If Your MBTI Keeps Changing and Never Quite Fits
A Story About Your Outer and Private Self
T last year, F this year. It may not be that the test is wrong but that a different you answered each question, so here's why your results keep changing and what to check before you retake it.
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After lunch, you retake an MBTI test just for fun with the coworkers who joined the company when you did. Around this time last year you were definitely a T, but today you got an F. You all laugh when someone says, “Wait, you're an F?”, but even back at your desk it keeps nagging at you. Last year's you or today's you: which result is right?
First, one thing to be clear about. MBTI is an independently developed test, and this piece isn't out to judge whether that test is right or wrong. It's an attempt to explain why your results wobble when you take the kind of four-letter type test so many of us try, through two settings: the you around people and the you alone.
Questions don't specify the setting
Type test questions usually go something like this: “At a gathering, do you tend to be the first to talk to people you've just met?” But the moment you read that sentence, a situation pops into your head. Some days it's a company workshop, other days a close friend's birthday party. The question doesn't say what kind of gathering, but the person answering picks one situation each time and answers from it.
This is where the results split. On a day you picture the company workshop, you end up answering as the you around people, your social self. On a day you picture a get-together with a few close friends, you answer as the you closer to how you are alone, your private self. If your two characters differ in sociability, getting different answers to the same question is only natural. The result didn't wobble; a different character answered each question.
The other letters work the same way. Which character answers changes depending on which situation comes to mind as you read the question.
| Letters you swing between | Situations with other people | Situations when alone or at ease |
|---|---|---|
| E and I | A company workshop | Dinner with two or three close friends |
| S and N | Work you handle by the manual | A hobby you dig into on your own |
| T and F | A decision you make in a meeting | A night spent worrying about family |
| J and P | Work with a deadline | A weekend with no plans at all |
If your answers differ between days you picture the left-hand situation and days you picture the right-hand one, the test didn't wobble; the you in those two situations was different all along.
Getting T last year and F this year can be read the same way. Last year may have been a time full of work talk, so on the questions about decisions you pictured the you in the meeting room, while this year you've poured a lot of care into the people close to you, so you pictured personal situations. Before arguing over which one is right, think back to which situations you mostly lived in during those two periods.
Other reasons your results wobble
Besides setting, a few other things move your results.
- A personality trait with a score near the middle. If you do not lean strongly either way on a trait, answering just one or two questions differently can flip the letter. If a letter changes every time, your score for that trait is probably near the middle. On the other hand, if a trait gives you the same letter no matter how many times you take the test, you probably lean clearly one way. Separate the letters that wobble from the ones that do not, and you can tell your defaults from your flexible parts.
- How your week has been. After a week of being worn down by people, you'll answer questions about meeting people more reluctantly. In a week of piled-up deadlines, you'll react more sharply to questions about planning. Your personality is the same, but the state you're answering in is different. In cases like this, looking at two or three results taken a few weeks apart is more accurate than any single result.
- Answering as the you that you want to be. If you've recently started using a planner to become a more organized person, it's easy to answer the planning questions as the you that you want to be rather than the you right now. The result didn't change; your yardstick did.
- Words reading differently. Some days you read “spontaneous” as meaning free, and other days as meaning irresponsible. Even with the same question, if a word lands differently, your answer changes too.
- Your setting really has changed. When your life changes a lot, with a new job, a move, or a breakup, parts of your personality slowly shift too. That's not wobbling; it's change. We cover what changes and what stays in detail in Can personality change?
Check these before you take it again
If you're worried your results will change again, run through the following before you start the test.
- Have you decided which setting you'll answer from this time? The you around people, or the you alone?
- Are you picturing the same situation each time for words like “gathering” or “work” in the questions?
- Has this week been very different from usual? Deadlines, a move, a big fight?
- Are you answering as the you that you want to be, rather than the you right now?
- Compared with last time, do the letters that changed always correspond to the same personality trait?
That last question is especially useful. If the changing letters always correspond to the same personality trait, that trait is one of your flexible parts. If the changed letter corresponds to a different trait each time, chances are the situations you pictured while reading the questions were different each time. In that case, the quickest fix is to settle on a setting first and take it again.
How to make changing results useful
- Pick a setting and take it twice. Answer once picturing “the me in front of coworkers” and once picturing “the me on a weekend with no plans.” If the two results differ, that difference is exactly the difference between your social self and private self. Neither result is wrong.
- Use the letters that change often as information. If you swing between T and F, you may be someone who draws on both logic and empathy depending on the situation. Not being able to settle on one letter isn't a weakness; it means your responses can span a wide range for that trait.
- Write the conditions next to your results. Leave a line with the date, how that week was, and the situation you pictured. Something like “March, just after moving, pictured a company workshop.” After a few of these, you can see whether it was you that changed or the conditions.
- Keep the you that you want to be in a separate note. Answer the test as the you right now, and write down the you that you want to be in your notes app. When you don't mix the two, your results wobble less and your goals get clearer.
- Match settings when you compare with friends, too. If your friend answered with work situations and you answered with close-friend situations, putting the two results side by side won't compare well. When you take it together, agree on a setting, like “Let's all do the work version this time,” and where you differ from each other becomes much clearer.
How not to read this
- Changing results don't mean the test is nonsense. They mean the same person can come out differently depending on which setting they picture while answering. If the questions don't set the setting, you, the one answering, can set it.
- It doesn't mean you lack a backbone, either. Bringing out different traits in different settings is adaptation.
- It doesn't mean the result you got most often is the real one, either. The result you got most often is just the result for the setting you pictured most often.
- It doesn't mean a type you got once is your box for life, either. A type isn't a box; it's closer to a snapshot of you during this period of your life.
Two settings instead of wobbling letters
If your results keep changing, it means you don't live with just one face. Once you know which setting you answered from, the results that used to wobble start to explain you instead.
The free personality test asks about the you around people and the you alone separately from the start. So your results also come out side by side, as two codes for your social self and private self. There's much less confusion about which situation to picture. If you're curious about the parts four letters don't show well, read When MBTI doesn't fit too.
This piece is meant to help you understand yourself; it's not a diagnosis that pins down your personality.
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