This one’s for Harry Potter fans!

I dived into the mysterious and magical world of Harry Potter when I entered J.K. Rowling’s website: Pottermore. There, you can find some extra writings by J.K. Rowling giving detailed information about the story and the characters and some news about the Wizarding World.

More interestingly, just like the story characters, you can go through the selection process, or Sorting Ceremony, that will determine which of the four houses — Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin — you most belong to. During this important ritual, the new students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are asked to wear the Sorting Hat, which has the power to decide which house complements each student based on their personality. The decision of the hat is final and always right.

So I took the test. It asked me all kinds of questions such as “what would you be the most excited to learn about at Hogwarts?”, “how would you like people to remember you after you die?” and “which do you prefer: black or white?” There were very few questions… It took me less than 10 minutes to complete.
BUT! I am proud to announce to everyone reading this that I am now a member of the house of Gryffindor alongside some of the best wizards including Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter! Gryffindor’s emblem creature is the lion, their colors are scarlet and gold and some Gryffindor traits include bravery, courage, and chivalry. I am so excited!

A recent article by Crysel et al. (2015) addresses the question “What does the Pottermore’s sorting quiz measure?” The researchers contacted Harry Potter fans who had done the quiz (a total of 132 participants) and asked them to complete a series of personality tests. After analysis, they found that certain traits were more common in certain houses. Participants from Gryffindor house were more extraverted compared to the other houses, those from Hufflepuff were more agreeable and had a greater need to belong, those from Ravenclaw were higher on the need for cognition and people from Slytherin scored higher on the Dark Triad measures. However, the majority of the participants said that they got sorted in the house they wanted. The researchers concluded that the quiz indeed reflects some established personality constructs. Moreover, the overlap between the desired house and the assigned house indicates that participants may be reporting the traits that fit with the house they want to belong to. According to the authors, this could mean that people learn about personality traits from reading fiction and identify with groups that they perceive reflect their personality.

I wonder if this test really is valid… I don’t feel like questions such as “forest or river?” are enough to correctly grasp my whole personality. Also, knowledge about the main characteristics of the houses can influence one’s answer, especially if one is aiming for a certain result… But I am not complaining, after all I’m part of the best house!