Updated 3 November 2026
What are my character strengths?
IPIP-VIA-R, 96 items, 10 minutes
Character strengths are the positive traits a person uses most naturally: curiosity, kindness, perseverance, humour and twenty others. These 96 public-domain statements measure 24 of them with four balanced items each, so your highest strips show your signature strengths.
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0 of 96 answered. Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other people you know of the same sex as you are, and roughly your same age.
Your results
Your answers and results are stored only in this browser, on this device. Nothing is sent to us. A share link carries your scores in the link itself.
Understanding your scores
Appreciation of beauty
High. You feel it is important to live in a world of beauty and experience deep emotions when you see beautiful things.
Low. You are rarely aware of natural beauty and tend to notice it only when others comment.
Capacity for love
High. You can express love to someone else and know there are people who care for you as much as for themselves.
Low. You do not easily share your feelings and find it difficult to accept love from anyone.
Teamwork
High. You are an extremely loyal person who supports teammates and fellow group members.
Low. You are not good at working with a group and prefer to do everything alone.
Curiosity
High. You are excited by many different activities and can find something of interest in any situation.
Low. You are not all that curious about the world and have few interests.
Fairness
High. You treat all people equally and believe everyone's rights are equally important.
Low. You take advantage of others and treat people differently if you do not like them.
Forgiveness
High. You try to respond with understanding when someone treats you badly and allow others a fresh start.
Low. You hold grudges and find it hard to forgive.
Gratitude
High. You express thanks to those who care about you and are an extremely grateful person.
Low. You feel no gratitude to others and find few things in your life to be grateful for.
Hope
High. You can find the positive in what seems negative to others and remain hopeful despite challenges.
Low. You expect the worst and often think about bad outcomes that are not likely.
Humour
High. You use laughter to brighten the days of others and keep your sense of humour even in gloomy situations.
Low. You are not known for your sense of humour and are not described as fun to be with.
Perseverance
High. You do not quit a task before it is finished and finish things despite obstacles.
Low. You do not finish what you start and give up easily.
Honesty
High. You are trusted to keep secrets and keep your promises.
Low. You lie to get out of trouble and cheat on people who have trusted you.
Judgment
High. You weigh the pros and cons and are valued by your friends for your good judgment.
Low. You do not tend to think things through critically or consider different possibilities.
Kindness
High. You are never too busy to help a friend and go out of your way to cheer up people who appear down.
Low. You lose patience when others talk about their problems and are kind only in return.
Leadership
High. You are good at helping people work well together and are told you are a strong but fair leader.
Low. You have difficulty getting others to work together and are not good at taking charge.
Love of learning
High. You are a true lifelong learner and are thrilled when you learn something new.
Low. You do not like to learn new things and do not read non-fiction for fun.
Modesty
High. You do not brag about your accomplishments and would never be described as arrogant.
Low. You like to stand out in a crowd and to talk about yourself.
Creativity
High. You come up with new ways to do things and are an original thinker.
Low. You are not considered to have new and different ideas and have no special urge to do something original.
Perspective
High. You have a mature view on life and are considered a wise person.
Low. You are not good at figuring out what really matters and are rarely consulted for advice.
Prudence
High. You believe it is always better to be safe than sorry and make careful choices.
Low. You act before thinking through the consequences and like taking risks.
Self-regulation
High. You are a highly disciplined person who forgoes things that are bad for you in the long run even if they feel good in the short run.
Low. You let yourself be taken over by urges to spend or eat too much and give in to them.
Social intelligence
High. You are good at sensing what others are feeling and know what to say to make people feel good.
Low. You do not know how to handle yourself in a new social situation and have trouble guessing how others will react.
Spirituality
High. You are a spiritual person and believe that each person has a purpose in life.
Low. You feel that life has no meaning and do not believe in a universal power or a God.
Bravery
High. You have taken frequent stands in the face of strong opposition and do not hesitate to express an unpopular opinion.
Low. You do not stand up for your beliefs and do not speak your mind when there might be negative results.
Zest
High. You awaken with a sense of excitement about the day's possibilities and look forward to each new day.
Low. You are described as grumpy and do not have much energy.
How reliable is this test
Internal consistency (coefficient alpha) per scale, as published:
| Scale | Published |
|---|---|
| Appreciation of beauty | 0.54 |
| Capacity for love | 0.61 |
| Teamwork | 0.57 |
| Curiosity | 0.56 |
| Fairness | 0.63 |
| Forgiveness | 0.56 |
| Gratitude | 0.63 |
| Hope | 0.60 |
| Humour | 0.61 |
| Perseverance | 0.63 |
| Honesty | 0.67 |
| Judgment | 0.55 |
| Kindness | 0.59 |
| Leadership | 0.57 |
| Love of learning | 0.55 |
| Modesty | 0.54 |
| Creativity | 0.62 |
| Perspective | 0.56 |
| Prudence | 0.45 |
| Self-regulation | 0.42 |
| Social intelligence | 0.63 |
| Spirituality | 0.57 |
| Bravery | 0.54 |
| Zest | 0.62 |
Coefficient alpha per scale for the UK sample (n = 474) from the IPIP key page, which gives Germany/UK figures for alpha, McDonald's omega and two-to-three-week test-retest reliability. The authors say alpha understates the reliability of these balanced four-item scales and recommend omega.
No published norms exist for this instrument, so the results show raw scores against the possible range and no percentiles.
The IPIP key page gives, per strength, two-to-three-week test-retest reliabilities between .55 and .82 for UK and German samples, with McDonald's omega and alpha. The authors say alpha understates the reliability of these balanced four-item scales and recommend omega. Four items per strength is short, so individual strengths move between attempts; the order of your top five is more stable than any single score.
Limits worth knowing: four items per strength is short and the strengths move between attempts; trust the order of your top few more than any single score. Some names (judgment, prudence, spirituality) carry the authors' technical meaning. No norm sample is published, so there are no percentiles.
Questions people ask
What are signature strengths?
The handful of strengths, usually the top five, that come most naturally to you and that you feel most yourself using. Read your strips from the top: the strengths with the highest markers are your candidates. The order among the top few is more trustworthy than any single score.
Is this the same as the VIA Survey?
No. This is the IPIP-VIA-R, a public-domain set of 24 four-item scales built by Bluemke, Partsch, Saucier and Lechner (2021) to measure constructs similar to the 24 strengths in Peterson and Seligman's classification, with balanced keying and items chosen to work across cultures. The VIA Survey is a separate, longer instrument owned by the VIA Institute.
Can I put these on a CV?
You can describe yourself in these terms, and the words are plain ones. The site does not produce reports for employers and does not help anyone screen candidates; a self-report of strengths is for the person who gave it.
Why no percentiles?
No norm sample is published for these scales and the site never estimates one. Your markers are drawn against the possible range of 4 to 20.
Why are the strength names shorter than the published ones?
The published names are compounds such as Industry/Perseverance/Persistence. The site shows one word from each and keeps the full published name in the data file and the sources box.
Where do my answers go?
Nowhere. The test is scored in your browser and the result is kept only on this device.
Sources and licence
Instrument: IPIP-VIA-R. Bluemke, M., Partsch, M. V., Saucier, G., & Lechner, C. M. (2021). Measuring cross-cultural supermodel strengths in a balanced way: The IPIP-VIA-R short scales. Assessment (as cited on the IPIP key page).
Scoring key: https://ipip.ori.org/IPIP-VIA-R_Key.html, checked 2026-11-03.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm Credit: International Personality Item Pool, https://ipip.ori.org/.