Glossary · IPIP-NEO-120
IPIP-NEO-120
A public-domain 120-item Big Five personality test scoring 30 facets across 5 domains. The instrument Are We Friends? uses.
IPIP-NEO-120 is a 120-item personality test that scores all five Big Five domains plus their 30 underlying facets. It was developed by psychologist Lewis R. Goldberg as part of the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) project — an open-science alternative to the proprietary NEO-PI-R.
The "120" refers to item count: each facet is measured by exactly 4 items, balanced for direction (some items keyed positively, some negatively, to detect random-clicking and consistent response bias). Goldberg's IPIP-NEO-300 covers the same 30 facets with more items per facet; the -120 trades a small amount of psychometric precision for a much shorter testing time (~15 minutes vs. ~45).
Are We Friends? administers the full IPIP-NEO-120 at sign-up. We don't offer a shorter version because anything below 4 items per facet produces too much noise to rank on. The test data lives in your profile permanently and you can re-take it any time to refresh your scores.
Related terms
Big Five personality
The five-factor model — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism — used by Are We Friends? for friend matching.
Facet (personality)
A narrower personality dimension underneath one of the five Big Five domains. Friends? matches on facets, not just domains.
Five-factor model (FFM)
Synonym for Big Five. The personality framework most psychologists use, which Are We Friends? uses for matching.
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