Top 5 Websites with Fun and Insightful Psychological Tests

By Joel Jordon, MakeUseOf – September 04, 2010 at 09:30PM

I intend to open up to you the corners of the internet that can help tap into the darkest corners of your own mind. Last month, I brought you the best optical illusions on the web, which tested how your mind manipulates your perceptions, and now I bring you some of the web’s best psychological tests. These tests may reveal to you the deepest parts of your own subconscious, which may horrify and astound you — but at least taking the tests will be fun.

There aren’t silly pop psychology tests that have no basis in fact; they’re legitimate psychological tests that are either backed by significant research or are actually parts of ongoing studies that are using your results to obtain more data. They’ll help you dig into your mind and explore your subconscious, memorization abilities, personality, and much more.

BBC’s Tests

The BBC has a surprisingly large collection of free psychological tests online. The subjects that they cover really run the gamut: you can find out how good your memory is, whether you experience synesthesia, what sex your brain is, and much more.

psychological tests

Many of the tests are parts of ongoing studies, so rest assured that the results you’re getting are coming directly from professional psychologists and researchers.

Cognitive Fun

Cognitive Fun is an excellent website with tons of unique psychological tests. Many will test your reaction time and memorization abilities, and you’ll also find the classic Stroop color test on the site.

online psychological tests

One of the site’s best features is that you can register an account and save your stats on all of the site’s tests. Then you can compare your results to those of everyone else who took the tests.

Jung Typology Test

The Jung Typology Test reveals your personality type using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a well-established personality test first published in 1962.

online psychological tests

Results of the test will provide you with four letters that summarize your personality type (don’t worry, it also explains, in detail, what those letters and your particular type actually mean). You’ll also find out what famous people had your personality type.

Project Implicit

Project Implicit is an excellent Harvard study that may reveal your subconscious biases regarding race, gender, religion, and more. It does this by requiring you to distinguish between different images and words and group them into correct categories.

For example, in the race test, you have to distinguish between faces of European and African origin and good words (like “joy” and “love”) and bad words (like “agony” and “terrible”). Then you have to group bad words and images of European American faces together and good words and images of African American faces together (and vice versa). To get accurate results, you have to sort quickly. Based on whether or not you make mistakes when grouping images, the test purports to reveal whether you may have a subconscious preference for faces of European or African origin. The results of this test and others on Project Implicit may astonish and unsettle you.

Face Research

The face research tests also primarily use images of faces. Here, however, you are making choices like whether faces look healthier, more trustworthy, or more attractive.

psychological tests

To participate in the tests you have to either register an account or login as a guest. These tests could reveal how you subconsciously assume things about the people you’ve just met based only on very subtle changes in their faces.

Conclusion

Psychological tests are both fun and can reveal a lot about us. If you want more information behind the results that you’re getting from these tests, consider checking out some informative psychology websites. In all of your pursuits to better understand yourself and the workings of your mind, I wish you luck.

Image source: Obscenity

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