“Ask a Priest: Is Telling Someone’s Personality a Sin?”
Q: Is telling the personality of a person something that falls under judging others? Is judging a mortal or a venial sin? — M.
Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC
A: Your first question is a bit vague, so I’ll take a stab at answering by giving general reflections.
Is “telling the personality” of someone based on something concrete, such as a reputable psychological test or survey of, say, employees done by your company?
Employees might be asked to undergo a personality test so that their strengths can be evaluated and recognized.
In this case, if employees openly discuss their results (“I’m a mediator” or “I’m an adventurer” of “I’m an X type”), it might be OK to share that information with others (charitably, of course).
But if these “personalities” are merely subjective labels (“He’s a fascist; he voted for X in 2024” or “She’s an airhead”), then using them could be a sin since they can ruin a person’s reputation.
Perhaps you are thinking of something closer to the personality test done by a company.
While personality tests can have some value, we should be careful not to use them to pigeonhole or humiliate people. Above all, we should be careful to respect people’s privacy and dignity.
A related issue is judging.
None of us should judge anyone. We can evaluate external behavior, but we can’t see into a person’s heart and mind. God alone can do that.
If we judge someone openly or internally, the sin could range from venial to mortal.
The better question might be to ask, What can I do to give everyone the benefit of the doubt?
That’s a much different question … and one that could point a person in a healthier direction.
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