Big Five personality test
Big Five personality test
The Big Five is the model of personality with the most research behind it. It does not sort you into a type; it describes you on five independent traits, each as a point on a scale: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional reactivity and openness.
This version uses the Mini-IPIP, a 20-statement public-domain short form. Rate how accurately each statement describes you. It takes about five minutes, you get a 0–100 score on every trait straight away, and there is nothing to sign up for.
Possible results
- Low extraversionYou recharge alone and spend social energy deliberately.
- Average extraversionYou enjoy people and you enjoy quiet, depending on the day.
- High extraversionPeople give you energy, and you give it right back.
- Low agreeablenessYou say what you think and judge people by what they do, not how they make you feel.
- Average agreeablenessYou get along with people without losing your own position.
- High agreeablenessYou notice how others feel and you act on it.
- Low conscientiousnessYou work in bursts, improvise well and dislike rules for their own sake.
- Average conscientiousnessOrganised when it counts, relaxed when it does not.
- High conscientiousnessYou finish what you start and you start on time.
- Low emotional reactivityIt takes a lot to rattle you, and even then not for long.
- Average emotional reactivityYou feel stress like everyone else and get through it like most people.
- High emotional reactivityYou feel things strongly, quickly and for longer than you would like.
- Low opennessYou prefer the proven over the novel and the concrete over the abstract.
- Average opennessCurious about some things, happily conventional about others.
- High opennessIdeas, art and new experiences are not a luxury for you; they are oxygen.
How this quiz works
This test uses the Mini-IPIP, a 20-item short form of the Big Five published by Donnellan, Oswald, Baird and Lucas in 2006. The items come from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), whose items are in the public domain and may be used, translated and published for any purpose.
Each trait is measured by four statements rated from 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate). Ten statements are reverse-keyed, so a 1 counts as a 5. The four answers for a trait are averaged and rescaled to 0–100. A score of 40 or below is shown as “low”, 41–60 as “average” and above 60 as “high”. These cut-offs are simple descriptive bands, not population norms: they tell you where you placed yourself on the scale, not what percentage of people score lower than you. Your headline result is the trait on which your score is furthest from the middle; the other four traits are shown with it.
What this test does not do: it is not a clinical instrument and it cannot diagnose anything. A 20-item short form is less precise than the 50- or 120-item IPIP versions, so scores near a band boundary should be read loosely. Personality is also not fixed: scores shift with age, life events and mood on the day.
Reference: Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The Mini-IPIP scales: Tiny-yet-effective measures of the Big Five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18(2), 192–203. Items: ipip.ori.org.
Source: Mini-IPIP (20 items; Donnellan, Oswald, Baird & Lucas, 2006) (ipip.ori.org). Licence: public domain.
This is a self-reflection tool, not a diagnosis or professional advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the real Big Five test?
There is no single official Big Five test; the Big Five is a model, and many questionnaires measure it. This one uses the Mini-IPIP, a public-domain 20-item scale developed from the larger IPIP pool and used in published research.
What does an average score mean?
That you rated yourself near the middle of the scale on that trait: neither strongly one way nor the other. It is the most common result and it is a real description, not a lack of one.
Can my result change?
Yes. Big Five scores are fairly stable over years but do shift with age, major life events and even mood on the day. Taking the test again in a few months and comparing is more informative than any single run.
Is this a diagnosis?
No. High emotional reactivity, for example, is a normal personality trait, not a disorder. If anxiety or low mood is affecting your daily life, talk to a doctor or psychologist rather than relying on a quiz.
Is my result stored?
Your answers stay in your browser. We keep only anonymous aggregate statistics so we can show how others scored. No name, email or account is asked for.