A values test measures what you see as important in life, such as freedom, security, achievement or caring for others, and how you rank these goals against each other. It does not measure how you usually behave, which is what a personality test does. Use a values test when you face a choice between good options and want to know what matters most to you.
Values
Purpose in Life Test
Sixteen statements measure your sense of purpose across meaning, direction, engagement and contribution, with practical ways to strengthen the weakest part.
Values
Values Test
Sixteen forced-choice trade-offs rank eight core values, from family and freedom to achievement, security and compassion, revealing your real priorities.
Values
Moral Alignment Test
Twenty-four honest statements place you on the classic alignment chart, from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil, with your position on both scales.
Values
Moral Foundations Test
Thirty statements measure how much six moral foundations, from care and fairness to loyalty and liberty, shape your judgements.
Values
Personal Values Test
Thirty short descriptions rank ten universal values, from self-direction to security, based on Shalom Schwartz's theory of basic human values.
How These Values Tests Differ
| Test | Main question | Based on | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Values Test | What matters most to you in life? | Shalom Schwartz’s ten basic values | Reflective |
| Moral Foundations Test | What shapes your sense of right and wrong? | Moral Foundations Theory | Reflective |
| Moral Alignment Test | Are you Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil? | The role-playing game alignment chart | Playful |
Which Values Test Should You Take For Your Question?
Pick by the question you are trying to answer. The table is a starting point.
| Your question | Take | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| What should I put first when choosing a job, a move or a partner? | Personal Values Test | Your ten values ranked, with your top three as priorities |
| Why do I clash with some people over moral or political topics? | Moral Foundations Test | A profile of how much weight you give each moral concern |
| Which corner of the alignment chart am I in? | Moral Alignment Test | A light, shareable label such as Neutral Good |
| What work suits my interests? | Holland Code Test | Your work interest types, a better tool than values alone for careers |
| How do I usually act and feel? | Big Five Personality Test | Trait scores, which describe behaviour rather than goals |
If you are not sure, start with the Personal Values Test. It covers the broadest ground.
What Values Tests Measure, And What They Do Not
Values tests measure priorities: which goals you would protect if two of them clashed. Schwartz’s theory places the ten values on a circle. Values next to each other, such as security and conformity, tend to go together, and values on opposite sides, such as stimulation and tradition, tend to pull against each other. Schwartz and colleagues (2012) later refined the circle into 19 narrower values, tested in 15 samples from 10 countries. Our test uses the original ten, which are easier to read in a short quiz.
What they do not measure:
- Your skills or abilities. Valuing achievement says nothing about how well you perform.
- Your behaviour on a given day. People act against their values when the situation pushes them.
- Whether your values are right. The tests describe what matters to you; they do not rank one set of values above another.
- A clinical picture. None of these tests checks mental health.
Values Vs Personality: What Is The Difference?
Personality traits describe how you tend to act and feel. Values describe what you want to achieve. The two are linked, but they are not the same thing.
Roccas and colleagues (2002) compared the Big Five traits with Schwartz’s values in 246 students. Agreeableness went most with benevolence and tradition, openness with self-direction and universalism, extraversion with achievement and stimulation, and conscientiousness with achievement and conformity. They also found that values and traits relate differently to things such as religiosity and positive mood, and that values seem to guide behaviour through conscious choice more than traits do. In practice, taking both kinds of test tells you more than either alone.
Why Values Matter
Values are the goals that sit underneath your choices. A review by Sagiv and colleagues (2017) of research across many cultures concluded that self-reported values predict a wide range of attitudes, preferences and actions, because people tend to act in ways that let them express what matters to them. When your daily life fits your top values, it usually feels more meaningful; when it clashes, you may feel restless without knowing why.
Values also explain many disagreements. Two people can agree on all the facts and still disagree, because they weigh values such as freedom, fairness and loyalty differently. Graham and colleagues (2011) built the Moral Foundations Questionnaire on this idea, measuring moral concerns beyond harm and fairness, such as loyalty, authority and purity.
How Our Values Tests Score You
We ran the real scoring of two of these tests through a short script (tools/values-odds.cjs) with one million random answer sets each, every answer equally likely. This is a model of the scoring, not visitor data. Real people do not answer at random, but the model shows how the scoring itself behaves.
Personal Values Test. Each of the ten values has three statements, so each value score moves in steps of about 8 points. Your top value is the one with the highest score, and if two values tie, the one listed first on the result wins.
| What the model found | Share of random answer sets |
|---|---|
| Top two values exactly tied | 28.0% |
| Top value ahead by a single answer step | 39.6% |
| Top value ahead by more than one step | 32.4% |
Because ties are common, the tie-break matters. Under random answers, Self-direction, listed first, came out on top in 13.8% of runs and Universalism, listed last, in 7.2%, even though every value has the same number of statements. So read your bars, not just the top label. If two or three values share the highest score, treat them as equal priorities.
Moral Alignment Test. A score within 15 points of the middle on a scale counts as Neutral. With random answers, 76.3% of results were True Neutral, each of the four mixed results such as Neutral Good came up in about 5.5%, and each corner such as Lawful Good in about 0.4%. A corner result needs consistent answers on both scales, so it says more about your answers than a Neutral one does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are personal values?
Deep goals that guide your choices and judgements, such as freedom, security, achievement or caring for others.
What is the difference between values and personality?
Personality describes how you usually act and feel. Values describe what you think is important and want to achieve. They are related, and research finds clear links between certain traits and certain values, but one does not predict the other well.
Do values change over time?
They are fairly stable in adulthood, but they differ by life stage. In a large European survey, Robinson (2012) found that older age groups placed more weight on tradition and other conservative values and less on stimulation and openness to change. This compares age groups at one time, so it is not proof that each person changes the same way.
Why are my top values tied?
Each value has only three statements in our Personal Values Test, so many score profiles share the same top score. In our model, the top two were tied in more than a quarter of answer sets. A tie means both values matter to you about equally.
Is there a right set of values?
No. These tests describe what matters to you; they do not rank one set of values above another.