The Sorting Hat

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Social Sciences, Performing Arts, Science, Arts

4.6 • 42.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2019

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The desire to find our tribe is universal. We like to know who we are and where we belong. This fascination has led to a thriving industry built on the marketing and sale of personality tests. These tests offer individuals – and, increasingly, employers – quick and easy insights that can be used to make some of life's biggest decisions. But most fail to stand up to scientific scrutiny. This week, we revisit our 2017 episode about the world of personality testing, and explore the many different ways we assess personality and potential – from the Chinese zodiac to Harry Potter houses to the Myers-Briggs test.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:07.0	It's one of the most famous scenes in the Harry Potter series.
0:10.0	Two lines of kids, newly arrived at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
0:15.0	march into a vast and glorious dining hall.
0:18.0	The air glows with light from hanging torches and graceful flying
0:22.9	candles. The ceiling looks like the night sky, full of stars. It's not real the ceiling. It's just
0:29.7	bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in a hog walks, a history. The endless dining
0:36.4	tables glitter with silver plates and golden goblets.
0:40.4	Young students make their way to the front of the hall where an old and crumpled wizard's hat awaits them.
0:46.6	It is the sorting hat.
0:48.6	When I call your name, you will come forth.
0:52.9	I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses.
0:59.5	The hat peers into the minds of the youngsters.
1:03.0	After judging their personality traits and potential, it decides which house they'll belong to during their Hogwarts education.
1:11.3	Will it be brave Gryffindor, gentle Hufflepuff, smart Ravenclaw, or ambitious Slytherin?
1:19.0	But where to put you?
1:22.0	Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.
1:24.6	Not Slytherin, eh?
1:27.2	Are you sure?
1:28.3	You could be great, you know?
1:30.3	It's all here in your head.
1:33.3	And Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness.
	...

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