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Before you start
- 50 statements
- About 7 minutes
- 5 traits, 10 aspects
- No sign-up
Rate how well each statement describes you as you generally are now, compared with other people your age. Go with your first reaction.
Every few questions you get a short checkpoint with your result so far. The full result is free at the end, with no sign-up or email.
What is the Big Five?
The Big Five, or OCEAN, is the personality model most used in psychology research. It came from studying the words people use to describe each other: across thousands of adjectives and many languages, the same five broad traits keep appearing.
- Openness: curiosity, imagination and love of ideas and art.
- Conscientiousness: organisation, discipline and follow-through.
- Extraversion: sociability, energy and assertiveness.
- Agreeableness: warmth, kindness and cooperation.
- Neuroticism: how strongly you feel stress, worry and anger.
Ten aspects
Each trait is split into two aspects, following research by Colin DeYoung, Lena Quilty and Jordan Peterson (2007). For example, extraversion splits into enthusiasm (warmth, fun) and assertiveness (taking charge). Two people with the same trait score can differ a lot on the aspects.
How the score works
Each aspect has five statements, two of them reverse-worded. Scores run from 0 to 100 with 50 in the middle of the scale. Because there are no published norms behind a free online test, treat "high" and "low" as relative to the scale, not to a population. The statements are our own, written in the style of the public-domain International Personality Item Pool.
Want a type instead of scores? Our personality test gives a four-letter type and nine traits.
Questions people ask
What does OCEAN stand for?
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism: the five Big Five traits.
Is the Big Five better than the 16 personality types?
For research, yes: the Big Five measures traits on a scale, is stable over time and predicts outcomes such as job performance. Types are easier to remember but put people in boxes.
Can your Big Five scores change?
Yes, slowly. On average people become more conscientious and agreeable and less neurotic with age.
For fun and self-reflection. NineTraits tests are for entertainment and personal insight. They are not a clinical, psychological, medical or professional assessment, and they should not be used to make decisions about health, hiring, relationships or education. If you are struggling, please talk to a qualified professional. Full disclaimer