Enneagrams are the new horoscopes

• The Enneagram is the latest personality test to take pop culture by storm.
• The model categorizes people into one of nine archetypes based on people's core desires and fears.

Are you a 4 or a 9? Maybe you're a 7.

If you have any idea what those numbers mean, you've likely already encountered the Enneagram, whether it was during an office team-building session or in an excruciating dinner party conversation.

If that question reads as total nonsense to you, don't worry. Someone in your life will almost certainly force you to take the test soon.

The Enneagram is the latest in a long line of personality tests and types to penetrate the zeitgeist. From Hogwarts houses to horoscopes, human beings are hard-wired to categorize ourselves and one another, three personality psychologists told Insider.

"Archetypes and typologies are really attractive to people," John D. Mayer, a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, told Insider.

But while astrology assigns people personality traits based on their relationship to the planets, the Enneagram claims to go a step further, not only offering users a catchy character description, but promising people the tools to self-optimize at a moment when everyone is eager to hack personal growth.

The model categorizes people into one of nine interconnected archetypes which attempt to explain people's personalities through their core motivations, desires, and fears.

Perhaps you're a 3, the Enneagram number known as "The Achiever." These people, according to the theory, are driven by a fear of being worthless and a desire to feel valuable. They seek affirmation and attention that distinguishes them from others, and often appear to be success-oriented and highly productive. Enneagram coaches suggest Type 3s make excellent executives and managers thanks to their enthusiasm and drive.

Or maybe you align more closely with Type 6, the Enneagram number known as "The Loyalist." The model claims that these people harbor a core desire for security and support, and are motivated by a need to test others' loyalty toward them as they seek reassurance and certainty. At their most evolved, sixes are responsible, trustworthy, and the most loyal of friends, according to Enneagram teachings. Because they are motivated by not only a need for their own security, but a desire to offer that same security to others, Type sixes thrive in caregiving or protection professions such as teaching, law enforcement, or the veterinary field.

If you don't know your type, fear not. There are several online tests available, as well as a trove of social media content that seems to have exploded in recent years, evidenced by the hundreds of Instagram accounts that offer everything from Enneagram-focused life coaching to Enneagram memes and even Disney-focused Enneagram content ("Be Our Guest" from "Beauty and the Beast" is obviously a Type 2, while "Hakuna Matata" is a Type 9.)

Psychologists are skeptical about the Enneagram's scientific validity — or lack thereof — and wary of increasing anecdotes of the model being embraced in workplaces.

Even so, the Enneagram archetype descriptions offer detailed and digestible analyses of our purported motivations, desires, and fears in language that resonates with curious people. So it's no wonder we're so drawn to them, said Mayer.

"It's like reading a detective novel about yourself," he told Insider.

What is the Enneagram?

Even the Enneagram's defenders admit the theory has nebulous origins.

Brian Taylor, vice president of The Enneagram Institute, a facility focused on research and development into the model, told Insider that those who study the approach believe it has a basis in geometry and mathematics with roots in both Greek and Neoplatonic philosophy. It was the Bolivian philosopher Oscar Ichazo, however, who is credited with beginning the development of modern Enneagram theory and its personality types in the 1970s.

Replete with a catchy symbol — a nine-pointed figure in an enclosed circle with numbers grouped into triads — the model soon found footing in the American Jesuit community, Taylor said, where preeminent Enneagram scholar Don Richard Riso, later a founder of the Enneagram Institute, was introduced to the approach and began his development of it.

Enneagram defenders say the theory is unique from other pop personality quizzes in that it focuses less on people's behaviors and actions and more on their internal motivations. The theory encourages personal "work" within one's type by identifying each archetype's "strengths" and "passions," which represent each number's healthy and unhealthy tendencies.

The theory has been the subject of several self-help-style books and the muse for many an Instagram post, where Enneagram "experts" explore not only the nine types, but the model's subtypes and "wings" — concepts that will appear nonsensical to the Enneagram novice, but essentially represent the different ways in which people are hard-wired to operate within each type, as well as people's ability to pull traits from other types to enhance or diminish their own makeup.

It's all very confusing for a first-timer, yes. But the complexity of the system, for better and worse, does seem to lend some credence to Enneagram defenders' insistence that the model goes far beyond your standard Sorting Hat test.

The theory has long held a particular foothold among Christian and evangelical communities thanks to its ties to religious movements and emphasis on spiritual growth. But the Enneagram has exploded in popularity in recent years among even the secular sects of society, with workplaces shelling out hundreds of dollars for corporate Enneagram trainings on leadership and some companies encouraging employees to display their number for the entire workplace to see.

It also helps that Enneagram information is free and widely accessible on the internet, Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center at Fielding Graduate University, told Insider. Unlike other personality measures, such as the Myers-Briggs test, which charge a fee for official testing and answer analysis, anyone can take an online Enneagram test and interpret their findings.

But the primary reason Taylor believes the Enneagram is growing in popularity is simply "because people see that it works," he said. "The personality descriptions just seem to resonate with people," he said.

Why we're drawn to the Enneagram

Human beings are driven by a desire to be understood, to understand others, and to find community, psychologists told Insider. The Enneagram offers an easily understandable format for all three.

"Humans are social animals," Rutledge said. "Learning about ourselves helps us navigate our social world."

With its nine numbers claiming to encompass all people, the Enneagram also helps devotees find like-minded individuals within their archetypes.

"We want to belong. Finding a type automatically links you with others of the same type, creating a sense of belonging while normalizing your sense of self and worries about being 'weird,'" Rutledge said.

Type 8s may find camaraderie among other intense people who approach life with the same passion and energy that they do; Type 1s, meanwhile, could find solace in meeting compatriots who seek perfection in similar ways.

And once a person becomes familiar with the Enneagram — or any other typology for that matter — they may cling to their number as a form of self-validation, internalizing their own behaviors and reactions through their personal understanding of that archetype, Rutledge said.

"The Enneagram types have labels — all positives — that enhance feelings of current self-worth while promising future growth and happiness," she told Insider.

The Enneagram's Limits

For all its popularity and promises, however, psychologists are quick to point out the Enneagram's limitations. For one, the field of psychology isn't even sure that typologies really exist, said Mayer.

"That's a controversial and evolving area in the field," he told Insider.

Other personality metrics like Myers-Briggs and The Big 5 personality test use dimensional models that rate a test-taker's score on quantifiable personality traits that are more widely-accepted in the scientific community, such as extroversion, agreeableness, intuition, judgment, and neuroticism, Mayer said, though he cautioned that no pop personality metric is perfect.

"Personality is complicated," he told Insider. "There are no simple tricks to understand oneself and other people."

Categorizing people is a trend that the field of psychology is increasingly moving away from, Robin Edelstein, a professor of personality psychology at the University of Michigan, told Insider. Human beings are complex and forcing them into one of nine types eliminates nuance and simplifies how we think about ourselves and approach our relationships with others, Rutledge said.

Personality psychologists have also raised concerns about the money-making ventures spawned by the Enneagram and its counterparts, including pricey workshops, classes, and official tests marketed by experts and influencers who have managed to make these models their livelihood. From corporate leadership trainings to Enneagram-focused parenting sessions, these "coaches" can charge hundreds of dollars for a couple of hours of Enneagram work.

"I think that's what rubs a lot of academic psychologists the wrong way," said Edelstein. "It's not in the spirit of what we do."

Scientists also take umbrage with the basics of how people engage with the quizzes themselves. The Enneagram and other personality metrics like it primarily rely on self-reporting, meaning the test gives the user the very answers he or she inputs.

Take, for example, the first statement on Truity's Enneagram test: "I strive for perfection." The user then rates how much that idea applies to them on a scale of 1 to 5. If they identify with that statement and answer similar questions with as much certainty, researchers wouldn't be surprised if at the end, they get results that indicate they're a Type 1 — or "The Perfectionist."

"This can make Enneagram types feel like they capture us accurately when, in fact, our innate biases filter information so that it does fit," Rutledge said.

In other words: The results may feel true. But there's no way to scientifically prove that they are true, psychologists said.

While Enneagram tests are plentiful on the internet, some of the theory's most devoted users posit that test-taking isn't actually the most accurate way to type oneself, instead encouraging newcomers to read about all nine numbers and decide for themselves which resonates the most.

Room for 'healthy skepticism'

Despite the naysayers, Taylor said the model is much more than a simple typing test. The model, when studied in full, can be a conduit for self-reflection that encourages personal growth and grace for other people's differences, he said.

"We must understand ourselves better if we ever hope to understand others better," Taylor said.

Psychologists aren't ready to go that far, but even they acknowledged the Enneagram can be a beneficial introduction to personality and people's differences when used carefully.

Mayer said the nine numbers are good "jumping off points" for thinking about who we are and why we are the way we are. The archetypes and their detailed descriptions help us consider ourselves in creative and interesting ways as we go about our lives and daily interactions.

The Enneagram can be a great introduction for people to start thinking about the ways in which they differ from their friends and family, Edelstein said.

"Anything that encourages self-reflection and self-awareness is a good thing as long as it includes room for healthy skepticism and open-mindedness rather than a reliance on dogma," Mayer said.