Malcolm Gladwell

The writer of the books Blink and Tipping Point and columnist on "The New Yorker" magazine in September 2004 penned a piece on Personality Tests. He cited the case of a quiet man Alexander R. Nininger who hated killing as a child after seeing his father kill a Hawk. He however turned out to be a ferocious soldier and recipient (posthumously) of the first Medal of Honor in W.W II.

Gladwell's point is that Nininger acted way out of his quiet character on the battlefield and this changeability is something that personality tests such as Myer's Briggs do not reflect. People are not black and white or frozen with one personality type. He believes a major problem with M.B is consistency- some studies apparently indicate that over 50% of those who take the test end up with a different score on subsequent retesting.

Personality Tests

Details plus fun tests

Malcolm Gladwell