That’s the question that a personality test called the Big Five seeks to answer. You respond to a series of statements about yourself – everything from “I have a kind word for everyone” to “I get chores done right away” – by agreeing, disagreeing or being neutral. Your final score gauges you on a quintet of characteristics: openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extroversion and neuroticism (or emotional stability, depending on which version of the test you take).
Why these five traits?
Starting in the 1940s, psychologists began asking people how they’d describe themselves or another person’s personality. “They arrived at pretty much the same set of five dimensions,” says Christopher Soto, a psychologist at Colby College who studies personality traits.
The term “Big Five” was coined by a psychologist named Lew Goldberg in 1981, according to Soto, and came into common usage among psychologists by the 1990s. (You can try the test for yourself here.)
Congresswoman and force of nature Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and student activist and force of nature Greta “Extinction Rebellion” Thunberg
conducted a videoconference to meet one another and talk tactics for
saving the world from dying in its own waste-gases; the wide-ranging
conversation touched on the unique power and problems of being a young
activist; the problem of holding up Nordic countries as paragons of
climate virtue; winning the fight over climate denialism; the true
nature of leadership; keeping motivated in the face of desperation and
crushing setbacks, and the tipping point we’re living through.
