Buzzfeed quizzes: Entertaining, limitless, and absolutely random. The real question is, why are people so attracted to taking BuzzFeed quizzes, and is there any sort of accuracy to these wild psychological tests? The obvious answer is that people are obsessed with themselves and like learning more about their personality. As an honorary self-obsessed person, I have taken it upon myself to test if BuzzFeed quizzes are truly random.
I began this test by finding a series of self-discovery BuzzFeed quizzes with the following titles.
- Pick Between Some Pixar And Disney Movies, And I’ll Guess Your Birth Month!
- Enjoy Some Fried Foods And We’ll Guess Your Birth Date!
- Pick Some Random Colorful Objects, And I Bet I Can Guess What Decade Of Life You’re In!
As I began to take these tests, I made sure to keep track of all of my answers…because how would enjoying chicken tenders make the Buzzfeed database decide my birthday on July 6th?
On the first quiz, I chose these answers…
Q1 – Finding nemo, Lilo and Stitch, The incredibles, TANGLED
Q2 – Ratatouille, The Emperor’s New Groove, Wall-e, MOANA
Q3 – Monsters Inc., BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Up, Pinocchio
Q4 – Inside Out, Soul, FROZEN, The Lion King
Q5 – Coco, Hercules, Turning Red, MULAN
Q6 – Cars, ALADDIN, Toy Story, Peter Pan Page 1
At first glance, Buzzfeed can recognize that I favor Disney princess movies, though they concluded that my birth month had to be January, February, or March, which is WRONG. Though this planted the seed of initial doubt in BuzzFeed’s accuracy, I continued to take two more quizzes to test if BuzzFeed could successfully predict a single quality about me.
Q1 – Churros, FRENCH FRIES, Onion rings, Spring Rolls
Q2 – Beignets, FRIED CHICKEN, Hash Browns, Scotch riggs
Q3 – ARANCHINI, Fried Calamari, Mozzarella Sticks, Fried Ravioli
Q4 – CHICKEN TENDERS, Fish and Chips, Potato Chips, Schnitzel
Q5 – KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN, Samosas, Funnel Cake, Corn Dog
Q6 – POTATO WEDGES, Tempura, Falafel, Chicken Nuggets
Answer – June 6 (WRONG)
Q1 – RED: Ladybug, Lamp, TELEPHONE BOX, Chair
Q2 – ORANGE: Pot, Lamp, Car, BOWL OF CHIPS
Q3 – YELLOW: Wall, Bottle, Shoe, BOOK
Q4 – GREEN: Umbrella, Cactus, COUCH, Bag
Q5 – BLUE: Pot, PLATE, Card, Binocular
Q6 – PURPLE: Backpack, Blanket, CRYSTAL, Tea Cup
Q7 – PINK: Candle, Plant, Nail Polish, RECORD
Answer – 30s (WRONG)
After two more tests and two more wrong answers, I had personally decided that BuzzFeed would be inaccurate at guessing any personal details about me. Frankly, I believe Buzzfeed is very ambitious to believe they can guess someone’s birthdate with 6 questions about colors, though this unrealistic quiz doesn’t stop thousands of people from taking the quiz anyway. Therefore, while the quizzes may not have worked on me, I decided to send the quizzes to a group of students to test if Buzzfeed would have more success guessing their qualities.
My next step was to assign three new people the same BuzzFeed quiz: “Enjoy an All-Brown Meal, And We’ll Guess Your Zodiac Sign.”
The results were the following:
Fire sign (Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius) – RIGHT
Air sign (Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius) – RIGHT
Earth sign (Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn) – WRONG
Since BuzzFeed finally got ⅔ correct, we have to question if they have actual meaning behind their guesses, or if they got lucky. With that, my final test was to make the people whose zodiacs were correctly guessed take the same quiz that BuzzFeed had guessed wrong for me. (Pick Between Some Pixar And Disney Movies, And I’ll Guess Your Birth Month) After the test, they both guessed correctly with June and April! As it turns out, maybe my test-taking skills are the problem, or Buzzfeed might have some sort of science behind their analysis.
So maybe the point of this article was just as useless as a Buzzfeed quiz. But we all know the real point is to get some good entertainment!
