Graphology has zero validity (it’s rubbish)

According to this report on BBC News there are 3,000 businesses in the UK that use graphology (handwriting analysis) as part of the recruitment process. I am astounded.

Back when I was at school, I had an English teacher who was learning graphology. She took a look at my scrawling and told me that I was becoming more outgoing. I was astounded, how could she tell that just from handwriting? Then she stopped, looked at it again and corrected herself. Or, she said, perhaps it's the opposite.

Obviously this is only anecdotal evidence, but what else is there? Well, after reviewing the research, the British Psychological Society has ranked all the procedures used in personnel selection in order of validity. Graphology shares its ranking position with astrology: zero validity.

So if your organisation uses this as a method of selecting new recruits, and you don't work for the British Institute of Graphologists, then it's time to think again.

» Read on about the connections between handwriting and personality.

The science of creativity


As Pablo Picasso once pointed out, all children are creative; the challenge is to remain creative into adulthood.

Unfortunately public education systems around the world seem designed to crush creativity in favour of rote learning and test passing. As the years pass a fear of being wrong takes over from our natural creative tendencies.

Unlike mathematics, languages or the humanities, we are rarely taught about creativity, despite its importance to our lives. Yet the information is out there, waiting to be used.

If you would like to be more creative at work and at home—and that has to be most of us—the insights in this ebook will be useful.

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Published: 1 February 2005

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Images: Creative Commons License

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