0:00:07.297,0:00:09.157 Take a look at this image. 0:00:09.157,0:00:10.657 What might this be? 0:00:10.657,0:00:12.067 A frightening monster? 0:00:12.067,0:00:13.597 Two friendly bears? 0:00:13.597,0:00:16.557 Or something else entirely? 0:00:16.557,0:00:17.957 For nearly a century, 0:00:17.957,0:00:20.427 ten inkblots like these have been used 0:00:20.427,0:00:24.117 as what seems like an almost [br]mystical personality test. 0:00:24.117,0:00:27.697 Long kept confidential for psychologists [br]and their patients, 0:00:27.697,0:00:33.357 the mysterious images were said to draw[br]out the workings of a person’s mind. 0:00:33.357,0:00:35.885 But what can inkblots really tell us, 0:00:35.885,0:00:38.425 and how does this test work? 0:00:38.425,0:00:43.205 Invented in the early 20th century [br]by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, 0:00:43.205,0:00:47.645 the Rorschach Test is actually less about [br]the specific things we see, 0:00:47.645,0:00:50.920 and more about our general approach [br]to perception. 0:00:50.920,0:00:52.300 As an amateur artist 0:00:52.300,0:00:57.220 Hermann was fascinated by how visual [br]perception varies from person to person. 0:00:57.220,0:00:59.687 He carried this interest to [br]medical school, 0:00:59.687,0:01:03.347 where he learned all our senses [br]are deeply connected. 0:01:03.347,0:01:08.087 He studied how our process of perception [br]doesn’t just register sensory inputs, 0:01:08.087,0:01:09.868 but transforms them. 0:01:09.868,0:01:13.898 And when he started working at a [br]mental hospital in eastern Switzerland, 0:01:13.898,0:01:17.308 he began designing a series [br]of puzzling images 0:01:17.308,0:01:21.358 to gain new insight into this [br]enigmatic process. 0:01:21.358,0:01:23.578 Using his inkblot paintings, 0:01:23.578,0:01:26.688 Rorschach began quizzing hundreds [br]of healthy subjects 0:01:26.688,0:01:29.608 and psychiatric patients with [br]the same question: 0:01:29.608,0:01:31.648 what might this be? 0:01:31.648,0:01:36.278 However, it wasn’t what the test subjects [br]saw that was most important to Rorschach, 0:01:36.278,0:01:39.102 but rather, how they approached the task. 0:01:39.102,0:01:42.432 Which parts of the image did they [br]focus on or ignore? 0:01:42.432,0:01:44.682 Did they see the image moving? 0:01:44.682,0:01:48.382 Did the color on some inkblots help them [br]give better answers, 0:01:48.382,0:01:51.462 or distract and overwhelm them? 0:01:51.462,0:01:54.492 He developed a system to code [br]people’s responses, 0:01:54.492,0:01:59.472 reducing the wide range of interpretations[br]to a few manageable numbers. 0:01:59.472,0:02:04.124 Now he had empirical measures to quantify [br]all kinds of test takers: 0:02:04.124,0:02:05.945 the creative and imaginative, 0:02:05.945,0:02:08.955 the detail-oriented, the [br]big-picture perceivers, 0:02:08.955,0:02:12.655 and flexible participants able [br]to adapt their approach. 0:02:12.655,0:02:14.375 Some people would get stuck, 0:02:14.375,0:02:17.055 offering the same answer [br]for multiple blots. 0:02:17.055,0:02:20.275 Others gave unusual and [br]delightful descriptions. 0:02:20.275,0:02:22.985 Responses were as varied as the inkblots, 0:02:22.985,0:02:26.035 which offered different kinds of [br]perceptual problems– 0:02:26.035,0:02:28.855 some easier to interpret than others. 0:02:28.855,0:02:31.905 But analyzing the test-taker’s [br]overall approach 0:02:31.905,0:02:34.785 yielded real insights into [br]their psychology. 0:02:34.785,0:02:37.505 And as Rorschach tested more [br]and more people, 0:02:37.505,0:02:39.775 patterns began to pile up. 0:02:39.775,0:02:42.355 Healthy subjects with the same [br]personalities 0:02:42.355,0:02:45.295 often took remarkably similar approaches. 0:02:45.295,0:02:47.945 Patients suffering from the same [br]mental illnesses 0:02:47.945,0:02:49.845 also performed similarly, 0:02:49.845,0:02:53.045 making the test a reliable [br]diagnostic tool. 0:02:53.045,0:02:55.425 It could even diagnose some conditions 0:02:55.425,0:02:59.135 difficult to pinpoint with other [br]available methods. 0:02:59.135,0:03:00.465 In 1921, 0:03:00.465,0:03:05.205 Rorschach published his coding system [br]alongside the ten blots he felt 0:03:05.205,0:03:09.791 gave the most nuanced picture of people’s[br]perceptual approach. 0:03:09.791,0:03:11.570 Over the next several decades, 0:03:11.570,0:03:15.860 the test became wildly popular in [br]countries around the world. 0:03:15.860,0:03:17.207 By the 1960s, 0:03:17.207,0:03:21.517 it had been officially administered [br]millions of times in the U.S. alone. 0:03:21.517,0:03:24.828 Unfortunately, less than a year after [br]publishing the test, 0:03:24.828,0:03:27.408 Hermann Rorschach had died suddenly. 0:03:27.408,0:03:29.448 Without its inventor to keep it on track, 0:03:29.448,0:03:32.888 the test he had methodically gathered [br]so much data to support 0:03:32.888,0:03:36.548 began to be used in all sorts [br]of speculative ways. 0:03:36.548,0:03:39.598 Researchers gave the test [br]to Nazi war criminals, 0:03:39.598,0:03:43.288 hoping to unlock the psychological roots [br]of mass murder. 0:03:43.288,0:03:46.538 Anthropologists showed the images to [br]remote communities 0:03:46.538,0:03:49.438 as a sort of universal personality test. 0:03:49.438,0:03:54.798 Employers made prejudiced hiring decisions[br]based on reductive decoding charts. 0:03:54.798,0:03:58.239 As the test left clinics and entered [br]popular culture 0:03:58.239,0:04:01.609 its reputation among medical [br]professionals plummeted, 0:04:01.609,0:04:05.279 and the blots began to fall [br]out of clinical use. 0:04:05.279,0:04:08.009 Today, the test is still controversial, 0:04:08.009,0:04:10.909 and many people assume [br]it has been disproven. 0:04:10.909,0:04:15.929 But a massive 2013 review of all the [br]existing Rorschach research 0:04:15.929,0:04:20.349 showed that when administered properly [br]the test yields valid results, 0:04:20.349,0:04:22.569 which can help diagnose mental illness 0:04:22.569,0:04:26.349 or round out a patient’s [br]psychological profile. 0:04:26.349,0:04:29.419 It’s hardly a stand-alone key [br]to the human mind– 0:04:29.419,0:04:30.799 no test is. 0:04:30.799,0:04:34.709 But its visual approach and lack [br]of any single right answer 0:04:34.709,0:04:38.379 continue to help psychologists paint[br]a more nuanced picture 0:04:38.379,0:04:40.499 of how people see the world. 0:04:40.499,0:04:41.969 Bringing us one step closer 0:04:41.969,0:04:46.189 to understanding the patterns [br]behind our perceptions.