Free personality test
50 statements, about 5 minutes, nothing stored.
How well does this describe you, as you generally are now?
Statement 1 of 50: I am the life of the party.
Want to see a result before you start? Jump to the example.
What this test measures
This is a Big Five test. It scores you on five broad traits that personality researchers use to describe how people differ: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. Emotional stability is the same trait as neuroticism, scored the other way round.
The five traits hold up across cultures: when students in 50 cultures rated someone they knew well, the same five-factor structure was clearly replicated in most cultures and recognizable in all of them.1 The traits also predict real outcomes. In long-term studies, they predicted mortality, divorce and job attainment about as well as socioeconomic status or cognitive ability did.2 When 78 published links between traits and life outcomes were tested again in large samples, 87% held up, at about three quarters of their original strength.3
- Openness: Practical and concrete, to curious and imaginative.
- Conscientiousness: Flexible and spontaneous, to organized and planful.
- Extraversion: Quiet and reserved, to outgoing and talkative.
- Agreeableness: Direct and skeptical, to warm and accommodating.
- Emotional stability: Feels stress strongly, to steady and slow to upset.
Where the questions come from
The 50 statements are the IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers. Lewis Goldberg wrote them to measure the five factors from his 1992 research, and they are in the International Personality Item Pool.4 The pool is in the public domain, so anyone may use the items for any purpose without asking or paying.5
Each trait has 10 statements. Some are scored in reverse: agreeing with "I keep in the background" counts toward the quieter end of extraversion. The statements, their order and their scoring follow the IPIP's own sample form and key.6,7 The IPIP lets users edit item wording and choose their own answer labels, so here each statement starts with "I", and the middle answer is shortened to "Neither".6
How consistent are the scales? Researchers measure how well the ten statements on a scale agree with each other, on a 0 to 1 scale called alpha. The IPIP lists .87 for extraversion, .82 for agreeableness, .79 for conscientiousness, .86 for emotional stability and .84 for the fifth trait.7
What a result looks like
An example result, from made-up answers.
Example result
Each bar shows where the answers fall on a scale from 10 to 50. It is not a percentile and no comparison with other people is made. It describes tendencies in how someone answered, not a diagnosis or a fixed identity.
Openness
38 of 50Also called Intellect or Imagination in this item set
These answers lean toward ideas and imagination: abstract topics, rich words, time spent reflecting. People toward this end often enjoy an idea for its own sake. Routine and practical detail can feel dull by comparison.
Conscientiousness
27 of 50These answers sit near the middle. You may be organized where it matters to you and relaxed about the rest.
Extraversion
19 of 50These answers lean toward quiet and reserved: talking less, keeping in the background, taking time with strangers. People toward this end often prefer a few people at a time to a crowd. Being quiet is a preference, not a flaw.
Agreeableness
41 of 50These answers lean toward warmth: noticing how others feel, making time for them, putting people at ease. People toward this end often keep the peace and are easy to work with. The cost can be saying yes when you mean no.
Emotional stability
24 of 50Also the reverse of neuroticism
These answers lean toward feeling things strongly: stress, worry and mood shifts arrive quickly. That also means you notice when something matters to you. Strong feelings can be tiring, and this trait can shift over the years.
Your own result also has a journal prompt for each trait, and you can copy, print or save it as an image.
Your own result looks like this, plus a journal prompt for each trait. You can copy it, print it or save it as an image. Nothing is stored, so save it before you leave the page.
Why you get no percentiles
Some free tests tell you what share of people scored below you, a figure that depends on who else happened to take that site's test, so it may not be a fair picture of you.
The IPIP publishes no norms for its scales and warns that most ready-made norms are misleading.8
This test shows only where your answers fall on each scale. Every trait runs from 10 to 50. A score of 30 means your average answer was "Neither", the middle of the scale. Scores below 26 lean toward the left end of the bar, and scores above 34 lean toward the right.
What your result can and cannot tell you
This describes tendencies in how you answered today. It is not a diagnosis, and it is not a fixed identity.
What it can tell you. How you see yourself right now on five broad traits, in terms that match the research.
What it cannot tell you. How other people see you, since it is self-report. Or how you act in every moment. In studies that checked in with people several times a day, the typical person showed nearly all levels of every trait in everyday life. It was the average that stayed stable.9
It can change. Conscientiousness and emotional stability tend to rise, especially between 20 and 40, in a review of 92 long-term samples.10 Across 207 studies of therapy and other programs, trait scores shifted over about 24 weeks on average, emotional stability most of all.11
Types or traits: what 16-type tests can tell you
Many well-known personality tests sort you into one of 16 types, named by four letters such as INFP. The letters come from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a test built on Carl Jung's idea of psychological types.12
The research doesn't support the idea of types. The Myers-Briggs scores of 468 adults showed no sign of truly separate types, and worked as four separate scales instead.12 Those four scales did line up with four of the Big Five traits. None of them measured emotional stability.12 When about 12,000 people's Myers-Briggs scores were analyzed again, most of them sat near the middle instead of in two separate groups.13
That matters because a type has to put you on one side of each line, even when you sit almost exactly on it.
If you sit near the middle, a small change in your answers can flip a letter. A psychologist who reviewed the test concluded it calls for considerable caution when drawing conclusions from the four letters.14
16Personalities says its own model reworks the Big Five traits and borrows the Myers-Briggs letter format for convenience.15
| A 16-type result | This Big Five result | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | One of 16 four-letter labels | Five scores, each on its own scale |
| If you're near the middle | You still get one letter or the other | Your bar shows you near the middle |
| Stress and moods | Not part of the original four letters | Measured as emotional stability |
| What backs it | Score studies don't show separate types | The five-trait structure was found in most of 50 cultures and recognizable in all |
A type name is easy to remember and easy to talk about, and many people find that useful as a starting point. If you want to know how far toward one end you are, a trait score shows it.
This test is not the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and does not give you a type. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Myers-Briggs and MBTI are trademarks of Myers & Briggs Foundation, Inc.16 This test is not connected with them or with 16Personalities.
The five traits
Openness
Curiosity about ideas, art and imagination. The IPIP calls this trait Intellect or Imagination, and its statements lean toward ideas: "I have a rich vocabulary", "I spend time reflecting on things". Read about openness.
What has caught your curiosity lately, and what would it take to follow it for one hour this week?
Answer this with JoyConscientiousness
Order, planning and follow-through. Its statements ask about being prepared, keeping a schedule and leaving things around. Read about conscientiousness.
What is one thing you followed through on this week, even though it was dull? What kept you going?
Answer this with JoyExtraversion
How much you seek out people, talk and attention. Quiet is one end of the range, and there's nothing wrong with it. Read about extraversion.
After the last time you spent a few hours with people, did you feel charged up or drained? What made the difference?
Answer this with JoyAgreeableness
Warmth and concern for others, against directness and skepticism. Its statements ask whether you feel others' emotions and make time for them. Read about agreeableness.
Who did you make room for this week, and was there anyone you said yes to when you meant no?
Answer this with JoyEmotional stability, or neuroticism
How quickly stress, worry and mood swings arrive. Most of its statements describe the stress end ("I worry about things"), and agreeing with them lowers the stability score. Read about neuroticism.
What kind of moment gets to you fastest? Write about the last one, and what helped it pass.
Answer this with JoyQuestions people ask
What is the rarest personality type?
Some type tests report how rare a type is, counted among their own users. The scores behind the letters mostly bunch near the middle rather than splitting into groups.13 A trait test has no rare types: each score is a point on a scale.
Is this personality test free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no email and no locked section. The whole result is on this page, and it is scored in your browser, so your answers are never sent or stored.
Which is better, MBTI or Big Five?
For research, the Big Five. Its five traits replicate across cultures and predict life outcomes.1,3 Type tests split people near the middle into separate groups the scores don't support.13 If a type name helps you talk about yourself, it can still be a fine starting point.
Can your personality change?
Yes, slowly. In twin and family studies, about 40% of the differences between people's personalities traced to genes and about 60% to environment.17 Traits tend to shift with age and over months of therapy or other programs.10,11
How accurate is a free personality test?
It depends on where the questions come from. These come from a public research item pool, and each scale's internal consistency is published.7 Any self-report test only reflects how you see yourself. Answering as you are, not as you'd like to be, gives the truest picture.
Why do my results change when I retake it?
Small changes are normal. Your mood that day, how you read a statement and real change over time all play a part. Scores near the middle move across the halfway mark most easily, which is why this test shows a bar rather than a label.