但与该测试没有任何利益相关的人都不会相信它。
So, let's step back a little.
那么，让我们把时间往前一点来讲。
In 1921, Carl Jung, an enormously influential early psychologist, hypothesized that humans fall into a number of different types.
1921年，一位极具影响力的早期心理学家，卡尔·荣格，提出了人类可分为多种不同类型的假设。
There are perceivers and judgers.
分为感知者和判断者。
People who prefer sensing over intuition.
相对于直觉，人们更喜欢感觉。
There are thinkers and there are feelers.
分为思考者和感受者。
But even at the time he realized that most people don't fit neatly into one category or another.
但即使在那时，他也意识到大多数人并不完全属于某一类型。
He wrote: "Every individual is an exception to the rule."
他写道:“每个人都是规则的例外。”
So then a few decades later a pair of Americans who had no formal training in psychology, Catherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs-Myers decided to take these ideas and turn them into what they called a type indicator.
几十年后，两个没有接受过正式心理学训练的美国人，凯瑟琳·布里格斯和她的女儿伊莎贝尔·布里格斯·迈尔斯，决定采纳这些想法，并将其转化为他们所谓的性格类型指标。
Around 1942 they first began testing it.
在1942年左右，她们开始了第一次试验。
They took Jung's types but slightly altered the terminology and changed it so that every single person was assigned only one possibility or another.
她们采用了荣格的性格类型，但为了每个人都只被分配到一种性格类型，她们小幅度地修改了术语，改变了这个性格模型。
You couldn't be a little bit of an extrovert or a little bit of an introvert.
你要么外向，要么内向。
But people don't actually work that way, so the results simply aren't reliable.
但实际上，人们的性格并不是这样的，所以结果根本不可靠。
One study found that as much as 50% of people who took the test twice arrived at different results even though it was only 5 weeks later.
一项研究发现，参加两次测试的人中，超过50%的人仅仅在5周后竟然获得了不同的测试结果。
And a reported 89 of the Fortune 100 companies and 200 federal agencies use the test to separate employees and potential hires into 'types' and assign them appropriate training programs and responsibilities.
据报道，在财富 100 强的 89 家公司和 200 家联邦机构使用该测试将员工和潜在雇员划分为不同的“类型”，并为他们提高适当的培训计划和分配职责。
But multiple studies have shown the test totally fails to predict people's success in various jobs.
但多项研究表明，该测试完全不能准确预测人们在各种工作中获得的成功。
The really strange thing is that there are leading psychologists on their board and none of them use the test in their personal research.
让人感到奇怪的是，这个公司董事会中的杰出的心理学家，他们没有一个人在自己的个人研究中使用该测试。
In 2012, Carl Thoresson, a Stanford psychologist, a borad member of CPP admitted that it would be questioned by his academic colleagues if he used the Myers Briggs in his research.
在2012年，斯坦福大学心理学家，CPP公司的董事会成员，卡尔·托雷森，他承认，如果他在研究中使用了迈尔斯·布里格斯类型指标，学术同行会对他的研究提出质疑。
Wait!
等等！
"Why is the Myers Briggs so popular?"
“为什么迈尔斯·布里格斯这么受欢迎？”
Well, it really on gives positive results and it plays into the idea of people fitting neatly into categories.
的确，该测试产生了积极的结果，符合将人们整齐地分类的想法。
People love categories.
人们喜欢分类。
You can't take the test and be told you're selfish or lazy or mean. The results are positive.
在参加测试后，你不应该被告知你是自私、懒惰或卑鄙的。测试结果应该是积极的。
Because the descriptions are vague, they're hard to argue with.
因为该描述含糊不清，所以人们很难去反驳。
This is called the Forer effect, and is a technique long used by purveyors of astrology, fortune-telling, and other sorts of pseudoscience to persuade people they have accurate information about them.
这被称为巴纳姆效应，是占星学算命先生长期使用的一种伎俩，算命和其他各种伪科学让人们相信，他们拥有关于自己的准确信息。
There's something really attractive about assigning ourselves personalities.
这是很有吸引力的，人们能选定属于自己的个性。
That's why horoscopes are so popular and that's why we love taking Buzzfeed quizzes.
这就是为什么星座会如此受欢迎，我们这么喜欢Buzzfeed 测验的原因。
But the truth is that human personalities are really complicated.
但实际上，人的性格是非常复杂的。
You know, there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking the test as a fun activity.
但将测试作为一项有趣的活动绝对不会错。
But it's important to remember: the Myers-Briggs is useful for one thing: entertainment.
迈尔斯·布里格斯性格类型只有一种用途：娱乐。
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