The Big 5 test was suspect on some things. Am I really lowest quartile conscientiousness and agreeableness? I defy the data.
I noticed that my conscientiousness and agreeableness score were significantly lower than the last time I took the big five test (slightly before I really got into LW). I don’t have solid evidence, and it does seem a bit convenient, but what I think is happening (please take a second to recall your subjective experience of taking the test before reading further). Despite what the test says, most of the questions do have “right” (or at least socially desirable) answers and LWers are better than the population used to norm the test at avoiding self-serving biases in their answers. Do you remember conscious thinking of biases while taking the test and/or have you developed habits meant to make you less prone to having self severing biases to begin with?
Do you remember conscious thinking of biases while taking the test and/or have you developed habits meant to make you less prone to having self severing biases to begin with?
I wasn’t consciously keeping biases in mind and I don’t think I’ve consciously developed habits to ameliorate them, although I’ve probably gotten better at recognizing and avoiding them anyway. I scored higher on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness than the last time I took a Big 5 test, by almost a quartile each. If I had to guess, I’d probably ascribe this to improving my social life over the last year or so, although my participation in LW would be hard to disentangle from that.
I noticed that my conscientiousness and agreeableness score were significantly lower than the last time I took the big five test (slightly before I really got into LW). I don’t have solid evidence, and it does seem a bit convenient, but what I think is happening (please take a second to recall your subjective experience of taking the test before reading further). Despite what the test says, most of the questions do have “right” (or at least socially desirable) answers and LWers are better than the population used to norm the test at avoiding self-serving biases in their answers. Do you remember conscious thinking of biases while taking the test and/or have you developed habits meant to make you less prone to having self severing biases to begin with?
I noticed self-serving a bit on the first few questions and adjusted. I definitely remember thinking of biases.
Most tests (I think including this one) are normed on people who (mostly) don’t do that. Thus I’d expect it to under rate your positive qualities.
Gotta keep that in mind next time...
(Relevant comment)
I wasn’t consciously keeping biases in mind and I don’t think I’ve consciously developed habits to ameliorate them, although I’ve probably gotten better at recognizing and avoiding them anyway. I scored higher on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness than the last time I took a Big 5 test, by almost a quartile each. If I had to guess, I’d probably ascribe this to improving my social life over the last year or so, although my participation in LW would be hard to disentangle from that.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/7s4/poll_results_lw_probably_doesnt_cause_akrasia/ is relevant.