Why We Often Misjudge Ourselves

For a long time I believed I understood my own personality quite well. After all, we spend our entire lives with ourselves. Who should know us better?

But the more I learned about psychology, the clearer it became that self-perception can be surprisingly misleading.

The blind spot of personality

One reason is that we interpret our behavior from the inside. We know our intentions and thoughts, while others only see what we actually do.

Because of that, our explanation of our behavior often differs from how others perceive us.

How personality tests can help

Structured personality tests can provide an interesting external perspective. They ask specific questions and analyze patterns in our answers.

The result is not a final judgment, but sometimes it reveals aspects of our personality that we had never really noticed before.