The recent Cosmos Persona Quiz has everybody showing and comparing their personalities. But what does it really say about a person?
Recently, as I was scrolling through Instagram, I found that a few of my friends had posted their results of a new personality test, the “Cosmo Persona Quiz”.
Thinking it was just another fad, I scrolled right past them, dismissing it almost immediately from my mind. I had not expected that a few days later my friends would be talking about it during lunch and, before I knew it, I had taken the test myself.
According to the test, I was a “Rocket” – someone who’s fast-paced and ruthless, tackling challenges head on. Many of my friends agreed that it suited me as well.
However, being a skeptic of everything online, I was curious to know if personality tests were a true evaluation of oneself. After all, if it really was so accurate, why wouldn’t we be using it more to judge someone more accurately? Why are there so many iterations of it?
And thus, my deep dive began.
What are personality tests anyway?
I’m sure that almost everyone knows about the MBTI test (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). The test rose to popularity post World War II when it was often used to match people with jobs, among other things.
More recently (and perhaps, interestingly), South Koreans are using MBTI to speed date,
An MBTI fortune telling booth in Seoul.
and in China, job-seekers pay close attention to their MBTI, believing that they should only take jobs that suit their MBTI type. Recruiters also have the tendency to ask interviewees about their MBTI type, adding another way to evaluate a suitable candidate for a position.
A Chinese recruitment app shows the requirements of MBTI test for job positions.
Despite its popularity, there are many criticisms about the MBTI test, namely, that human personality is too complex to be defined within 16 personality types. Another argues that these tests rely on the individual taking it to be completely honest, which may not always be the case.
So, how accurate is MBTI? And how accurate are these other personality tests floating around the World Wide Web? Maybe, it’s time to find out.
Putting the tests to the test!
In this mini “experiment”, I’ll be honestly answering 4 different personality tests and measuring 2 things: (1) Consistency and (2) Reliability.
(1) Consistency
I will compare all the personality tests to each other to see evaluate the similarity and differences of each result.
(2) Reliability
I will ask a few of my friends if the results are a true reflection of myself in their mind. It can verify if the results are accurate to my personality and prove if we can use the results of these tests to evaluate others.
Let’s see where this takes us, shall we? Let’s begin with the “Cosmo Persona Quiz”.
Cosmo Persona Quiz
This quiz was a really fun and cute. It takes you through a journey in space (and cats). It is unsurprising why it is so popular!
These is the result of my test:
Cosmos Persona Quiz
The dangerous and high-flying rocket. According to test, I am a fast learner and a reliable leader, but a harsh and hot-headed critic.
I would personally think I am more calm than hot-headed, but here’s what my friends said:
Opinions from my friends!
So far, so good! Looks like the Cosmo Persona Quiz captured my personality relatively well, other than maybe a few things (like ruthlessness)! I’m sure… I’m not ruthless…
This was actually a surprise to me, as the questions in the quiz felt quite superficial, so it was interesting to see that even though the content of the quiz was seemingly weird and random, it is still meaningful in some way.
Anyway, on to the next!
The MBTI Test
Of course, this wouldn’t be a proper review of personality tests if we did not include the most well-known of them all: The MBTI test.
This was my result:
MBTI Test
This was an interesting result. When I took the MBTI test 4 years ago, I was an INTJ (it was administered by the school, so I believe it was accurate at the time, too).
Now, although not by much, I am an “Extravert”. Is this our first sign of consistency? Probably not, it’s likely because my tastes, preferences and experiences have changed over time! I guess a leopard really can change its spots!
Here’s what my friends said about the test:
Opinions from my friends #2!
So it isn’t just me who thought I was more introverted!
But to be fair to the test, I ranked pretty evenly between those 2 traits (54% Extravert, 46% Introvert), so I would expect to express traits of introversion as well.
Aside from that, the personality tests have been pretty accurate so far! But we’ve only touched the popular ones, what can we say about the lesser-known tests?
Innate Index Personality Test
This test is much shorter and more straightforward. It was also one of the tests that inspired the Cosmos Persona Quiz!
The test centres around finding out your innate personality by gauging the traits you express in a workplace setting. There is a whole “About” section explaining how the test works, which you can explore on your own as well!
This was my result:
Innate Index Personality Test
Here, we have our first few inconsistencies! . As opposed to the dominant Extraversion expressed in my MBTI, here it says that I’m only 36% Sociable. And as opposed to the highly reliant, high energy and rash “Rocket” that I am according to the Cosmos Persona Quiz, I score a 45% in Character (related to reliability), 21% in Energy and 91% in Sensitivity (relating to empathy and cooperativeness)
Shockingly, the results told a different story compared to the version of myself we constructed with the previous 2 tests. Could it be that, just like Moon-Knight, I had split personalities?
Here’s what my friends said:
Opinion from friends #3!
It seems that there are some discrepancies between these results and how others see me as well, which my suggest that this test isn’t as accurate in capturing who I am.
Let’s try out another “workplace-related” personality test, which will be our final one!
Cake Resume
The Cosmos Personality Quiz was directly inspired by the Cake Resume Quiz, which you can clearly see in the cute visuals and game-like design of the quiz itself!
The quiz is actually under the company “Cake Resume”, which is a job-searching/ resume building portal. The quiz aims to find out the ideal career and job path according to your personality.
Here are the results of my quiz:
Cake Resume Quiz
Although not entirely different, there are some key differences in the results as compared to the ones above.
For one, the high score in “Attention to Detail” may contradict the dominant “Intuitive” trait in the MBTI, as well as the brash “Rocket” in the Cosmos Persona Quiz. The average “Influence” that I have clearly contradicts with the “Commander” and the inspiring “Rocket”.
Even the average score in “Teamwork” contradicts the high score in “Sensitivity” in the Innate Index Personality Test, which relates to cooperativeness.
Clearly, there is a lot more variability now. This calls for the good ol’ external fact check:
Opinion from friends #4
Just like the Innate Index Personality, there is the sentiment that there are significant differences between my perceived personality and these quiz results.
This came to no surprise, as I personally can’t see myself as a software engineer or chef…
Concluding Thoughts
The Cosmos Persona Quiz claims to be inspired by the other 3 tests done in this article, so it is shocking to be that the results, especially with the last 2 tests, were so different.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m some psycho with 23 separate personalities like in the movie “Split”. In fact, these tests do vary in results quite a bit! I have done the Cosmo Persona Quiz 3 times to date (in different settings), and I have gotten the “Nebula” persona once.
My conclusion for the accuracy of these personality tests is…
*drumroll*
Eh… like a 50/50.
My honest opinion is that each individual’s personality is much too complex to be truthfully captured and segmented into measurable categories. If it was that easy, there wouldn’t be a need for professional psychologists!
Although there is some truth to these quizzes and tests, it is nigh impossible to get an accurate assessment of who you are through a self-administered, 5-minute test.
But that shouldn’t stop you from taking the quiz! It can sometimes reveal certain aspects of yourself that you have to re-evaluate. I had a good self-reflection moment each time I took each quiz, helping me understand myself a little bit better.
Or, maybe you’ll even find out if you actually ARE the next Moon-Knight!