Harry Potter quiz could say a lot about your personality

Harry Potter quiz could say a lot about your personality

A Muggle’s favorite “house” in the Harry Potter series could say a lot about his or her personality, according to a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Researcher say the stereotypes attached to the four houses — Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor — in the popular book series often mirror the personalities of those who took the quiz, “Which Hogwarts house are you in?

Individuals in the study took the Harry Potter quiz, followed by a series of personality tests that asked them to indicate how closely they identified with the Big Five personality traits. These traits include the need to belong (agreeableness), need for cognition, and the group of traits known as the Dark Triad: narcissism (excessive self-love), Machiavellianism (manipulative behavior) and psychopathy (lack of empathy).

Participants who scored high in cognition were placed in Ravenclaw, a house stereotyped for wit and learning. On the other hand, those who scored high in the Dark Triad were matched with Slytherin, known for doing anything to get a desired end result. Those placed in Hufflepuff, known for loyalty, scored high on agreeableness.

The only house for which researchers did not find a correlation between personality traits and placement in the house was Gryffindor, which is known for bravery. Individuals placed in this house did not score high on extraversion or openness like researches expected.

“Our findings suggest that fiction can reflect real underlying personality dimensions,” wrote the study authors. “Clearly, what we read can influence how we see ourselves.”

Many might consider it undesirable if their children score high on the Dark Triad and land in Slytherin, but Dr. Pradeep Thapar, a psychiatrist at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., says that some personality traits can be changed.

He offers this advice to parents looking to instill positive personality traits in their kids.

“Everyone has positive and negative traits,” says Dr. Thapar. “Bring out the positive traits in kids. For example, if they are very helpful to older adults or very good at math and science, bring those up more.”

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Comments

4 Comments

  1. Patches Hoohaw June 29, 2015 at 1:14 pm · Reply

    I took the Harry Potter quiz and it told me I have eczema

  2. I thought the artical was very interesting.

  3. Where can I take the test?

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health enews Staff
health enews Staff

health enews staff is a group of experienced writers from our Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care sites, which also includes freelance or intern writers.