AI Summary
5 min readIn 2014, a Swedish author named Thomas Eriksson published Surrounded by Idiots, a book that became a worldwide phenomenon and, according to some, "ruined" Sweden. The title is deliberately provocative, but the premise is deceptively reasonable: you think everyone around you is an idiot, but really they just have different personality types. The book divides people into four color-coded categories—Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue—based on whether they are task-oriented or relationship-oriented, and introverted or extroverted. It sounds like a harmless framework for improving workplace dynamics. But as the hosts of If Books Could Kill dig in, they find a story that stretches back nearly a century, through a lie detector inventor, Wonder Woman, and a series of increasingly bizarre personality tests that companies have been using to surveil and sort their employees ever since.
The Strange Origin of the Four Colors
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of If Books Could Kill
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Opening & Overview** - Peter and Michael introduce the book "Surrounded by Idiots" by Swedish author Thomas Eriksson, a worldwide bestseller that divides people into four personality types (red, yellow, green, blue).
- 2 (02:05) **The Historical Roots: Marston and the DISC Framework** - Michael traces the book's core idea back to psychologist William Moulton Marston's 1928 book "Emotions of Normal People."
- 3 (05:00) **The DISC Industry and Eriksson's Version** - The DISC framework was repeatedly modified and sold to businesses, leading to hundreds of companies selling similar assessments.
- 4 (07:40) **The Book's Premise and Inoffensive Start** - The book's basic idea is that understanding different personality types improves relationships, a defensible high-level thesis.
- 5 (10:15) **Early Scientific Missteps** - Eriksson's explanation of why we are the way we are quickly goes off the rails.
- 6 (11:51) **The Two-by-Two Grid and the Four Colors** - The personality system is a simple 2x2 grid: task-oriented vs. relation-oriented on one axis, introvert vs. extrovert on the other.
- 7 (14:13) **Deep Dive: The Red Chapter** - The chapter on Reds is titled "Red Behavior: How to recognize a real alpha and avoid getting in his way."
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Peter and Michael discuss "Surrounded by Idiots," a book that dares to ask: Can the mystery of human relationships be unraveled by a workplace personality assessment?
Where to find us:
- Our Patreon
- Our merch!
- Peter's newsletter
- Peter's other podcast, 5-4
- Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase
Sources:
- Pioneers, Drivers, Integrators, and Guardians
- Creator of Lie Detector Test Dies; Lecturer and Author Produced Comic Strip
- One of Sweden's biggest scientific bluffs
- Pseudoscience and the Claim of Practical Utility: The Case of Thomas Erikson's Surrounded by Idiots
- Thomas Erikson accepts being called a pop psychology writer
- Four personality types may be neither robust nor exhaustive
- Spuriouser and spuriouser: The use of ipsative personality tests
- Reconsidering the use of personality tests in personnel selection contexts
- Using Personality Tests in Pre-Employment Screening
- Employment Tests and Selection Procedures
- The Cult of Personality Testing
- A history of the early days of personality testing in American industry: an obsession with adjustment
- Psychological Testing in Personnel Selection, Part II: The Refinement of Methods and Standards in Employee Selection
More from this podcast
If Books Could Kill →