The abbreviation of personality, or how to measure 200 personality scales with 200 items

Personality researchers have recently advocated the use of very short personality inventories in order to minimize administration time. However, few such inventories are currently available. Here I introduce an automated method that can be used to abbreviate virtually any personality inventory with minimal effort. After validating the method against existing measures in Studies 1 and 2, a new 181-item inventory is generated in Study 3 that accurately recaptures scores on eight different broadband inventories comprising 203 distinct scales. Collectively, the results validate a powerful new way to improve the efficiency of personality measurement in research settings.