Your character strengths: the six-strength test

What this is

Character strengths are the positive traits psychologists grouped into 24 strengths in the Values in Action (VIA) project. This quiz measures six of them that matter most in everyday life: curiosity, gratitude, humor, kindness, perseverance and zest. The statements come from the revised IPIP-VIA scales of the International Personality Item Pool, which are in the public domain. Each strength uses its full published scale, eight to ten statements, scored as published: one to five per answer, reversed for the statements that point the other way. The only edit is the “I” at the start of each statement.

Because the scales have different lengths, the ranking uses the average per statement, not the total.

What it can tell you

In a study of 5,299 adults, hope, zest, gratitude, love and curiosity were the strengths most consistently linked with life satisfaction. Three of them are in this quiz. That study used the original VIA questionnaire, not these public-domain scales, and it measured links, not causes.

What it cannot tell you

Your bottom strength is not a weakness; it is just the one you lean on least right now. The low, middle and high bands are ours, not population norms, and six strengths are a slice of the full 24. Nothing here is a clinical assessment. Your individual answers stay in your browser; with your consent, the site only counts which result comes up.