There are two things I don’t want anybody seeing: my browsing history and my hidden folders. But a new app is starting to make me think I might also have to add my Reddit post history to the list.
Enter the MBTI Reddit analysis tool, a web-based app that parses your post history to determine your Myer-Briggs type indicator. If you’re unfamiliar with MBTI, it’s practically a questionnaire designed to help you figure out how people perceive the world and make decisions. Or as one Hacker News reader eloquently put it, it’s “astrology for people who think they’re too smart for astrology.”
You might also recognize it it from the Tinder bios of self-described quirky people who like to travel, enjoy eating food, and also label themselves as ENTP — you know, the unusual types.
Usually, you’d have to take a test to find out exactly which of the 16 different types your personality fits, but this tool leverages AI to analyze your Reddit history and guess your type based on what you’ve said online under the premise of anonymity.
“MBTI is not an exact science and test results are not always 100% accurate, so the machine learning model is also not going to be 100% precise either,” the creators of the tool explain. “That’s why instead of giving you the most likely personality result, you’ll always get a table with all 16 personalities sorted from the most to least likely based on the probabilities calculated by our machine learning model.”
Anyways, I ran my account through the analyzer. Here’s what came back:
Apparently, I’m almost 60% ISFP, which stands for Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving. In other words, my Reddit post history suggests I’m “action-oriented, logical, analytical, spontaneous, reversed, and independent,” and that I’m likely to “enjoy adventure and understand how mechanical things work.”
Basically all the qualities that make me the hard-hitting technology journalist that I am.
More alarmingly, though, the tool indicates I’ve got a “controversiality” level of 12.4%. Is that bad, can it influence my future in a negative way? I don’t know. But what better way to find out than compare my scores to those of celebs with Reddit accounts?
Let’s start with someone whose Reddit history got them in trouble, 2016 US presidential debate superstar Ken Bone. If you don’t recall, Bone captivated the hearts of America with his awfully reasonable question about energy and his adorable red sweater.
That was until he did a Reddit AMA and people started digging into his post history, resulting in headlines like “Ken Bone is actually kind of an awful guy.” (Those are the words of the New York Post, not mine.)
Anyways, let’s see how controversial Bone is.
Only 1 measly percent — that’s 11% less than my score. And considering that his Reddit post history got him canceled way before cancel culture was even a thing, I should probably be worried.
But what if it’s just a fluke? I should probably try some other celebs. Let’s get into it.
Barack Obama
Former US President Barack Obama did an AMA eight years ago. Here’s his controversiality score:
Okay, things aren’t looking any better after this one, but the man literally got elected to run a country. Perhaps I’m setting the bar too high.
Bill Gates
Microsoft founder Bill Gates also did an AMA back in 2013. He must be more controversial than me.
Goddamnit. Moving on.
Rachel Maddow
Alright, Mashable placed MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow’s AMA among the top seven most disastrous ones ever. For sure, she is more controversial than I am.
Throw me a fucking bone, 2.31%? Alright, I’m giving up. I must be a terrible person.
Anyways, if you’d like to find your MBIT type based on your Reddit post history, click here. And if you’ve got a controversiality score higher than 12.4%, please get in touch. I’m desperately looking to give an example of a person with a worse personality than mine.
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