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A L S O __T O D A Y The little browser that could By Paul Bissex Move over, Microsoft and Netscape -- Opera is coming to town (04/23/98) T A B L E__T A L K Webcams: Fun, provocative or a waste of time? Weigh in on these digital Peeping Toms in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y Let's Get This Straight By Scott Rosenberg Free the Windows source code? (04/22/98) This is just between us, right? By Matthew DeBord Two new books get confused about online privacy (04/21/98) Royal treatment for game reviewers By Mark Glaser From boot camp to Versailles, gaming industry junkets send critics to the strangest places (04/21/98) Gun mad By Andrew Leonard While the oldest, nastiest debate online remains deadlocked, gun rights activists on the Net get organized (04/20/98) Black and white and Web all over By Janelle Brown African-Americans aren't flocking online -- a new study puts the numbers together (04/17/98) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST FEATURE ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - - _______

YOU ARE WHAT YOU TYPE | PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Obviously, simple accessibility is the primary reason Keirsey's and similar tests are so popular online. David Mark Keirsey cites, in particular, the Web's openness to "ideas not from the mainstream academic or commercial institutions" (personality tests not offered by a practitioner in a face-to-face setting are still frowned on by the psychological establishment). Those on the Web, as in "real life," may also be drawn to the idea of "belonging" to an identifiable type or a group and the feeling of affirmation that inspires. But there could be more to why personality tests hold such a strong appeal for Net users: They may help fill a void at the heart of online communication. According to Marlene Maheu, a clinical psychologist with a strong interest in health issues online who is also publisher of the Web magazine Self-Help & Psychology, "People online are looking for quick and easy answers, for abbreviated-type interaction." We've all felt the need for some common shorthand for describing ourselves to virtual friends, and Keirsey results are more fun to share than whether one is, say, for or against Microsoft -- and arguably more enlightening. Most such tests are amusing and typically harmless -- though you may want to avoid those that require a name and address (as does the Church of Scientology's tortuous 200-question version). Still, Maheu, who sits on the American Psychological Association's professional practice standards committee, decries online tests' lack of accountability. "What if a person gets depressed or decides to change jobs as a result of taking one of them?" she asks. Kathryn, who collected Keirsey results on alt.support.depression (and who, like most of that newsgroup's participants, posts using only her first name), says that, judging by the newsgroup member's reactions, "A majority of them were taking the Sorter for fun, but there were some who really analyzed the results and applied it to themselves. Some said things like, 'Well, I took the test last year and was an X; then when I took it today I was a Y.' People didn't know what to think about the fact that their results changed, and discredited the test, saying that they would constantly get different results depending on what kind of day they were having." According to an article by Linda V. Berens on the site of the Temperament Research Group, the Keirsey test has an "error" rate of at least 25 percent, which means that in cases where the test is administered by a practitioner "and a feedback session is conducted ... the instrument results do not match the confirmed and/or observed type about 25 percent of the time." A one-in-four failure rate seems high. Yet, in the same article, Berens defends the Keirsey temperament theory as "reflecting patterns of behavior that have been described by many great thinkers for over 25 centuries." The Keirsey Sorter and a test with which it is often associated, the similar but much longer Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (a popular psychometric tool used mostly by corporations but that cannot be taken online), are both based, at least in part, on Carl Jung's psychological type theory of personality. Jung classified people according to their preferred modes of thinking and perceiving, relying heavily on the concept of opposition. He maintained that polarity is the source of psychic energy (the Keirsey and MBTI tests force you to choose between two answers in every instance). Jung coined the terms extrovert and introvert to refer to what he considered the central opposing characteristics of personality. Jung's type theory holds a lot of appeal and has seeped into our modern consciousness. While critics may see the Keirsey test as a form of "psychological Trivial Pursuit," others may find it makes accessible to the common Web surfer theories of temperament that touch on apparently universal truths. Just don't take the results too, well, personally. Even the Keirsey site describes the Sorter as, at best, "a preliminary and rough indicator of personality." Wally Glenn, a self-described test junkie who devotes a portion of his home page to listing (mostly parodic) online personality measurements, is still waiting for his ideal test: "One that comes back with an answer like, 'You have a tendency to take online personality tests.'" SALON | April 23, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell writes frequently about Net culture. A _ B R I E F_ L I S T _ O F _ Keirsey Temperament Sorter Kingdomality (medieval) Type A Enneagrams Value and Lifestyle Groups (VALS) Ansir for One Life Colors Insight Personality Instrument T A B L E_T A L K Bitten by the personality-test bug? Come share your discoveries in Table Talk's Digital Culture discussion area.