A Rorschach Blot on Wikipedia

Controversy erupts after answers to the famous Rorschach test gets posted on Wikipedia

Though the Rorschach is the most famous psychological test in the world, it is little understood outside psychology circles. A series of 10 coloured ink blots, it was created nearly a century ago by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. Patients have to interpret the patterns for a psychologist or psychiatrist. It’s subjective, so there are no right or wrong answers, but test-givers have a list of what are called normed responses—the most common answers. The idea is that answers provided by people who suffer from mental illness will be markedly different than those of normal people.

Recently, a controversy erupted when Wikipedia posted the ink blots online, along with the ‘correct’ answers to each. But the problem: Rorschach blots (not to mention, ‘answers’) are supposed to be kept secret. Many psychologists were outraged, believing this would make the test worthless, since test-takers could memorise answers and ‘cheat’.

Yet many believe that the real question is whether or not the Rorschach test is valid at all. Emory University surveyed more than 50 years of research on scientific evidence for the test, concluding that it is ‘weak at best and nonexistent at worst’. Furthermore, studies show that about half the normal Rorschach test-takers will be labelled as having ‘distorted thinking’.