Big Five traits

• Openness (open to new things or down-to-earth): how much you enjoy new ideas, imagination, art and unusual experiences. Someone high on it tends to be curious and inventive; someone low on it tends to like what is familiar, practical and tried.
• Conscientiousness (organised or easy-going): how much you plan, tidy up and follow through. Someone high on it tends to be careful and disciplined; someone low on it tends to be flexible and spontaneous, and less bothered by order.
• Extraversion (outgoing or quiet): how much energy you take from company and activity. Someone high on it tends to be talkative and lively; someone low on it tends to be reserved and to like time alone or a small group, which is not the same as being shy or unfriendly.
• Agreeableness (warm or direct): how much you trust, help and give way to other people. Someone high on it tends to be kind and cooperative; someone low on it tends to be direct, sceptical and ready to disagree.
• Neuroticism (sensitive or calm): how strongly worries, irritation and low moods reach you, and how long they stay. Someone high on it feels things strongly; someone low on it stays steady. The technical name sounds harsher than it is: it describes a normal range, not a fault.

A memory aid for the names is OCEAN, from the first letters of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Some books turn the last trait around and call it emotional stability, which is the same trait with the ends swapped.

Each trait is a summary of finer traits called facets. In the questionnaire behind our longest test, each trait has six facets^[3]. Knowing the facets explains why two people with the same trait score can still feel quite different.

• Openness: imagination, artistic interests, emotionality, adventurousness, intellect and liberalism.
• Conscientiousness: self-efficacy, orderliness, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline and cautiousness.
• Extraversion: friendliness, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity level, excitement-seeking and cheerfulness.
• Agreeableness: trust, morality, altruism, cooperation, modesty and sympathy.
• Neuroticism: anxiety, anger, low mood, self-consciousness, immoderation and vulnerability.

A questionnaire gives you statements such as 'I enjoy meeting new people' and asks how well each describes you. Your answers for the statements that belong to one trait are added or averaged, with a few statements counted backwards because they say the opposite. The result is a score for each trait.

The sites differ mainly in length. The quick personality test has 10 statements and gives a first sketch, the personality test has 50 and describes the five traits more steadily, and the Big Five test has 120 and looks at each trait from six sides. They all describe the same five traits. If you wonder how they compare with the sixteen-type tests, read Big Five vs 16 types of personality.

The questionnaire behind our Big Five test was answered online by 320,128 people in the United States, aged 19 to 69, and a published study gives their averages and spread^[1]. The study gives each trait as the average of its six facets, and our test adds the facets up, so the figures below are the study's multiplied by six, on the same scale as our test.

These people chose to take a personality test online, so they are not a whole country; they are a large group to set a result beside, which is what the Big Five test does for answers in English.

The authors of the ten-statement questionnaire published the averages of a group of undergraduates at one university in the United States, who took it for course credit. Each trait is scored from 1 to 7. In this group the averages of all four traits lay above the middle of the scale, so the middle of a scale is not what a typical person scores.

We leave out conscientiousness on purpose. The paper's table holds figures for it, but its printed spread does not agree with the spreads of the groups it is made from, and this site shows no figure it could not confirm in its source.

These are the averages of students at one university, and not of people in general, so they are a mark to look at and not a standard to meet. Age, country and the way the questions are put all change them.

• They describe how you see yourself on the day, in the words of the statements. They are not a measurement of your brain or a forecast of your life.
• They move a little from one day to the next, so a trait score is better read as a region than as an exact point.
• Most people score near the average of their group on most traits, and only the far ends are unusual.
• A trait says what you tend to do, not what you can do or what you must do. People act against their tendencies all the time.
• They are not a measure of mental health and are no basis for choosing a person for a job.