Openness to Experience
The trait of imagination, curiosity and a taste for the unfamiliar.
- Items in the Mini-IPIP
- 4
- Reverse-keyed items
- 3
- Score range
- 0-100
Is this you? Only one way to find out
Take the testWhat it measures
Openness describes how much you are drawn to new ideas, art, imagination and experiences. High scorers tend to enjoy abstract thinking, unusual perspectives and variety; low scorers prefer the concrete, the familiar and the proven. In the Mini-IPIP used on this site, the factor is labelled Intellect/Imagination, which captures its two sides: a hunger for ideas and a vivid inner world.
Openness is the Big Five trait most often linked with creativity and broad interests, and it shows up in everyday choices: the music you play, the food you order, how you react to a plan that suddenly changes. Neither end is better. A team needs people who invent and people who ask, "Will this actually work?"
High scorers tend to
- Enjoy abstract ideas and "what if" questions
- Seek out art, travel and new experiences
- Get bored by strict routines
- Change their minds when shown a better argument
Low scorers tend to
- Prefer practical, concrete solutions
- Value tradition and familiar comforts
- Are hard to sell on fads and hype
- Turn plans into finished results
Sounds like you?
Your Openness is high: you collect ideas, art, odd facts and new experiences. "The way it has always been done" bores you, while abstract questions, strange films and unfamiliar food light you up. The roast: you have started more hobbies than you have finished, and you will explain the symbolism of a movie nobody asked you to analyze.
Your Openness sits in the middle: curious, with a practical filter. You will try the new restaurant, but you read the menu first. Big ideas appeal when they are useful, and you switch easily between imagination and common sense. The roast: you call it "balanced taste"; your friends call it ordering the same dish at a new place.
Your Openness is on the lower side: you value what is proven, concrete and familiar. You are refreshingly down to earth, immune to hype and great at making ideas work in the real world. The roast: "experimental" is not a compliment in your vocabulary, and you have firm views on pineapple pizza.
How this test measures it
High Openness asks "Why not?" Low Openness asks "Why?" Both questions save the day sometimes.
The other four traits
Related ideas
- imagination
- curiosity
- creativity
- intellect
- aesthetics
- novelty