Are Scientology personality tests reliable?

At the exit of the metro in Paris, a young woman distributes an intriguing leaflet offering a free personality test, presented as scientific. But if you look closely, one mention attracts attention: this test is offered by Scientology. The True or False cell team decides to pass it. The questions concern our relationship with others, our mode of communication and others are more surprising. For example : “Would you use corporal punishment on a ten year old child if he refused to obey you?”.

Once we have answered these 200 questions, the site offers to come and collect the results and analyze them in one of the Scientology churches. The young woman responsible for analyzing the test is less than twenty years old. A graph supposed to represent our personality then paints the portrait of a depressed, nervous person. But despite negative results, the Scientologist wants to be reassuring. “Here, you will find lots of solutions to improve whatever thing you want to improve”, she says. And these solutions are sold by Scientology in the form of courses or training.

A bogus analysis

The famous personality test was put in place from the beginning of the movement. And British psychologists found that they all got similar results, even if they responded randomly. The analysis was bogus. “If the person is a little lukewarm, we will try to sell them a book or a DVD. If they agree a little more with the test, we will sell them a course”, testifies a former Scientologist. Since its creation, Miviludes, which monitors sectarian abuses, has received several hundred alerts about Scientology. Despite a conviction in 2009 for organized gang fraud, as well as for illegal practice of pharmacy, Scientology remains authorized in France, and will even open a new center in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) before the Olympic Games.