THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS

ST PANCRAS

PERSONALITY

1 CHEAT CODE TO LIFE

Joel thinks he’s found the cheat code to life. He found it in a zine - a small, handdrawn booklet - on the tube.

The title of the zine is ‘ENNEAGRAM’. The following pages describe 9 different personality types:

“1 THE REFORMER - The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

2 THE HELPER - The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive

3 THE ACHIEVER - The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious

4 THE INDIVIDUALIST - The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

5 THE INVESTIGATOR - The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated

6 THE LOYALIST - The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

7 THE ENTHUSIAST - The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered

8 THE CHALLENGER - The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

9 THE PEACEMAKER - The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent”

The zine also says:

“The best way to identify your ‘type’ is to read through and eliminate any that are definitely “not you”, think about those that resonate, and home in on the one that encapsulates your deep personality. Most online tests are fairly surface level.”

Joel identifies with type 5 “THE INVESTIGATOR” and he has done a deep, investigative dive into the Enneagram system. It has helped him to understand himself and others, and develop more compassion for everyone.

He shares these views with a couple of friends. They have very different responses:

Mia says:

“Interesting. I guess it could be helpful for people to think about their personalities. I’m glad it’s helped you Joel.”

Hannah says:

“F*** that! Any diagnostic system is dangerous. All it takes is for someone to say “9s can’t do this” or “1s are always that” and we’re in tricky territory. Why are people so keen to put people in boxes? Anyway, I’ve heard about this and it isn’t scientifically proven.”

Joel replies:

“Based on what you say, I think that Mia is probably a 9 (the peacemaker) or a 2 (the helper), and Hannah is either an 8 (the challenger) or a 1 (the reformer)....probably an 8.”

Mia smiles and shrugs and Hannah rolls her eyes.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

What do you think of this zine?
What about Joel’s reaction? And the reactions of his friends?
How might typologies be helpful?
How might they be harmful?
Does it matter if they’re “scientifically proven”?
Are you drawn to any one type in particular?
Are there any you can definitely eliminate as “not me”?

SOURCES:

BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member - read more of her writing here.

The Enneagram Institute. (n.d.). Enneagram type descriptions. https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/

2 K1 CLASSROOM

“Sally is a mercurial little girl.

Priti, on the other hand, has a sunny disposition. The other children love playing with her.

Jonathon is a trouble maker.

And Kwame plays by the rules.

Sylvester is a charmer, everyone wants to be his friend.

Maud is the class genius.

And Darius is the gossip.”

You receive all of this information from the harried Teaching Assistant. He’s trying to handover to you as quickly as possible so that he can attend to another class.

You are you. You are not a teacher (unless you actually are), or a TA (ditto). You’ve been given responsibility for a group of 15 children including those described by the TA.

A parent running late in dropping her daughter off, waits for the TA to leave and then pulls you to one side.

She says:

“I hope you’re not going to listen to those descriptions he gave you. In fact, I think I might make an official complaint about it. It is well known that a teacher’s preconceived ideas about students influence the way they treat them, which in turn influences the way the children develop.

There’s a famous study called ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’ (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968) where the teacher was told something like*:

a third of the class are very clever
a third are average
and a third are bad students

By the end of the year, the children’s grades reflected these descriptions this despite them actually all being average students at the beginning of the year. You see, teachers' preconceptions have a big impact!”.

The parent rushes off and you are left with the class.

Jonathan kicks Maud and Darius immediately whispers to Sally “Did you see that?!”

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

Should you use the information you’ve been given by the TA?
Is it too late not to be influenced by this information?
What do you think of the ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’ study?
How much are our personalities determined by us, and how much by the world around us?
Have you ever experienced being treated a particular way because your reputation (in terms of personality) has preceded you?

SOURCES:

BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member - read more of her writing here.

* the parent character’s recollection of the ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’ study could be inaccurate. The original study is:

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

3 DIFFICULT TO LIVE WITH

Kaleb confides in you and your mutual friends Pam and Zach.

He says:

“I’ve realised that I hate letting go of control. I find it really difficult to be spontaneous and almost impossible to collaborate with other people or live with them. I used to think it was other people who were difficult, but now I think it’s me. I’m not sure what to do about it.”

Pam says:

“Omg I’ve been thinking something similar, but kind of opposite at the same time. I find other people really difficult to live with. I am very spontaneous and easygoing and I love having parties, but all the people I’ve lived with are really uptight and rigid. I used to think it was just bad luck with getting difficult people, but now I’m beginning to think I’m the issue. I think you’d definitely think I’m the issue, Kaleb. You’d hate living with me if you like control.”

Kaleb says:

“Yeah I think you’re probably right. But is that my uptightness or your craziness?”

Zach says:

“I just listened to this talk by the philosopher Alain De Botton. He says that everyone is difficult to live with because they are homo sapiens. He says the challenge is to find people whose difficult qualities are tolerable to us. So it's just about finding the right kind of difficulty. (de Botton, 2017)”

Kaleb says:

“But what about personal development and change? Is it possible, or are we stuck with our difficult qualities for life? I’ve heard that ‘shadow work’ (Philosophies for Life, 2025) can help us transform.”

Pam says:

“Yeah I’ve heard that too. It's all about exploring the dark side of your personality, right? I know one person who spent years doing that and did change a lot, but I think they changed too much actually. They did so much “self work” they became a different person. A quite insufferable, holier-than-though person at that. You don’t want to risk becoming a sanctimonious git.”

Zach says:

“Is that you talking, Pam, or your shadow?”

Pam says:

“Uh oh, Zach, maybe you’ve already become a sanctimonious git!”

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

How fixed are personalities?
Can they change with ‘self work’? Or ‘personal development’?
Is there a risk that you might change so much you lose your personality? Can you ever ‘lose your personality”, or is that a paradoxical idea?
Do you think that being a human being means you are difficult to live with (in some way or another)?
Which is a better approach to achieving a harmonious existence:
Surrounding yourself with other people who can tolerate your ‘difficult’ aspects?
Doing everything you can to examine and transform the ‘difficult’ aspects of your personality?

SOURCES:

BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member - read more of her writing here.

de Botton, A. (2017) Why you will marry the wrong person [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCS6t6NUAGQ

Philosophies for Life. (2025, August 12). Confront your dark side (step-by-step shadow work guide) – Carl Jung [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPWhbbXuYa4