Why do people care about the MBTI so much?

Do you know which personality test most common, laypeople care about the most? It’s the MBTI.

Literally everyone outside of psychology knows it and they know their type too. Beyond that, people like to analyse fictional characters, historical figures (who were alive pre-MBTI), famous people (who probably either don’t make their results public or never took the test), and the like to figure out what their MBTI type is. Why is it so wildly popular amongst laypeople, despite the fact that it is not the be all end all of actual psychological personality testing?

I stumbled across the test maybe six years ago and was intrigued (more intrigued by the test than I was by psychology at that point). Over time, I grew disenchanted with it though, mostly because as a psych student, I was beginning to understand why it wasn’t the be all, end all golden standard for personality testing. Here, though, I’ll offer a few personal theories as to why the MBTI is so popular.

1. People love personality tests, they love understanding themselves and they love it when it comes in these neat, little packages like the MBTI. You’re going to be sorted into one of sixteen personality types and that’s nice. It’s simple. It’s labelled, which makes it easy for you to describe yourself in a few words, especially to others. It’s similar to saying, “I’m a Scorpio” or “I’m in Hufflepuff.” It’s that ease of description that draws people to it. It’s much simpler than having to say, “I’m like a 34 on neuroticism, a 74 on extraversion…” so on forth. The MBTI types are easily communicated. I’m an INTP. Done. Easy. People get the picture.
2. It really heavily proliferates the internet. You can find pages and pages of “MBTI types as parents”, “MBTI types as lovers”, “ideal careers for your MBTI type”, “compatibility between MBTI types”. That ease of access allows for mass consumption. I remember having spent hours on those kinds of pages after finding out my type. There were endless pages, endless sources to tell me more about myself.
3. Relating to point 2, it allows you to learn more about yourself (theoretically). People love being told things about themselves. They love that feeling of understanding, like why they are the way they are makes sense. I mean, I did that myself. I spent hours on those pages trying to discover some deep insight into my being, trying to decide what career to even pursue based on what my MBTI type was.

So, is it a bad thing that the MBTI is so popular amongst non-psychology folk? Probably not. It is, after all, human nature to be drawn to understanding yourself and other people, and to want to communicate to others who you are.