Are you more of a Gryffindor than a Slytherin, or a Phoebe than a Monica? Yes, we're talking Harry Potter and Friends here, and you might know the answer if you're a fan of themed personality quizzes. From the pages of teen magazines to the annals of Buzzfeed, they're a staple in popular culture. But why do we love them so much?
There's a certain excitement that comes with taking personality tests, says Hillary Anger Elfenbein, a professor of organizational behavior at Washington University in St. Louis. As she puts it, they’re “like holding the mirror up to yourself and trying to see yourself the way the world sees you.”
Often in scientific research, academics use the Big Five model to measure personality using five overarching traits: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extroversion. "These are basically big-picture categories, and there are a lot of smaller, more focused personality traits that fall within these five," Elfenbein explains.
