On-Line Self Analysis Quizzes (from WSJ 10 Point Guide, 9.23.2014)

In recent months, social-media sites have seen an explosion of online quizzes, such as those asking users to reveal what kind of cheese they might be or which "Friends" character they are. The trend has been sparked largely by a push from the New York media company BuzzFeed. Our story looks at how these quizzes have become a cheap form of modern self-analysis—a completely unscientific one, with the questions (and computer-generated results) put together by writers more interested in driving traffic than deep psychological insight. We find that in January BuzzFeed's online quiz team landed its first big hit with, "What City Should You Actually Live In?" Soon it was surpassed in February with "What State Do You Actually Belong In?" "At some point, we figured out we had told more people to move to Wisconsin than actually live in Wisconsin," said BuzzFeed's managing editorial director in charge of the quiz-creating team.