People are complicated. So complicated, in fact, that we’ve invented roughly 2,500 personality tests in the U.S. alone.
Whether you’re drawn to personality tests because you want to solve the puzzle that is “you,” uncover your compatibility with a love interest, find a career you’d excel in or learn your Harry Potter house, the sheer number of tests on the market make it tricky to know which to trust and which to ignore.
That’s why we did our research. Below is a list of 4 personality tests that are widely popular and free to take online. As far as which test to take, the choice is yours.
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Used by 89 of the Fortune 100 companies, MBTI is perhaps the most popular personality test out there. The test takes the psychological types described by Dr. Carl Jung, the founder of analytic psychology, and makes them comprehensible.
Your result will be 1 of 16 personality types, listed in detail here. You will learn whether you’re an introvert or extrovert and what your decision-making process is like, among other things.
Before you take MBTI, be warned: even Dr. Jung has acknowledged the limitations of personality type. This article by the New York Times quotes Jung’s writing: “‘There is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert,’ he wrote. ‘Such a man would be in the lunatic asylum.’”
You can take the test for free here — it will take you around 10-15 minutes to complete.
If you need help interpreting your MBTI type, take some advice from the certified MBTI practitioner Aimee Yamanaka: click here to get in touch.
The Enneagram Test
Invented in the 1990s, the Enneagram is a useful tool for understanding how you interpret the world and manage emotions at an objective level.
The test will present you with a series of statements, each of which you’ll mark according to how well it describes your personality.
The results are 9 interconnected Enneagram types that are further separated into Heart Types, Head Types, and Body Types. Read more about each type at The Enneagram Institute.
You can take the test for free here — it will take you about 10 minutes to complete.
The Big Five Personality Test
Also known as the Five-Factor Model, the Big Five Model is “the most widely accepted personality theory held by psychologists today,” according to Simply Psychology. The test is popular among employers — Forbes tells us that some use it for recruitment and talent management.
The test boils your personality down to five core traits, each of which is a spectrum of contrasting behaviors. Take openness (one of the traits) for example. After agreeing, disagreeing, or remaining neutral to a series of statements about yourself, you can score as either more curious or more cautious on the openness scale.
You can take the test for free here — it will take you around 10-15 minutes to complete.
After you receive your results, learn how to use them for free at GNL: sign up for How To Use Your Enneagram Personality Type on November 15th.
The DiSC Assessment
The DiSC Assessment will help you discover your personality type at work. Used by companies like The Times today, the 4 DiSC personality types were invented in 1928 by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist and, fun fact, the inventor of Wonder Woman.
The test (depending on which one you take) presents you with a list of adjectives or phrases. Mark each list item with how well it describes you, then you will learn your dominant DiSC style: dominance, inducement, submission and compliance.
You can take the test for free at Truity (click here), but keep in mind, they describe the types as drive, influence, support, and clarity.
The assessment will take you around 15 minutes to complete.
Let us know in the comments below which test you find most accurate!
