The stability of personality

Most personality tests rely on flawed assumptions about the stability of personality. Scientists have begun to realize and find evidence that personality changes not only throughout one’s lifetime, but even throughout the day.

Depending on the situation you’re in at any given moment, your behavior will reflect your personality differently. In other words, even if you used a highly accurate measure of personality and got a score of top 10% in your “agreeableness” trait, that won’t hold in all situations.

This is a phenomenon wherein people tend to perceive vague, abstract personality statements to be highly accurate and personally relevant, despite a lack of scientific evidence.

This is why a lot of people, when talking about personality tests results, say "oh, but it s...