Life

The Color Oracle Personality Test Is Spot-On

by Lily Feinn
Colorful Paint Cans (Photo by Ed Lallo/Getty Images)
Ed Lallo/Photodisc/Getty Images

There is a new personality test gaining traction on social media and surprising many skeptics with its accurate answers. The Color Oracle personality test uses color psychology to assess your current state of mind, and even gives you pointers for how to improve your personal well-being.

Unlike the typical online personality quizzes that seem to ask never-ending invasive questions in an attempt to correctly gauge your mood, this quick check-in simply asks you to rate certain colors. The test was developed by Johannes Schneider, a Swiss astrologer and art teacher, who spent years researching different colors' effects on the human psyche.

The Color Oracle asks you to choose from 25 color swatches, rating the six colors you find most pleasing to look at, and the six you find the most unpleasant. It is best to make choices quickly, based on your in-the-moment response. When choosing your colors, try not to focus on long-held opinions like, "I'm picking all the blues, because blue is my favorite color." Instead, look at the color options and rate them based on how they make you feel in that instant. The results should give you a spot-on description of your current disposition, and may even help you gain a better, clearer, understanding of yourself.

Usually, these online tests don't do much for me (unless it's "Which Disney princess are you?"), but I was so surprised by my results that I made my fiancé take the Color Oracle personality test too. I was curious to see if his results would be as accurate as mine, and how our color preferences would differ. What could this simple online quiz tell us about our relationship? Could their algorithm possibly reflect how our personalities match-up in real life? Could it help us learn more about each other? Are we really meant to be together??? You know... color palette-wise.

The first difference I noticed was in our top choices for pleasant colors. To my surprise, we had no preferred colors in common. The closest we came were in our choices of yellow and turquoise (which happen to be my favorite colors outside this exercise) — but we chose different shades. I couldn't believe that we didn't match once. There were only 25 to choose from... so let's hope we never have to decide on paint swatches.

The rest of my fiancé's top choices were strong primary colors in shades of red, blue and green (very stereotypically masculine). The colors I picked, on the other hand, were soft pastels in the sea shell shades of blue and pink that I deemed soothing to look at in the moment.

The next place where we differed was on what we deemed most important to us.

According to the color quiz, of great importance for me now is:

I would agree with this in general. I've been trying to do more yoga, and my hobbies do give me respite from everyday stresses. I love being outside, and have been hankering for a mountain or beach vacation. Do I want to meditate more? Not really. Would it be good for me? Duh.

Of great importance to him now:

He thought this statement was fairly insightful, though pointed out that many people seek out stability. Among our top colors, we did have certain traits in common. The quiz told us that we both scrutinize and analyze things around us, according to our turquoise picks (and probably the fact that we were both raised in cities). We differed again with how we choose to deal with stresses and difficulties of the day. I seek out pleasant conversation and fun activities (bright yellow), and he seeks peaceful home environments and quiet places to reflect (navy blue). This seems accurate to our personalities, as we can both enjoy quiet time and partying together.

For our least favorite colors we both dislike shades of brown, though again he judged two of my favorite colors as unpleasant. Sigh.

At the moment I feel most anxious due to my:

I choose this icky green color as my least favorite, and it sure doesn't like me either! According to this barf green, I need to feel more free and I expect too much sympathy from others (my fiancé vigorously nods at this). According to the results, I should show more empathy, and sure, why not? Note taken, color test.

At the moment he feels most anxious due to his:

After a stressful time at work, wrapping up an intense year-long project, it came as no surprise that this was his result. I just hope that I am not the one they are referring to when they say that he often feels "unfairly treated or left at the mercy of the unacceptable behavior of a person who is important to you" (fiancé nods vigorously again).

I'd say the test was fairly enlightening. You can learn a lot by how you react to the results, rather than just the results themselves. When I asked my fiancé if his results rang true, he said, "Sure. But these kinds of answers can always apply to everyone at any time." So much for converting him to the power of color psychology. Perhaps most applicable to our relationship were our disposition overviews.

My overview seemed pretty accurate — struggling to get projects off the ground constantly frustrates me, and who doesn't like sensual pleasures?

My bae believed that his overview was correct as well:

All and all, we should both support each other's dreams, and be careful not to limit each other's freedoms. Sounds like most relationship advice, huh?

Take the test with your bae here and find out if color psychology can reveal about your personality and relationship.

Images: Ed Lallo/Photodisc/Getty Images, Astro