What a 16-type test is, in short
A 16-type test sorts you on four either-or preferences: where you get energy (E or I), how you take in information (S or N), how you decide (T or F) and how you deal with the outside world (J or P). The four letters combine into one of 16 types.
The idea goes back to Carl Jung's 1921 book on psychological types. This test uses our own questions and is not the official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Because it turns four sliding scales into four letters, we show the bars as well as the type.
By What's Your IQ · Reviewed 4 Oct 2026- Format
- 16 paired statements, 5-point choice, 4 per pair
- Result
- Four-letter code plus a clarity bar per letter
- Origin
- Jung's types (1921), developed into a questionnaire by Briggs & Myers from 1944
- Best used for
- Self-reflection and talking about differences; not hiring or diagnosis
Most people live near the line
Preferences are spread in a bell curve, not split into two camps. Drag the marker: two people a few points apart can get opposite letters, while two people far apart on the same side get the same one.
Four of the Big Five, cut in half
When the same people take both kinds of test, each preference pair lines up with one Big Five trait. The fifth trait, neuroticism, has no letter at all.3
- Jung, C. G. (1921). Psychologische Typen. Rascher Verlag.
- Myers, I. B., & Myers, P. B. (1980). Gifts differing: Understanding personality type. Consulting Psychologists Press.
- McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1989). Reinterpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the perspective of the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality, 57(1), 17–40.
- Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 57(3), 210–221.