Are you a Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw? And what might this say about your personality?

When pupils in the famous Harry Potter series start wizardry school, they get appointed to one of four fraternity-like “Houses”: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw. Each House is described by author J. K. Rowling to represent specific characteristics. On her website, Rowling published a “Sorting Hat Quiz” which assigns fans to a House that supposedly best corresponds to their personality. This House affiliation has later been linked to well-established personality traits: in a study published in 2015, the authors argue that Harry Potter fans are more likely to identify with House-specific traits that are congruent with their own personality.

But is the “Sorting Hat Quiz” really linked to personality traits? Four of our JRP alumni, Lea Jakob (2015-16 cohort), Eduardo Garcia-Garzon (2013-14), Hannes Jarke (2015-16), and Fabian Dablander (2017-18) have replicated Crysel et al.’s study with a bigger sample and improved methods to answer this question and extend it by adding the concept of Basic Human Values. Curious? Then check out the article which was recently published in the open access journal Collabra. If you are interested in the technical details behind these methods, you can find more details in Fabian’s recent blog.

We encourage all of our Alumni to collaborate on research – if you are not added to the Alumni platform yet, feel free to contact the JRP Team under [email protected]!