myPersonality was a popular Facebook application created by David Stillwell in 2007 that allowed users to take real psychometric tests and obtain their results instantly. As well as the data from the tests, around 40% of the respondents also opted in to share data from their Facebook profile, resulting in one of the largest social science research databases in history. The application was active until 2012 and collected data from over 6 million volunteers during this time.
This data was anonymised and samples of it were shared with registered academic collaborators around the world through the myPersonality project, resulting in over 45 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Respondents came from various age groups, backgrounds and cultures. They were highly motivated to answer honestly and carefully, as the only gratification they received for their participation was feedback on their results. Their scores are combined with additional information from those who opted in to sharing it with us, including detailed demographic profiles, a record of their social media behaviour, their interests, preferences, opinions, etc.
The myPersonality project is no longer active and data is no longer being shared. See more information at www.mypersonality.org