Recently
the number of quiz results notification in my facebook feed taking a sharp
rise. Every day I notice some friend of mine has taken another quiz like ‘what
kind of color are you’, ‘what mythical creature are you’ and so on and so
forth. Some are even really weird like ‘which secret nationality are you’. The
latter one actually made me realize how strange these tests are.
In today’s
society people are working really hard to deconstruct the social frames and
boxes we have built over the years. Race stereotypes, religious stereotypes,
gender stereotypes… even hobby-wise stereotypes! It feels like everyone is
making an active effort to show that these stereotypes are not who they are .At
times we take it to such extremes that people refuse to do a certain thing just
because it’s connected to their stereotype. An example would be a woman who loves
to cook, but won’t so she doesn’t get stereotyped.
Buuuuuuuuuttttttt…..
On the other hand we are completely willing to take these ludicrous tests that
put us in completely arbitrary, even broader and more generalized boxes. I just
simply started wondering. Why are these tests so appealing? They don’t usually
reveal anything about you like a psychological test would. They often consist
of very little choices and you can’t put ‘my mythical creature is elf’ on your
resume and expect to get into a high-paying position.
I wonder if
it could have something to do with the group mentality. We are social by nature
and always want to feel connected to other people in some way or another. We
like to have the feeling that if we’re like this or like that, we have a group
behind us who are also this or that and will support us.
The other
reason I could think of is simply being to brag to your friends about it. Like
if you’re supposed to be a dragon or something see you find cool or appealing,
it can serve as a little confidence boost, even if it’s a silly one.
Plus, these
categories don’t affect you like real-world stereotypes would. You won’t get
discriminated as an ‘elf’ by your ‘dwarf’ friends (unless you have a very
racist role-playing community). Perhaps
it’s better to stereotype with something that’s not harmful, but still lets you
feel as part of the group.
I don’t
really get it though. Do you take personality quizzes? If yes why? If no… why
not?
