4 ms·

> I still feel that there is value in this system, but mostly wrt awareness. And that's fine - but you might as well use astrology.

teekert 5y ago
The difference being that these colors are based on character traits and questions being answered, not on the position of celestial bodies. And I'm saying they proved useful to me, I hope they proved useful to those I applied my insights to as well, I think so. Tfa also does not state the colors are complete bs, it mostly objects to the Thomas Erikson not being educated properly. It does not state any damage being done using his (over?) simplification, I mean I never heard a colleague say: "I'm sorry I trampled all over you in the meeting, I'm just red." Which seems to be what the author is warning for. I'm just wondering how the colors are scientifically wrong exactly, what hypotheses do they generated that have been proven to be wrong and damaging?
- pavlov 5y ago
  > “these colors are based on character traits and questions being answered, not on the position of celestial bodies” When the questions aren’t based on any research, the results are not much sounder than using planetary positions as the input data. One could devise a personality test where all the questions are long divisions with a short time limit. This would certainly be some kind of test of mental ability, but there wouldn’t be any basis to jump to conclusions: “This person failed all tests where the divider is larger than ten, which suggests that they’re afraid of tackling large problems.” The color test is fundamentally based on this kind of “science” even if the proposed categories are well-meaning. Re: damage done by the color test, the article did mention some anecdotes from Sweden like people being asked to switch teams at work “because we have too many green people”, etc.
- Angostura 5y ago
  But many many of the users of Astrology will also swear that the results have proved useful to them and those around them. It provides a space where users can think about their character traits and what is important to them. "Am I a typical Libra? Really?". That doesn't mean it has any scientific basis.
Zigurd 5y ago
> you might as well use astrology. Not only are these "tests" tantamount to astrology, the amount of bunk that goes into momentous decisions is underestimated. Ronald Reagan is reported to have consulted an astrologer about nearly every decision. That's dangerous. Accepting bunk is dangerous to your business.

teekert 5y ago

The difference being that these colors are based on character traits and questions being answered, not on the position of celestial bodies. And I'm saying they proved useful to me, I hope they proved useful to those I applied my insights to as well, I think so. Tfa also does not state the colors are complete bs, it mostly objects to the Thomas Erikson not being educated properly. It does not state any damage being done using his (over?) simplification, I mean I never heard a colleague say: "I'm sorry I trampled all over you in the meeting, I'm just red." Which seems to be what the author is warning for. I'm just wondering how the colors are scientifically wrong exactly, what hypotheses do they generated that have been proven to be wrong and damaging?

pavlov 5y ago
> “these colors are based on character traits and questions being answered, not on the position of celestial bodies” When the questions aren’t based on any research, the results are not much sounder than using planetary positions as the input data. One could devise a personality test where all the questions are long divisions with a short time limit. This would certainly be some kind of test of mental ability, but there wouldn’t be any basis to jump to conclusions: “This person failed all tests where the divider is larger than ten, which suggests that they’re afraid of tackling large problems.” The color test is fundamentally based on this kind of “science” even if the proposed categories are well-meaning. Re: damage done by the color test, the article did mention some anecdotes from Sweden like people being asked to switch teams at work “because we have too many green people”, etc.
Angostura 5y ago
But many many of the users of Astrology will also swear that the results have proved useful to them and those around them. It provides a space where users can think about their character traits and what is important to them. "Am I a typical Libra? Really?". That doesn't mean it has any scientific basis.

Zigurd 5y ago

> you might as well use astrology. Not only are these "tests" tantamount to astrology, the amount of bunk that goes into momentous decisions is underestimated. Ronald Reagan is reported to have consulted an astrologer about nearly every decision. That's dangerous. Accepting bunk is dangerous to your business.