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Introvert or Extrovert Test

Twenty-four questions on the extraversion scale, broken into the six things it is actually made of.

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24 questions across 1 scale, about 5 minutes|Published scoring key from IPIP-NEO Extraversion scale, 24 items across six facets, not invented

Authors: International Personality Item Pool; facet structure after Johnson (2014), IPIP-NEO-120

Licence: Public domain IPIP items, free to use without permission

What this test measures

Extraversion

How much stimulation and social contact you seek out, and how much energy you get back from it.

High. You start conversations, you are comfortable being noticed, and a busy room tends to charge you rather than drain you. Decisions get made out loud, often while you are still thinking.

Low. You rebuild your energy alone. Groups are manageable but they cost something, and you would usually rather have one real conversation than six brief ones. Thinking happens before speaking, not during.

6 facets

  • Friendliness
  • Gregariousness
  • Assertiveness
  • Activity Level
  • Excitement-Seeking
  • Cheerfulness

What answering this test looks like

Question 1 of 24

How accurately does this describe you?

Make friends easily.

  • 1Very inaccurate
  • 2Moderately inaccurate
  • 3Neither accurate nor inaccurate
  • 4Moderately accurate
  • 5Very accurate
One item at a time, keyboard or mouse. Every one of the 24 items is worded this way, and your place is saved as you go.

What this test is

Almost every popular introvert quiz makes the same mistake: it sorts you into one of two boxes. Real measurement does not work that way. Extraversion is a continuous dimension, and if you plot a large sample on it you get a hump in the middle, not two clumps at the ends. The majority of people are somewhere between, which is why the word ambivert exists.

The second thing those quizzes miss is that extraversion has internal structure. The Five-Factor tradition splits it into six facets, and they genuinely come apart. Plenty of people who describe themselves as introverts turn out to be high on assertiveness and activity and low only on gregariousness: they are not quiet, they just do not want crowds.

This test uses the 24 extraversion items from the IPIP-NEO, so the facets and the keying are the ones the research literature uses, and the items are public domain.

How this test is scored

  1. 24 answers

    Each answer you give is a number on the published response scale.

  2. One scale

    Answers belonging to the same scale are added together.

  3. A band

    Each total is read against the bands printed for that scale.

Twenty-four items on a five-point accuracy scale, six of them reverse-keyed and flipped before summing. The total runs from 24 to 120 and each facet from 4 to 20. The bar shows the position inside that range, not a percentile.

Scoring runs in your browser from your own answers. It is deterministic, so the same answers always produce the same result, and no part of it is generated, estimated or inferred.

How accurate this test is

Twenty-four items make the overall extraversion score the most stable single number on this site. It is built from more items than any one trait gets in the 50-item Big Five.

The facets are a different matter. Four items each is deliberately short, so treat a gap of a few points between two facets as nothing and a gap of thirty as real.

The underlying IPIP facet scales and their published alphas are listed on ipip.ori.org, where the item pool is maintained.

Who this test is for

Worth taking if

  • Anyone who has been called an introvert and is not sure the label fits
  • Working out why some social situations drain you and others do not
  • People who want one trait in detail rather than five in outline

Not the right tool for

  • Getting a two-box verdict, because the measurement does not support one
  • Diagnosing social anxiety or shyness, which are different things
  • Decisions about hiring or placing other people

What this test cannot tell you

Introversion and extraversion are one continuous scale, not two types. A score of 52 and a score of 48 describe the same person.

Four items per facet is a short scale. Read the facets as a pattern, not as six precise measurements.

This measures self-description, which mood and recent events both move.

Introversion is not shyness and not social anxiety. Shyness is wanting contact and fearing it; introversion is simply needing less of it.

This is a self-assessment questionnaire, not a diagnostic instrument and not medical advice.

Take this test now

24 questions, about 5 minutes. Your answers are scored on this device and stored on this device. There is no account to create and nothing is sent to a server. Progress saves as you go, so a long assessment can be finished across more than one sitting.

Start Introvert or extrovert

No sign up, ever. Every item in this assessment comes from IPIP-NEO Extraversion scale, 24 items across six facets, and the page above tells you exactly how each score is worked out before you answer anything.

Introvert or extrovert: frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an introvert and an extrovert?

Mostly where you get your energy back. Extraverts tend to be charged by contact and stimulation; introverts tend to be charged by solitude and depleted by crowds. Both can be sociable, articulate and good with people. The difference is the cost.

Can you be both an introvert and an extrovert?

Most people effectively are. The middle of the scale is the most crowded part of it, and that is what ambivert describes. The facet breakdown in your result is usually more informative than the overall label.

Is introversion the same as shyness?

No, and conflating them causes a lot of confusion. Shyness is wanting social contact and fearing it. Introversion is needing less of it in the first place. A shy extravert is a real and fairly uncomfortable combination.

How accurate is this introvert test?

The overall score comes from 24 items, which is a longer and steadier measure of this one trait than most online quizzes and than any single trait in a short Big Five form. The six facets are four items each, so read those as a pattern rather than as precise numbers.

How long does it take?

About five minutes for 24 statements. Answer quickly, because your first reaction is usually a more accurate description than a considered one.

Is it free, and do I need an account?

Free, with no account. The items are public domain, the scoring runs in your browser, and nothing is sent to a server.

Can my extraversion score change over time?

Slowly. Extraversion drifts a little across adult life and shifts with circumstances such as a new job or a move. Over weeks, though, most of the movement you would see is measurement noise rather than change in you.

Where these questions come from

The 24 items and their keying are the extraversion items of the IPIP-NEO-120 already used on this site, where facet membership was derived from the administration form and checked to give four items per facet. Check the source.

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