Harry Potter and the measures of personality: Extraverted Gryffindors, agreeable Hufflepuffs, clever Ravenclaws, and manipulative Slytherins

People use fiction and storytelling to learn about themselves and their social world. Fans of J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter book series often identify with one of the four Hogwarts school communities or “houses”—Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin—that correspond to characters’ specific traits. Fans use a feature on Rowling’s “Pottermore” website that tests their personality and sorts them into the Hogwarts house that best fits them. But what does Pottermore’s sorting quiz measure? We asked fans from online Harry Potter groups into which Hogwarts house they had been sorted on Pottermore. Fans then completed personality measures, including the Big Five traits, need to belong, need for cognition, and the Dark Triad traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Planned contrasts found positive associations between need for cognition and placement in Ravenclaw (known for wit and learning), and between the Dark Triad traits and placement in Slytherin (known for using any means to achieve their ends). We expected—but did not find—that those in Gryffindor (known for bravery) would be higher in extraversion and openness, and that Hufflepuffs (known for loyalty) would be higher on need to belong. Our findings suggest that fiction can reflect real underlying personality dimensions.