How our tests are built

A personality test is only useful if you know what it is measuring and what it is not. This page sets out the basis of each test, how the scoring works, and the limits we would rather state up front than have you discover later.

Last reviewed 2026-10-09

📐MBTI — the 16 types

Basis. The four dichotomies — Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving — come from Carl Jung's Psychological Types (1921) as developed into a practical instrument by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. Your four-letter code is the combination of your preference on each dichotomy.

Scoring. Each question contributes to one dichotomy. We total the responses on each side and take the higher — the same approach as the original paper instruments. The result page shows the strength of each preference, not just the letter, because a 60/40 split is a meaningfully different situation from a 95/5 split and should be read that way.

The T/A suffix. This comes from the Assertive/Turbulent dimension added by later commercial instruments. It describes how you respond to stress and is a useful addition, but it is not part of the original Jung/Myers framework, and we label it separately rather than folding it into the four letters.

Known criticisms, stated plainly. MBTI is widely used and widely criticised. The main objections are that it is built on types rather than continuous traits, that it forces a binary where the underlying distribution is closer to a bell curve, and that a substantial share of people get a different four-letter code on a retest some weeks later. Trait models such as the Big Five have stronger psychometric support. We still offer MBTI because it is a genuinely useful vocabulary for talking about differences — as long as you treat the letters as a description, not a diagnosis.

9️⃣Enneagram — the nine types

Basis. The nine-type Enneagram as it is commonly taught today, including the idea of wings (a neighbouring type that colours your main type) and the stress/security movement along the connecting lines. The Enneagram has its roots in early twentieth-century esoteric teaching and was developed into a personality typology in the 1970s; unlike MBTI, it did not originate in academic psychology, and we say so.

Scoring. Your result is the type with the highest total across its questions, with the next-highest shown as a possible wing. Because the Enneagram describes core motivation rather than behaviour, the result is more sensitive to how honestly you answer than MBTI is — a test that tells you what you want to hear is not measuring anything.

Known criticisms. The Enneagram has little peer-reviewed validation compared with the Big Five, and different schools disagree about wings, subtypes and the direction of the stress lines. It is best used as a structured set of questions about your own motivations, not as a fixed classification.

🎭SBTI and AITI — our own tests, clearly labelled

These two are not established psychological instruments and we do not present them as such.

SBTI is a satirical type test: its result labels are jokes about everyday behaviour rather than claims about personality structure. AITI is a lighthearted comparison that maps a set of habits onto the “character” of well-known AI assistants. Both are meant to be shared and enjoyed.

The reason they are on the same site as MBTI is that they are fun, and the reason this page says so explicitly is that mixing entertainment with serious instruments without labelling which is which would be dishonest.

🔮Tarot and horoscopes — a different kind of content

Tarot is not a test and we do not score it. The card library describes what each of the 78 cards has traditionally meant in the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition — the imagery, the upright and reversed readings, and the historical background. The AI reading feature then interprets a spread in that tradition.

We treat tarot as a reflective tool: a structured way to look at a question you were already carrying. Historically, tarot was a card game before it was a divination system, and the interpretive meanings attached to the cards are cultural conventions rather than discovered facts. Saying that does not make the reading less useful — it tells you what kind of thing you are using.

Tarot, horoscopes, MBTI and the Enneagram are all not predictors of future events. Nothing on this site should be used to make medical, legal, or financial decisions.

🤖Where AI is used, and where it is not

Not used for scoring. Every test on this site is scored by fixed arithmetic in your browser. The same answers always produce the same result. No AI decides your type.

Used for elaboration. After a test, an AI model writes the long-form interpretation — the paragraphs that explain what your particular combination tends to look like in work and relationships. It is working from your scored result and answers, and it can only describe patterns that the underlying model actually contains.

AI-written interpretation can be generic. Where it is, we would rather you notice than be impressed by length. The type pages and card pages are written and maintained as reference material in their own right — the AI reading is an addition to them, not a replacement.

📏What none of this can tell you

It cannot tell you who to hire, date, or avoid. Type is not destiny in either direction.
It cannot tell you what you are capable of. Nothing here measures ability, intelligence or worth.
It cannot diagnose anything. If you are struggling with your mental health, a personality quiz is not the tool — please talk to a professional.
It cannot be “accurate” in the sense a blood test is accurate. It is a mirror, and mirrors depend on who is standing in front of them.

If you want to know why the same test can hand you a different four-letter code two months later, that has its own page.