BestOfYU
Best of You
Methodology

How Best of You works

A test based on the Big Five model, the most studied model in personality psychology, and a profile written by artificial intelligence from your scores. Here is how, and with what limits.

The five big traits

The Big Five model (or OCEAN) describes personality along five dimensions that everyone has to some degree. No score is good or bad: every position has its strengths and its difficulties.
Openness
Intellectual curiosity, imagination, sensitivity to art and new ideas. Its two aspects: intellect and openness to experience.
Conscientiousness
Organization, perseverance, sense of responsibility. Its two aspects: industriousness and orderliness.
Extraversion
Energy directed toward others, enthusiasm, self-assertion. Its two aspects: enthusiasm and assertiveness.
Agreeableness
Kindness, cooperation, attention to others. Its two aspects: compassion and politeness.
Neuroticism
Sensitivity to negative emotions: worry, stress, mood swings. Its two aspects: volatility and withdrawal.

The test

A short questionnaire, built from freely available scientific tools.
  • A bank of 100 statements
    They come from the Big Five Aspect Scales (DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, 2007), published in the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), a public-domain bank of questions used by researchers worldwide: 20 statements per trait, 10 per aspect.
  • 50 questions drawn at random
    For each test, 10 statements are drawn at random for each of the five traits, then shuffled. Two tests in a row therefore don't ask exactly the same questions.
  • A 7-point scale
    For each statement, you indicate how well it describes you, from “Disagree” to “Agree”, with a neutral position in the middle.
  • Statements worded both ways
    Some statements describe the trait (“I make friends easily”), others its opposite (“I am hard to get to know”): this limits the effect of answering out of habit.

How scores are calculated

Your answers give a score from 0 to 100 for each of the five traits.
  • An average per trait
    Each answer is converted to a value from -1 to 1, with the sign reversed for statements worded against the trait. The average of a trait's answers is then brought to a scale from 0 to 100.
  • How to read a score
    50 is the middle of the scale: as much agreement as disagreement with the trait's statements. It is not the population average: scores are not compared with a reference group.
  • Your tests are kept
    Your last 10 tests stay in “My space”: you can retake the test at another time in your life and compare the profiles you get.

The profile written by AI

From your five scores, an artificial intelligence (an OpenAI model) writes a detailed profile: what drives you, what holds you back, your relationships, and ways to move forward.
  • What it receives
    Your five scores, the language of the profile and, if you gave it, your gender, to get the grammar right. For a duo or a group: each member's display name, gender and scores, and the chosen context.
  • What it doesn't receive
    Neither your email address, nor your last name, nor your answers to the questions. The profile is written from the scores only, without inventing facts about your life.
  • In your language
    The profile is written in the language of the site. Another language is a translation of the same profile: the content stays identical from one language to another.

Duos and groups

Compare your personalities as a couple, as a family, with friends or at work. Each member joins with one of their tests, and the AI analyzes the combination of scores: shared strengths, everyone's role, relationships, possible tensions and an action plan. Members see the analysis, never the scores or profiles of the others.

The limits

To make good use of your results.
  • It is not a diagnosis
    Best of You is a self-knowledge tool. It does not replace the advice of a doctor or a psychologist, nor a test taken with a professional.
  • No comparison with a population
    Your scores place your answers on the questionnaire's scale, not relative to other people.
  • A text written by AI
    It interprets your scores with nuance, but it can be wrong or generalize: keep what speaks to you.
  • A snapshot
    Your answers reflect a moment: mood, context or stage of life can make them vary.
  • Translations to be validated
    The German, Italian and Portuguese versions of the statements are our own translations, not yet scientifically validated.

Sources

  • DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880–896. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880
  • Goldberg, L. R., Johnson, J. A., Eber, H. W., Hogan, R., Ashton, M. C., Cloninger, C. R., & Gough, H. G. (2006). The International Personality Item Pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(1), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.007
  • International Personality Item Pool: A Scientific Collaboratory for the Development of Advanced Measures of Personality and Other Individual Differences. https://ipip.ori.org

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