ACCURACY MATTERS

There is no escaping personality assessment. If you somehow manage to evade having your personality judged by tests or by psychologists, you still will find that your personality is judged every hour of every day by your acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and yourself. Furthermore, these judgments will matter just as much as, and probably more than, any that will ever be rendered by tests or psychologists. This is why it matters whether they are accurate. We need to understand others in order to interact with them and make decisions ranging from to whom to lend $10 to whom to marry. When we understand people better, we have better relationships with them (Human et al., 2012; Letzring, 2015; Mast & Hall, 2018). And when we understand ourselves better, we make better life choices. Improving accuracy requires better thinking, but it also depends on our acting in a way that allows other people to be themselves and also upon giving ourselves permission to be ourselves.