A recent study suggests that the popular “Sorting Hat Quiz” from the Harry Potter universe may loosely reflect actual personality traits, particularly for fans of the series. The findings indicate that while the quiz captures some real psychological differences, its predictive power relies heavily on the participant’s familiarity with the narrative. These results were published in PLOS One.
Human beings possess a deep-seated drive to engage with storytelling and often identify closely with fictional characters. This tendency frequently manifests in the popularity of online assessments that assign individuals to specific groups within a fictional universe.
The “Sorting Hat Quiz” is a prominent example where users are sorted into one of four Hogwarts Houses based on their responses to situational questions. Prior investigations suggested a correlation between these House assignments and established psychological traits. The authors of the current study sought to verify these associations using more rigorous personality measures. They also aimed to determine if these connections exist for people who are unfamiliar with the books.
“The project actually started in a very down-to-earth way: my coauthors and I are genuine Harry Potter fans, and at some point we found ourselves joking—but also seriously debating—that each of us’ belongs’ to a different Hogwarts House,” said study author Maria Flakus of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
“That naturally led to a more scientific question: is there any real psychological signal behind these identifications, or are they mostly narrative stereotypes and wishful thinking? In other words, we wanted to see whether people’s House alignment (especially the House they feel they are, or want to be) maps onto meaningful differences in their dominant personality characteristics.”
“At the same time, there was a broader gap worth addressing. Sorting-type pop-culture quizzes are massively popular and people often treat the outcomes as surprisingly ‘accurate,’ yet the evidence for whether they track established psychological traits—and under what conditions—is limited and not fully consistent. We were particularly motivated to test whether the Sorting Hat Quiz can tell us something about personality at all, and whether ‘desired’ House membership might be as informative (or even more informative) than the algorithmic assignment—potentially reflecting an ideal self rather than a measured trait profile.”
To examine this, the research team recruited 677 participants through social media platforms. The sample consisted of adults ranging from 18 to 55 years old who were residents of Poland or spoke Polish fluently. The researchers divided the participants into two distinct groups based on their exposure to the series. The first group contained 578 individuals who had read the Harry Potter books. The second group consisted of 99 individuals who had not read the books.
Participants completed the official Sorting Hat Quiz on the Wizarding World website to determine their designated House. They also indicated which House they personally desired to join. To assess personality, the researchers administered the Polish Personality Lexicon, which is based on the HEXACO model. This model measures honesty-humility, emotional stability, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
The study also employed specific scales to measure darker personality aspects known as the Dark Triad. The researchers used the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire and the MACH-IV scale (for Machiavellianism). They assessed psychopathy using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. Additionally, the Need for Cognition Scale evaluated how much participants enjoyed complex thinking and intellectual challenges.
The data revealed specific patterns among the participants who had read the books. Individuals sorted into Slytherin scored higher on measures of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy compared to members of other Houses. These participants displayed traits associated with manipulation and a focus on self-interest. This finding aligns with the fictional portrayal of Slytherin House as ambitious and sometimes cunning.
Participants sorted into Ravenclaw demonstrated a higher need for cognition. This indicates a preference for intellectual engagement and problem-solving activities. This result corresponds well with the Ravenclaw reputation for valuing wit, learning, and wisdom. Those assigned to Gryffindor scored marginally higher on extroversion than the other groups. This suggests a tendency toward social assertiveness and enthusiasm.
Individuals sorted into Hufflepuff reported higher levels of agreeableness and honesty-humility. This aligns with the fictional description of the House as valuing fair play, loyalty, and hard work. However, these participants also reported lower levels of emotional stability. This finding implies a greater tendency to experience worry or a need for emotional support in stressful situations.
“Readers should think of the effects as modest rather than ‘life-defining,’” Flakus told PsyPost. “Even when differences between Houses are statistically reliable, there’s substantial overlap—many people in different Houses look similar on standard trait measures—so House membership explains only a limited share of personality variance. Practically, that means the Sorting Hat result may capture a real tendency at the group level, but it’s not precise enough for individual prediction or decision-making. It’s best viewed as a fun, coarse-grained signal.”
The researchers noted a discrepancy regarding conscientiousness among Hufflepuffs. Previous theories posited that Hufflepuffs would score highest in this trait due to their association with hard work. The current data provided evidence that Hufflepuffs did not score significantly higher in conscientiousness than members of other Houses. This challenges some of the simpler stereotypes associated with the House.
The researchers also analyzed the personality traits of participants based on the House they wanted to join rather than the one they were assigned. The patterns for desired Houses closely mirrored the results for the assigned Houses among readers. For example, those who wished to be in Slytherin scored higher on narcissism and psychopathy. This implies that personal preference is a strong indicator of one’s psychological makeup in this context.
“We were surprised that the pattern of associations pointed not only to traits but also to how people see themselves—self-identification sometimes seemed as informative as the quiz assignment,” Flakus said.
But the relationships between House assignment and personality traits were largely absent in the group of non-readers. While there was a minor link between Gryffindor assignment and extroversion, most other correlations disappeared. The Sorting Hat Quiz failed to predict the “Dark Triad” traits or need for cognition in participants unfamiliar with the books. This suggests that the quiz itself does not function as a standalone personality test.
These findings suggest that the Sorting Hat Quiz is not an effective tool for psychological assessment in a general context. The predictive power of the quiz appears to depend on the participant’s knowledge of the fictional universe. This supports the “narrative collective assimilation hypothesis.” This theory proposes that immersing oneself in a story allows a person to internalize the traits of a specific group within that narrative.
Fans of the series may unconsciously or consciously align their self-perception with the traits of their preferred House. When they answer personality questions, they may do so through the lens of this identity. For non-readers, the questions in the quiz lack this contextual weight. Consequently, their answers do not aggregate into meaningful personality profiles in the same way.
“The key takeaway is that these kinds of pop-culture quizzes can reflect some real personality differences, but they’re not a substitute for validated psychological assessment,” Flakus explained. “Your ‘House’ can be a fun mirror of broad tendencies—and sometimes your preferred House may say as much about your values or ideal self as about your traits—so it’s best used as a playful starting point for self-reflection, not a diagnosis.”
As with all research, there are some limitations to consider. The group of non-readers was relatively small compared to the group of readers. The sample was also predominantly female and recruited via social media. This may affect how well the results represent the general population.
Future inquiries could examine whether these patterns persist across different generations of fans. Researchers might also investigate similar phenomena in other popular fictional universes. Further study is needed to understand how identifying with fictional groups relates to real-world behaviors and values.
“At this point, we don’t have a fixed long-term roadmap yet, but we do see several promising next steps,” Flakus said. “One natural extension would be to test whether similar patterns appear in other pop-culture identity systems—i.e., whether identifying with particular factions, archetypes, or ‘types’ in other franchises relates to established personality traits in comparable ways.”
“We’re also interested in potential generational differences: the Harry Potter universe has a distinct cultural footprint across age cohorts, so it would be valuable to examine whether the mechanisms behind identification (and its links to traits or values) vary by generation.”
“Finally, an important direction is to look more closely at how these quizzes function among people who don’t know the universe at all—in our study we had such a subgroup, but it was small. A larger, more balanced sample would let us more confidently explore whether the quiz captures general psychological tendencies independent of fandom, or whether familiarity and narrative knowledge meaningfully shape the outcomes.”
The new findings regarding the personality structures of Hogwarts Houses align with separate research focused on external economic behaviors. A study published in Small Business Economics by Martin Obschonka and colleagues utilized a massive dataset to examine how these fictional profiles relate to entrepreneurship.
While the current study focused on self-reported traits, the Obschonka research found that identifying with Gryffindor or Slytherin predicted a higher likelihood of starting a business. The researchers attributed this to a shared tendency toward “deviance” or rule-breaking, which is often necessary for innovation.
The new study, “Harry Potter and personality assessment – The utility of the Sorting Hat Quiz in personality traits’ assessment,” was authored by Lidia Baran, Maria Flakus, and Franciszek Stefanek.
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