The Big Five is the model most personality researchers use: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. This test scores you on all five, then shows what the research says each trait means for how you take or avoid risk, in money, at work, on the road and in everyday decisions.
Common questions about the Big Five and risk
Which Big Five trait is most linked to risk-taking?
Openness. In a meta-analysis of 133 samples and more than 69,000 people, openness had the strongest link with risk propensity of the five traits (Highhouse et al., 2022). Extraversion comes next in many studies, and much of its effect runs through sensation seeking (Nicholson et al., 2005; Breivik et al., 2020).
Does personality affect financial risk tolerance?
Yes. Higher openness and extraversion go with more financial risk-taking and more stock investing, while higher conscientiousness and agreeableness go with less (Wong & Carducci, 2013; Liu et al., 2023). Investors high in neuroticism and low in openness hold less in stocks (Jiang et al., 2024).
Which traits go with safer behaviour at work and on the road?
Conscientiousness and agreeableness. Both are linked to less unsafe behaviour at work (Beus et al., 2015), and conscientiousness goes with less risky and aggressive driving (Luo et al., 2023). Neuroticism and sensation seeking point the other way.
How accurate is a 20-question Big Five test?
The 20-item Mini-IPIP was built as a short, usable version of the longer IPIP scales (Donnellan et al., 2006). It is good for a quick picture, but each trait rests on only four answers, so the 50- and 100-question stages give steadier scores, especially if one of your traits lands near the middle.
About this test
The statements come from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), a public-domain collection created by Lewis Goldberg and colleagues for open research. There are three nested stages: the 20-item Mini-IPIP, the 50-item IPIP Big-Five markers, and the 100-item version. Your earlier answers carry over, so each stage only adds questions, and each step makes your scores more reliable.
Scores run from 0 to 100 on the answer scale. They are not percentiles, because we do not compare you with other people. Most people describe themselves above the midpoint on agreeableness and conscientiousness, so a middle score there is common.
How the risk notes were put together
Each note comes from published research: meta-analyses on workplace safety and driving, studies of investors in several countries, and work on the personality profile of risk-takers. The links are systematic but partial. Together the five traits explain roughly a fifth of a person’s appetite for risk, and the same trait can point in opposite directions in different areas of life. Nothing on this page is psychological, medical or financial advice.
Prefer four letters? Try the 16 Types test. More practical checks are in Tools.