The Myers-Briggs test was developed in the 1940s by mother-daughter team Isabelle Myers and Katharine Briggs. (Photo: courtesy of the Myers and Briggs Foundation)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) sorts people into one of 16 categories, offering to find different personality types their perfectly aligned job. According to the MBTI, a person’s personality can be categorized by their preferences within four dichotomies: extroversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving. Katharine and Isabel soon found their first client: the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. The OSS purchased the type indicator to test what kind of covert operative mission might be best suited to new recruits’ personalities. Since then, the MBTI has become ubiquitous in the corporate world — despite its lack of scientific foundations.
