The HBO documentary, Persona, examines personality testing from several angles, including the questionable ethics behind this multi-billion dollar industry. The documentary suggests that while most personality quizzes are harmless and fun in a “low-stakes” situation, they can be ableist, classist, racist, and sexist when used in the workplace. Persona highlights the controversial use of these tests, specifically the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), in the workplace. “Personality tests are useful for those on a journey of self-discovery, but when they are used to make decisions by other people affecting someone’s life, they become dangerous tools,” states disability justice advocate Lydia X.Z. Brown in Persona.
This article focuses on the ethical concerns raised in the documentary, especially when using personality tests to hire prospective job candidates. We also highlight what experts in psychology think about these tests and the thin line in using career aptitude assessments to hire applicants in the workplace.
How Persona Shook Up the Personality Test Industry
The documentary Persona begins with a young man discussing how he was turned down for a job because of a personality test he took during the application process. He suggests that the store may have used his responses to the test to determine that he had a mental health disorder (Bipolar Disorder) and rejected his application based on that information. He also reveals studies demonstrating how to diagnose mental health disorders using personality tests such as The Five Factor Model (aka the “Big Five”). “It’s not fair that by answering honestly about things related to my mental health, that I was excluded,” revealed the young man in Persona. This issue and others mentioned in the documentary are now raising eyebrows within the career/personality assessment industry.
So how do personality tests like MBTI respond to such ethical concerns? Christopher Guadalupe, a certified MBTI practitioner and graduate industrial psychology student, reveals his thoughts on his Youtube Channel AsuraPsych. Though an MBTI practitioner, he does state, “My statements are my own and do not reflect those of MBTI.” Guadalupe goes on to provide the legal and ethical concerns of personality testing in the workplace. He first references the central issue of using tests like the MBTI for hiring a prospective candidate. He reads a statement from their website, “It is not ethical to use the Myers-Briggs test instrument for hiring or for deciding job assignments.” The statement goes on to reveal, “However, knowledge of type theory may help people recognize if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs and knowledge of type almost always helps teams and co-workers communicate better.” If the MBTI does not condone using its test for hiring purposes, what’s the issue?
The Fine Line on Using Personality Tests in the Workplace
Guadalupe then states that the real issue in the documentary isn’t the MBTI; instead, “there are a lot of third-party personality development corporations that are creating systems that are very similar to MBTI or the Big Five and then selling them to corporations to use for selection.” Why is this considered unethical? According to the laws enforced by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it is “illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of that person’s race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age, disability or genetic information.” This law makes it illegal to give someone an assessment, like an IQ test, to determine if a candidate would be good enough for a specific position. This prevents companies from using things like a test to discriminate based on something a person has no control over. So what is allowed when it comes to using personality assessments during the hiring process? This is where things get tricky.
Aptitude tests can help place an individual where they “best fit” when it comes to a job. However, according to Guadalupe, “The Persona documentary does point out the ethical concern of not giving someone a chance at a job because of their initial score on an aptitude test.” Why is this an issue? It boils down to a term called “Predictive Validity.”
Predictive Validity
refers to the degree to which scores on a test or assessment are related to performance or outcome. Typically, predictive validity is when a company uses a career aptitude test to measure how likely someone is to work in a specific field and how much satisfaction they would get from that job. This outcome is what these tests were initially created to measure, and this usually happens way before the hiring stage. “They [assessments] were not developed to measure how well someone is likely to perform in a job,” according to Guadalupe. Unfortunately, certain aptitude “knockoff” tests measure performance, leading companies to not give someone a chance at a job because of their initial score. This practice poses major red flags in terms of ethics. According to Persona, “Some tests are measuring who is worthy and unworthy.” This measurement creates an “underclass,” resulting in many believing these assessments are racist, classist, sexist, and ableist. To support this claim, the documentary also reveals how some hiring companies are helping applicants beat or cheat the tests to win the job. Persona asserts that some career coaching firms teach clients what certain companies want in terms of “specific traits” and how to achieve a high score in those areas on tests like MBTI.
The Counterargument
In defense of personality tests, Dr. David Colarossi, consultant, and psychologist argues that resumes and interviews come with their own biases. He believes assessments can provide a more objective perspective during the hiring process. On his Youtube channel, Colarossi states, “Within the first 2 minutes of the film, I see a narrative that says personality tests are used to eliminate a huge portion of the candidate pool. In particular, those who come from disadvantaged populations.” He reveals that he disagrees with this narrative as he feels resumes and interviews come with their own innate biases. He provides an example citing, “Say you want to hire an assistant, whoever is doing the interview will want to hire someone who is just like them – also known as affinity bias.”
Colarossi believes personality assessments can help combat these biases. He states, “Personality tests carefully select questions and screen them against The Americans with Disabilities Act.” To some, Colarossi makes a valid point. However, subjects in the documentary argue that testing for personality in the hiring process is a loophole for discrimination. Persona asserts that “disadvantaged populations,” the same group Colarossi refers to, start such testing at a disadvantage, especially if the framework for an ideal employee is based on the healthy white men who designed the test. Merve Emre, Ph.D., executive producer of Persona and the author of The Personality Brokers, supports this claim stating in the film, “The history of the test [MBTI] was geared towards naturalizing the power of affluent white men.” Emre also tells Refinery29, “What the tests offer the individual is different from what they offer the institution.”
So to answer the initial question posed in this article – “How ethical are personality tests?” Throughout this article, it is easy to see that arguments can be made on both sides of the aisle. However, what is important now is to keep an eye on how these tests continue to be created, if they are based on science, and the biases they may carry. According to the Guardian, “Ultimately Hawkins [the film’s director] hopes the film will make us all approach things like personality tests with a more critical eye. “We’re often drawn to systems that seem to explain the world in a way that’s simple and seems to be neutral. But I would always want people to be wary and to think about where these instruments come from. All of these instruments have a past, and if you really delve into them, you can start to find out things about why they exist that might make you uncomfortable.”
