Why We Love Personality Quizzes: The Lure of Self-Categorisation

If you have ever come across terms like MBTI, the various personality types, the type A or the type B friend poll and so on and thought of taking a little personality quiz yourself, this article is just the right one for you. Self-categorisation or even labelling is something so many of us like to do to seek answers, clarity on why we behave the way we do or why we think a certain way, sometimes even just for fun. This article explains the psychological reasoning behind why we love taking these personality quizzes and a few common personality types as well. 

The desire to be perceived just as one sees oneself 

Take personality quizzes that pop up on your social media posts, like what is your MBTI type, like the INFT, ENTP, INFJ, and the many others, it makes us curious to get to know which one we might be. To explain this in more detail, let’s understand the self-verification theory by Swann. The theory explains how people have a perception of themselves, and like it when the world also views them to be that way.

In a way, it helps them prepare for the world and how others will judge them and what opinion they might have of them. (Swann, 2012) .For example, a person who views themselves as confident might want others to see them as confident too, to have better self-clarity and validation. Two core concepts here are self-concept and clarity, as mentioned before, along with narrative identity. By taking a personality test, one might be able to better classify oneself into one or more categories and hope others will too. 

Self-concept and Closure 

The curiosity to find one’s true self, to know what group or category one fits in, to understand others and one’s selves emotions and behaviour. This is where personality quizzes come in, where one might take them to know themselves better and why they are or how they feel the way they do.

Self-concept, in simple words, means how we view ourselves. Even though others around us, our close ones, friends, colleagues, view us. Our likes, dislikes, hobbies and more are all included in self-concept. How others view us affects our motivation, self-concept and attitude as well (MSEd, 2024m). This is why taking a personality test can help seek some closure, as if we were easily categorised into something that others can understand, and boost our self-concept. 

Narrative Identity and Perception (McAdams, 2011) 

Narrative identity is shaped by one’s upbringing and experiences, pieced together into an autobiographical story. This is important for their self-concept and opposition from themselves and others. A personality quiz can help them feel seen (McAdams, 2011). For example, the way school or your family influenced your life, and those are reasons why one acts the way he does. Taking a personality quiz can help put that into perspective temporarily and help give some comfort.

Social identity and belonging 

Social identity, as the name suggests, is how we as humans categorise and understand ourselves with how groups and the world \ view us. Society quite literally. It also provides a source of behavioural and cognitive motivation. Sort of feeding off the energy and perspectives of us by society (Ellemers & Naomi, 2017). For example, a person with an A-type personality might have a self-concept that he or she is organised, but if a friend sees them at a time they aren’t, this might affect the self-concept even if that’s temporarily. Here’s why one might want to take a little quiz to understand why this is and to get a better grip of how others view them, as what personality type, and to know their own traits better as well. This could also mean that once the quiz is taken, they might mould themselves to fit a social circle better accordingly.

Illusion of control and predictions 

In the easiest words, being a Virgo or a Sagittarius or a type B personality might help us think we can predict behaviour or provide reasoning for it. Like they did that because they have this personality, and even relate it to ourselves. This is where the illusion of control comes into play. It is a sense of illusion that we have things under control and we can actually predict and thereby control our reactions, thoughts and decisions on various outcomes that we think we can predict and have control over(MSEd, 2024g). 

Cognitive Dissonance and Closure 

Cognitive dissonance means internal conflicts. Dissonance occurs when we act against our values, morals, or beliefs. We experience anxiety, confusion, sadness, and even question our identity(MSEd, 2025c). In this case, taking up personality quizzes can help feel a sense of closure in this confusion or even get some clarity. 

Personality Quizzes Don’t Always Come with Labels and Precautions 

Personality quizzes do not often come with labels or properly informed contexts. This can be misleading to the public. Especially those who take these quizzes with the hope of finding out their true personality type. Mental health professionals, on the other hand, can give one a better look and an in-depth understanding of their personality type and associated traits. However, the convenience, ease and accessibility of these personality quizzes attract people. These also do not have in-depth questions, which makes the outcome more superficial and often inaccurate. This is one of the more harmful than helpful factors of personality quizzes, and they are a double-edged sword.

Conclusion 

All in all, this lure of self-categorisation can stem from wanting to be seen, have some clarity and closure on who we are and how we think, perceive and behave the world around us, as well as personality quizzes just seem to get that right in the moment.

Therefore, to conclude and summarise this article, personality quizzes are quite literally a double-edged sword. They have their own benefits like the ease, convince of taking them, but also come with issues like invalidity, too short to actually meet the mental health recognition standards and so on. However, people do still enjoy and love taking them for different reasons like social inclusion, self-discovery and self-concept, to give themselves an illusion of control and lessen the urgency of self-confusion, giving them some sort of closure as well as relief in the moment. 

At the end of the day, these personality quizzes aren’t always backed by actual research and aren’t always run past certified and licensed mental health professionals, which leaves a questionable remark of how real, effective and validated they actually are for the common public to rely on.

FAQs 

1. Why do we love personality quizzes in a nutshell? 

This lure of self-categorisation can stem from wanting to be seen, have some clarity and closure on who we are and how we think, perceive and behave the world around us, as well as personality quizzes help out. 

2. Does being labelled as a personality type boost self-concept? 

Social identity, as the name suggests, is how we as humans categorise and understand ourselves with how groups and the world’s view of us. Being labelled as a certain personality can have positive as well as negative perceptions by the world, affecting our motivation and attitudes towards ourselves.