About This Assessment

This assessment is provided by SEMalytics, the B2B personality-coverage platform behind COS (Content Optimization System). SEMalytics uses the Big Five (OCEAN) framework to measure how B2B copy maps across buyer personality types, drawing on 860+ peer-reviewed papers.

This assessment measures your self-reported tendencies across the five dimensions of the Big Five (OCEAN) personality model, the most replicated framework in personality psychology, validated across 40+ languages and cultures (McCrae & Costa, 1997, American Psychologist, 52(5), 509–516; doi:10.1037/0003-066X.52.5.509).

This assessment uses items adapted from established Big Five measurement instruments in the public domain (International Personality Item Pool, ipip.ori.org; Goldberg, L. R., et al., 2006, "The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures," Journal of Research in Personality, 40(1)). Items were reworded for a B2B communication context, and this short-form adaptation has not undergone a formal standalone validation study, so treat results as indicative rather than definitive. For the research foundation behind personality-based communication analysis, see our Science page. This assessment is part of the SEMalytics free tools library.

The five dimensions, as defined in the Big Five literature (Costa & McCrae, 1992, NEO PI-R professional manual, Psychological Assessment Resources; Goldberg, 1990, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229), are listed below; the B2B copy framings in parentheses are SEMalytics' own illustrative applications, not examples from the cited research:

  • Openness to Experience, your preference for novelty, ideas, and imagination vs. convention and practicality (in B2B copy: "disruptive innovation" framing vs. "proven ROI" messaging)
  • Conscientiousness, your preference for structure, planning, and discipline vs. flexibility and spontaneity (in B2B copy: step-by-step implementation specs vs. high-level outcome summaries)
  • Extraversion, your preference for social interaction and stimulation vs. solitude and depth (in B2B copy: social proof and quick wins vs. deep-dive documentation and independent research)
  • Agreeableness, your preference for cooperation and harmony vs. competition and directness (in B2B copy: team impact and partnership language vs. competitive advantage and win/loss framing)
  • Neuroticism, your sensitivity to stress, risk, and uncertainty vs. emotional stability (in B2B copy: risk mitigation and security guarantees vs. bold claims with minimal caveats)

Why This Matters for B2B Communication

Your personality profile predicts your natural communication style, the messaging patterns you default to (McCrae & Costa, 1997; see the research foundation). If you score high on Openness, you likely write vision-oriented copy that connects with similar buyers but misses analytical ones. Research on personality-targeted messaging found that matching copy to buyer OCEAN profile increased click rates and purchases significantly (Matz, S. C., Kosinski, M., Nave, G., & Stillwell, D. J., 2017, "Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion," PNAS, 114(48), doi: 10.1073/pnas.1710966114). Understanding your own profile is the first step to broadening your reach. The next step is measuring how your actual writing maps across all five dimensions.

Self-Assessment vs. Text Analysis

This quiz measures how you see yourself. COS measures how your writing actually lands across personality types. These can differ. For example, you might see yourself as balanced, but your emails could consistently use high-Openness language that misses Conscientiousness-driven buyers. (The gap between self-perception and actual behavioral output is a well-documented pattern in personality research.)

The most useful approach: take this assessment to understand your baseline profile, then paste a real message into COS to see whether your writing matches your intent. The gap between self-perception and actual writing patterns is where the biggest communication improvements hide.

Compare your profile to your writing. Paste your most important B2B message and see how it scores across all five OCEAN dimensions.

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