Openness to Experience
Openness to experience is the Big Five personality trait that describes how curious and imaginative you are, from loving new ideas, art and change at the high end to preferring the practical, familiar and proven at the low end.
Take the free 10-statement quiz below to see your own score in about two minutes. Then read what it means.
- 10 statements
- About 2 min
- Free score
Updated
How well does each statement describe you? Answer for how you usually are.
Compare yourself with people you know of about your own age, and go with your first honest reaction. There are no right or wrong answers. Keyboard: 1 to 5 to answer, Enter for next, Backspace to go back. Answers save on this device as you go.
Your result
Your score is where your answers fell on a 0 to 100 scale. 50 is the middle of the scale, not the average person, and it is not a percentile. It is saved only on this device.
These ten statements measure one trait. For all five traits and your four-letter type, take the quick test or the full test.
What is openness?
Openness to experience, often just called Openness, is one of the five traits in the Big Five model of personality. People who score high are curious about almost everything. They enjoy art, music and big “what if” questions. They notice patterns and links, and they like to try new things. People who score low are practical and down-to-earth. They trust facts they can check and ways of doing things that already work. They would rather get on with a task than talk about theories.
Openness is not the same as intelligence, and a low score does not mean a closed mind. It is about what you find interesting and how much you enjoy change. The research set behind our quick test calls this trait “Intellect or Imagination”, which gives a good feel for what it covers: ideas, imagination and new experiences.
What does high openness look like?
- Curious about ideasYou enjoy hard questions, new subjects and long talks about how things work.
- A rich imaginationYou daydream, picture what could be and enjoy stories and inner worlds.
- Moved by art and beautyMusic, art, nature or design can move you more than they seem to move other people.
- Hungry for varietyYou like new foods, new places and new ways of doing things. Too much routine bores you.
- In touch with feelingsYou notice your own emotions and like to understand where they come from.
What does low openness look like?
- PracticalYou like ideas that are useful today more than theories about tomorrow.
- Trusts what worksIf a method is tested and reliable, you see no reason to change it.
- Down-to-earthYou focus on facts, details and what is right in front of you.
- Likes the familiarYou enjoy favorite places, routines and traditions. A change has to prove itself first.
- Plain and directYou prefer a clear answer to a long debate about ideas.
What are the facets of openness?
Each Big Five trait breaks down into smaller parts called facets. Our full test scores 5 facets of Openness, four statements each. The names in brackets are the research labels.
- Imagination (Imagination)
- How much you daydream, picture things in your head and enjoy made-up worlds.
- Love of art and beauty (Artistic Interests)
- How much art, music, nature and design matter to you.
- Awareness of feelings (Emotionality)
- How much you notice your own emotions and value them.
- Love of variety (Adventurousness)
- How much you like change, travel and trying things you have never done.
- Love of ideas (Intellect)
- How much you enjoy hard reading, puzzles and big questions.
The research set behind our full test has a sixth Openness facet, Liberalism, with four statements about politics and voting. We leave those four out, so our full test scores Openness from the other 20 statements.
Is it better to be high or low in openness?
Neither end is better. Higher Openness helps with creative work, with learning brand-new subjects and with coping when life changes. Lower Openness brings focus, realism and steadiness. It keeps a group grounded when ideas run wild, and it gets practical jobs done well.
Each end also has a risk. Very open people may chase new ideas and never finish one, or find everyday tasks dull. People who score very low may miss a better way of doing things because the old way feels safe. Many teams work best with both kinds of people.
Can your openness score change?
A little. On average, Openness rises through the teen years and early adulthood, then dips slightly in later life. New experiences, such as travel, a new course or a new job, can also nudge it. Big changes are rare, but small ones are normal.
Which personality types are high in openness?
On this site, your Openness score sets the second letter of your type code. A score of 50 or more gives N (Imaginative). A score under 50 gives S (Practical).
Higher Openness: N types
What are the other four Big Five traits?
Openness is one of five traits. Together they make up the Big Five, the model of personality that researchers use most. Read our Big Five personality test guide for all five at once.
- Conscientiousness: How much you plan ahead, keep order and push yourself to finish things.
- Extraversion: How much energy you get from people, activity and excitement.
- Agreeableness: How much you put kindness, trust and getting along ahead of competing and challenging.
- Neuroticism: How strongly you feel stress, worry and other difficult emotions. It is not a measure of any health condition.
Openness questions and answers
Is openness to experience the same as intelligence?
No. Openness is about how much you enjoy ideas and new experiences, not how fast you learn. Studies find a modest link between the two, mostly through the love of ideas. But plenty of very bright people score low on Openness, and many very open people are not top students.
What does low openness mean?
It means you are practical, down-to-earth and prefer what is familiar and proven. You trust facts more than theories. It does not mean you are closed-minded or unkind. Many people with lower Openness are steady, reliable and very good at getting real work done.
Are creative people high in openness?
Often. Creativity and Openness go together in many studies, especially for art, music and new ideas. But creative work also needs effort and skill, so Conscientiousness matters too. A practical person can be very creative with tools, food, sport or business.
Why is openness sometimes called intellect?
Different research groups named this trait in different ways. Some called it Intellect, some Imagination and some Openness to Experience. They describe much the same trait. We use Openness on every page so the names stay simple.
Where do the quiz statements come from?
They are the ten Intellect or Imagination statements from the 50-item IPIP Big-Five factor markers, a free, public-domain set of research questions. Our quick test uses the same ten for Openness. The How it works page explains the source and the scoring.
See all five of your scores
The full test scores every Big Five trait and its facets, and gives you a four-letter type. It is free.