I recently posted the results of a personality test I’d taken and saved on the desktop who knows how long ago. What’s particularly odd is that today, when I checked my Gmail spam folder, I had an email dated Saturday the 21st from the personality test site.

Apparently I took this test on August 19, 2006, and it seems I’m “a particularly unusual personality type” so they’d like very much to have me take the new version of the test to see if it still identifies me the same way. So, I followed the link and found this:

Welcome Back Control Group!
Please read the following FIVE items before continuing.

1. We don’t want your money. You are part of the control group. That means that you are being an incredible help to the site. You will be compensated for your time with a free membership on this site for a full year from the full launch date (which is likely to occur in about a month). The whole project really isn’t about money, you are not here to pay anything.

2. The first two trial tests were on PersonalityExpert.com and Perex.com. Now that this is entering the final, production phase the project has been renamed and relocated to eChemistry.com.

3. The site is still under construction, so don’t be surprised by that. You are being invited back because we need your answer set to help train the new system which will be publicly released soon. You shouldn’t be surprised that there are many features of the site that aren’t up yet.

4. To take the test, you have to sign up for a new account. Your old account on PersonalityExpert.com did not get transferred.

5. MARRIED PEOPLE: You were particularly helpful in the development of this test, and we really appreciate the time you’ve given to this project already. You are welcome to pass on your personality code to up to five single people so that they may register for free accounts. We’d prefer to keep the new system clear of married people so that we don’t mistakenly match a married person with other users.

Now, I’m not at all interested in joining a matchmaking site, but personality tests intrigue me because I’m always striving to understand myself and others more clearly. I do remember from the first test that I liked the fact that their questions put a finer point on things than the average personality test, including a broader range of opinion. Sometimes you care a little, sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all - a lot of other surveys tend to make you pick yes or no and don’t give you an option for “I don’t care!”

So, I went ahead and took their updated test. Took a while, but there were a few questions that made me laugh. “Are you decisive?” was particularly funny, because underneath it said, “Choose Strongly Disagree if you’re not sure.” I actually laughed out loud for that one. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t give me a summary at the end this time, but when I got the emailed password and logged in, there it was! (and boy, is it LONG!)

There really is no way to classify someone with all of your diverse talents and abilities. You are like a chameleon, changing constantly but always retaining your own unique identity. You are complex, exceptional and rare. One moment you can be fun and relaxed, and the next moment you’ll be deep and philosophical. The transition between the two moods can happen so rapidly that other people are left behind in the last mood not realizing that they need to catch up. You strongly believe that when people are authentically themselves that they can create change in the world. What’s important to you is the journey of self discovery, determining who you are today is not the same as who you’ll be tomorrow.

You see the big picture of how everything is related and focus on the commonalities between ideas rather than the differences. You resist classifications and are usually arguing on the side of how things are the same against someone insisting that they’re different. You are quick to question any social standard that you sense someone imposing on you. Stereotypical gender roles are the most obvious classification that you fight on a regular basis.

You were successful as a student and knew exactly how comfortable you were with your teacher, your classroom, your classmates, etc. You may have had a slight test phobia because of your resistance to classifying and identifying only one answer as ‘correct’ for any question. You did well not so much because of the subject, but because you loved the praise your teacher would give you for a job well done.

You can ‘connect’ with any individual person and practically read their mind, but you have a natural tendency to match your actions to the expectations you read from their mind and yearn for company that lets you truly, naturally be yourself. You struggle between letting yourself naturally match the sentiment of the group (which feels like putting on a facade) or letting your individuality shine.

You are particularly accepting of other people and have a special talent for seeing people’s true selves instinctively. It takes time for you to trust your gut instinct about people because you want so much to believe that people are complex that you’re bothered by the fact that you figure them out in just a few moments. This intuitive sense about what people are thinking (which is actually your hyper-attention to nonverbal cues) is your special talent. You may think it is available to everyone and that others just ignore it, but in truth others could never develop the skill to the level which comes naturally to you.

To you everything happens on a personal level. Your friends come to you for advice because they know that you’ll love them for who they are and not judge them. Your advice, although varied in delivery, usually boils down to ‘be true to yourself’ and ‘listen to your heart.’ You are such a natural life coach that even strangers will sometimes spontaneously begin confiding their deepest secrets in you.

In the same way that you’re the best at reading nonverbal cues, you’re also the best at sending them. You are quick to correct a word you used which has even the slightest negative or judging insinuation. You want to be absolutely sure the intent of your thought got across, although you can get frustrated and give up quickly if the other person doesn’t seem to be getting it.

If you have children your focus is making sure that your child has a strong self-image and high self-esteem. More than other parents it is important for you to be friends with your children.

You are more philosophical than most and passionately think about ethics and justice more than other types. It is when ethical issues come up in conversation that you most strongly sense that you are fundamentally different from other people. You become visually emotionally focused when these issues arise, while others easily laugh them off and switch topics to something trivial. To you, it seems that everyone should be passionate about ending racism, sexism and other ‘isms’ out there.

It is like you to find a cause, often relating to physical or mental health, poverty, personal finance, comfort or security, and play a role in advancing those issues. You are forever interested in the plights of subjugated people or classes and would love to help create social change.

You are a healer. You know what foods will make people happy and probably give great massages. You prefer to surround yourself with direct, honest, authentic people who let you reinvent yourself every time you meet. You want nothing more than for there to be peace and harmony in the world, and your actions clearly reflect that vision.

When it comes to your resources, you have a naturally conserving nature. You know what tastes good, what feels good against your skin, and what smells satisfy you. Of all personality types, yours is first to notice the signs of hunger, fatigue, sleepiness or discomfort in your body, and you can get quite irritable and distracted if those issues are not resolved in a timely fashion. You have a holistic view of the connection between your mind and your body and are aware of the direct connection between the food you eat and how your body feels. Within a few minutes after eating you are mentally taking note of how that food has affected you. You realize that the cells in your body are composed of the material that you eat, so your refrigerator is usually stocked with organic and natural foods. You are so in tune with your body that you notice small discomforts long before other people seem to and start planning corrective action immediately. This is necessary because an unhappy body can distract you from the rest of your life quite quickly.

You are the most likely type to be prepared with your jacket, umbrella or sunglasses when others are unprepared with such items. You are also the most likely to accidentally leave such items behind since you bring them more in the first place. You are likely to enjoy remodeling or redecorating when something about your environment is uncomfortable.

You are likely to pay more for higher quality (for a better overall value), and you’re likely to enjoy the process of seeking out the lowest possible price for those high quality items. You enjoy surrounding yourself with items that make you comfortable, particularly with items that your friends will be able to enjoy with you. You appreciate the finer things and recognize that a comfortable life costs money.

You are a socially balanced person. When your physical needs are taken care of you like to be where the people are, particularly where your social group is. You don’t mind filling some role in the group and doing your part of the work. You are hurt if you’re excluded from anything or not invited to a party or celebration of someone you know.

You portray a very even tempered image and that matches a calm interior. You can’t relate to people who are always passionately chasing some new person. You are never interested in discussing sex for long, if at all, in mixed company. While you may prefer to have a mate, you don’t need a partner like others seem to.

Your romantic relationships develop over time and your successful relationships are usually based on sharing the same deep, philosophical intellect. In all sexual matters you have a lot more self control than most people.

Your personality is particularly rare, so finding a match in the wild usually takes much longer for you than for your friends. Luckily we specialize in finding your particular match here at eChemistry.

Your match will frustrate you in a wonderfully attractive way. Your match has a ‘harder’ personality than you that will complement you perfectly. Your match won’t always agree with you, but they will match your intellect in a way that you thought couldn’t happen. All the crazy ideas you have that other people either dismiss or ignore will connect directly with your match and draw them even closer to you. Your match will share your values, accept you for who you are and will truly expect nothing from you but your honest, authentic self, calling you out the first few times that you consider modifying your statements to avoid offending them. Most importantly, your match will offer you the same love that you have to give. You will admire how they fearlessly stand up for their values in every situation, regardless of who may be offended, but they’re also tactful enough to take some of the edge off of their individuality, so they draw in more people by expressing themselves than they repel. This person is unusual, but we’re experts at identifying them and introducing them to you.

Based on your personality traits alone, we estimate that approximately 1 in 336 people will have the personality traits required to qualify for a high likelihood of very strong long term romantic chemistry with you. Luckily for you, our system will go on thousands of dates for you and select just the top ones out of 336 for you and display them on your My Matches page.

According to the latest update from the US Census:

In Madison County, Alabama there are 682 unmarried 30yr-old males
and 625 unmarried 30yr-old females.

That means there’s a ratio of 0.91 ladies for every man
And 1.09 men for every lady.

On your Matching Preferences page you are currently set to be matched with people between 27 and 38 years old. By multiplying the rarity of your personality match by the total number of singles in that age range:

There are approximately 629 unmarried males and 643 unmarried females who would be very high chemistry matches for you in Madison County, Alabama.

We recommend keeping a wide search radius to increase your odds of meeting your match since not everyone has signed up and is active on our site.

In the entire United States there are an estimated 191,672 unmarried males and 190,275 unmarried females in your age range who are likely to have high long term chemistry with you. All of these numbers are based on personality alone though. You can further sort through those people to find your ultimate match by selecting religion, age, location and several other factors on your Matching Preferences page.

You’re so talented that you could do just about anything. You dream of doing idealistically based work which would provide you with new experiences and help you learn about yourself. At the same time, you appreciate the comfort and familiarity of what’s around you and are inclined towards work that helps others find their own individual path to peace, comfort and security. This makes you excellent at holistic healing, traditional exercise instruction (particularly yoga-type, full body-and-mind exercising), massage and anything else which helps people relax and at the same time connect with their bodies.

One thing that makes eChemistry different from other personality profiling sites is that we don’t try to pigeonhole you. We want to know the actual reality of what it’s like to be you. Here are the actual answers typed into our personality test by people who came out as having a very similar personality to you. There is no better teacher than experience, see if you can find your own pattern for what people who are a lot like you end up enjoying as careers.

You prefer entertainment which focuses on individuality, philosophy, psychology and brotherly love. You are likely to draw wide reaching philosophical themes out of stories that others enjoyed for the pure entertainment value. You also love to have fun and hate to be bored, so you’re just as appreciative of mindless entertainment which captivates you or makes you laugh.

Here’s what I sent them as a correction/edit:

I’m impressed by how close you come, though still not 100%. I suppose it’s not possible to be 100% accurate on these sort of things, though. I didn’t have a test phobia - those questions *did* have a correct answer, though I hated the ones that made us choose multiple answers or had more than one right answer. Obviously, I have a nagging need to correct every little detail that’s innaccurate, which is why the test came out thinking I so resist classification. I’m fussy about food; I dislike several categories of food, especially ones whose texture or flavor bothers me. Despite my aversion to several types of “good for me” food, I do pay attention to what my body tells me when things go wrong, and I do prefer to use supplements rather than go to a doctor when I come down with a cold. I tend to take things literally, which means I sometimes miss jokes or lies. I hate to be bored, and it takes me at least an hour to wake up, so I have a tendency to stay up and short myself on sleep, because sleep is boring and waking up wastes too much time that could be spent doing something fun. I have a lot of self control in some areas, but have trouble making myself do things that are boring unless it’s required by work or another external authority.