Personality cartography room · record R20

The Evidence Atlas

I keep a habit from field journaling: next to every tool I like, I write down where it came from and where it bends. This atlas is that margin note, grown into a page. For each framework we quiz you on, it traces the lineage, quotes the studies that tested it, and marks the exact line where our playful version ends and the original instrument begins.

How to read

01—07

None of this is here to talk you out of taking a quiz. It is here so you can hold a result the way researchers hold a finding: with interest, and with the sample size in view. Frameworks with thin evidence can still start a good conversation. They just should not settle one.

Seven measurement records

The framework drawers

  1. 01mbti type

    MBTI-style 16 types

    A 1920s theory turned 1940s questionnaire. Loved worldwide, and wobblier under retest than its popularity suggests.

    Open evidence file
  2. 02enneagram

    Enneagram of Personality

    The symbol looks ancient; the personality system is younger than color TV. The research record is thinner than the reputation.

    Open evidence file
  3. 03attachment style

    Adult attachment styles

    The best-evidenced framework we quiz on, with one big caveat: research reads attachment as dimensions, not boxes.

    Open evidence file
  4. 04love language

    Five love languages

    Born in a counseling office, not a lab. Charming as a conversation tool; the core claims have not held up well under study.

    Open evidence file
  5. 05emotional intelligence

    Emotional intelligence (EI)

    A careful 1990 academic idea that a 1995 bestseller made enormous. The measurement debate never stopped.

    Open evidence file
  6. 06learning style

    Learning styles (VARK)

    The preference is real. The famous claim built on it, that matched teaching works better, keeps failing careful tests.

    Open evidence file
  7. 07quick iq

    IQ-style puzzles

    A century of careful standardization sits behind real IQ scores. Our timed puzzle game borrows the puzzle part only.

    Open evidence file

Read the scoring notes too

How a result is made

Read how results work