Why be likable?
Likability is how likable you are as a person. While it’s cool not to care about being liked, the fact is that the more liked you are, the more likely you are to be successful. This is because we meet our most important life goals through other people. And if people like you, they’re likely to form a relationship with you and help you.
Likability is subjective, but there are universals
What I find likable in a person, you may not. Perceptions of likability certainly vary from person to person. Still, because humans are the same in a lot of ways despite being different in other ways, there’s a generic likable personality with a set of likable personality traits.1Wortman, J., & Wood, D. (2011). The personality traits of liked people. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(6), 519-528.
Likable traits
Since selfishness is at the core of human nature, people like those personality traits in others that benefit them or, at the very least, don’t inflict costs on them. This is why traits like friendliness, warmth, attractiveness, and wisdom are considered likable.2Reysen, S. (2005). Construction of a new scale: The Reysen likability scale. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 33(2), 201-208. They make others feel good or benefit them in some way.
In contrast, the traits that inflict costs upon others are the least likable. Traits like dishonesty, deceitfulness, meanness, and unkindness.3Chandler, J. (2018). Likeableness and meaningfulness ratings of 555 (+ 487) person-descriptive words. Journal of Research in Personality, 72, 50-57.
About the test
This test consists of 20 items on a 2-point yes/no scale. Answer each item based on how you really are with people versus how you’d like to be. You’ll get a category-level breakdown of your results so you can see which of the following facets of likeability you should focus on improving:
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Trust
- Communication
- Presence
Your results are only shown to you and not stored in our database.
