WHAT IT MEASURES

The Big Five measures personality across five broad, statistically independent dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Unlike type-based systems, it places you on continuous scales rather than in a box.

THE SCIENCE

The five-factor model emerged from decades of factor-analytic research beginning with Allport and Odbert's 1930s trait lexicon, converging into its modern form through the work of Lewis Goldberg, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae. This test uses the Mini-IPIP, a 20-item short form of the International Personality Item Pool, which is in the public domain.

Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The Mini-IPIP Scales. Psychological Assessment, 18(2), 192–203.