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Personality tests

These personality tests ask short questions about how you usually feel and act, and show where your answers fall on a few well-studied traits.

How these tests work

Each test uses a published questionnaire. You read a statement, for example about how outgoing you are, and choose how well it describes you. Your answers are added up into a small number of traits, and the result shows where you sit between the two ends of each one, not what kind of person you are.

Every questionnaire is printed in full in the personality questionnaire library, with its statements, its authors, its source and the licence it is used under, so you can see where the questions come from.

What a result can and cannot say

A personality result describes how you answered on one day. It is for curiosity and self-reflection. It is not a medical or psychological assessment, and it cannot tell you which job to take or who to be.

If something in your life troubles you, talk to a doctor or another professional. A short online questionnaire is not the right tool for that, and nothing on this site replaces one.

Your answers stay with you

Your answers are used in your browser to work out your result, and they are saved on this device only. Nothing is sent to us and there is no account.

Some questionnaires ask more sensitive questions. Those results stay hidden from the list of your results unless you switch them on.

Choose the length that suits you

The tests differ in length. A short one gives a rough sketch in a couple of minutes, and a longer one gives a finer picture of the same traits, with more questions and a bit more patience. You can stop at any time and carry on later, and what you have answered is kept in this browser until you clear its data.

What the studies say

The five traits these tests measure turn up across languages and cultures: a study of 11,985 people rated by others in 50 cultures found the same structure recognisable in all of them[1]. A review of twin and family studies linked about 40% of the differences between people to genes[2]. Our Facts articles explain the big five personality traits and what research says about personality types.

Sources

  1. McCrae, R. R., & Terracciano, A. (2005). Universal features of personality traits from the observer's perspective: Data from 50 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(3), 547–561.doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.3.547
    Abstract: "To test hypotheses about the universality of personality traits, college students in 50 cultures identified an adult or college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the 11,985 targets using the 3rd-person version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Factor analyses within cultures showed that the normative American self-report structure was clearly replicated in most cultures and was recognizable in all." "Cross-sectional age differences for 3 factors followed the pattern identified in self-reports, with moderate rates of change during college age and slower changes after age 40." (read on 2026-10-06: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15740445/)
  2. Vukasović, T., & Bratko, D. (2015). Heritability of personality: A meta-analysis of behavior genetic studies. Psychological Bulletin, 141(4), 769–785.doi:10.1037/bul0000017
    Abstract: "the final sample included 62 independent effect sizes, representing more than 100,000 participants of both genders and all ages." "The average effect size was .40, indicating that 40% of individual differences in personality were due to genetic, while 60% are due to environmental influences." "study design was a significant moderator with twin studies showing higher estimates, .47, compared to family and adoption studies, .22." (read on 2026-10-06: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25961374/)