Stop taking tests

last edited 2024-11-05

Personality tests, D&D alignment tests, political alignment tests, people really seem to enjoy them, but they're all garbage. Without exception. They're not useful because all they really do is tell you what you told them. At best, they tell you what label you should be using for yourself, but even at that they're pretty useless. Anyway, this is more about the questions than the results. On every one of these tests, you will find several of the following:

Questions that are massively open to interpretation

Anything that uses the word 'fascism', 'socialism', 'tradition', etc.

In D&D tests, you sometimes see a term like "family elders". Who's that? Parents, older siblings, grandparents? Obviously it makes a huge difference to their authority, but I'm not allowed to distinguish!

Repeat questions

I've been told that these exist to "detect contradictory responses". That's bullshit. Why isn't every question on there twice then? Besides, what do you do if someone gives contradictory responses? As far as I've seen, none of these tests point it out which would be the obvious right thing to do if your goal was to get rid of contradictory answers. They just roll on and, I assume, average the results.

Questions that introduce factors into your results other than the actual results

On political tests, questions about "my country" introduce your country as a factor into what results the same beliefs are given.

Questions that are loaded, but you have to answer in a binary way

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question

Questions that you've already answered

Some people tell me that these are there to "detect inconsistent responses". That's BS. If that's a valid reason to put a question twice, why don't they put every question twice? And what if someone answers them differently? I've never seen one that points it out which is obviously the right thing to do if the point was to eliminate contradictory answers. They just move on and, I assume, average the results.

Passive-voice normative language

Normation requires an agent.

Incomplete comparisons

"Democracy increases the risk of corruption." That's verbatim something I've been asked to agree or disagree to. Compared to what? Monarchy, anarchy?

Questions about the death penalty can also be a form of this, because it's a lesser evil than life-long imprisonment but worse than penal labor, but it's usually asked about in a vacuum.

Questions that are the same as an earlier question

You might say the purpose of these is to "detect incongruous responses". That doesn't make any sense. Why not put them all twice then? And what happens if someone does answer them differently? I don't think any of these tests point it out which they should do if it was about stopping contradictory answers. They just go on and, I assume, average the results.

The reason I put this a third time is to make sure you have the same opinion on all of them.

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These tests are *garbage*, and the only thing that will make people stop making them is if people stop taking them and spreading them around. Put aside your desire for amusement for 5 minutes and make the world better.