About the test
Optimism test
See how positively you tend to view life, yourself and the future. This free test uses the ten-item IPIP Optimism scale, a public-domain alternative related to the Life Orientation Test–Revised (LOT-R), and gives you one score with an explanation.
Questionnaire / instrument: IPIP Optimism
The test at a glance
- Price
- Free, including your results
- Registration
- No account required
- Length
- 10 statements
- Time
- About 2 minutes
- Format
- Self-report · five response options
- Your report
- One optimism score · 0–100
What the score covers
The report shows one score with no subscales. The ten statements, four positive and six negative, cover three overlapping themes:
Outlook on the future
Expecting good or bad outcomes, with statements such as “Look at the bright side of life”, “Have a dark outlook on the future” and “Just know that I will be a success”.
Mood
“Seldom feel blue”, “Often feel blue” and “Am often in a bad mood”. These statements make the score overlap with low mood.
View of yourself and your direction
“Feel comfortable with myself”, “Dislike myself”, “Feel that my life lacks direction” and “See difficulties everywhere”. Together with the themes above, they make up the single score the report calls Optimism.
What your results show
Your result is calculated as soon as you have answered the last statement. You can preview the layout with an example report before taking the test.
- One optimism score from 0 to 100, marked lower optimism, middle range or higher optimism, with a description of your level.
- An explanation of what the score means, including why 70 is neither a percentile nor a probability.
- Questions to reflect on about your expectations and recent setbacks.
- Notes on what the test can and cannot tell you, with links to the IPIP scoring key and permission.
What does it measure?
Your general tendency to expect positive or negative outcomes. The questions explore expectations about the future and your sense of direction and confidence.
Where does it come from?
The test uses the ten-item IPIP Optimism scale associated with Scheier, Carver and Bridges’ work on dispositional optimism. It is an IPIP alternative, not the Life Orientation Test–Revised (LOT-R).
How is the result calculated?
Four positively and six negatively keyed items are combined after reverse scoring. The mean is displayed on a 0–100 response scale with descriptive feedback.
What can the result tell you?
The score does not predict what will happen to you, and it is not a population percentile. Current adversity can affect answers. Optimism is one perspective on expectations rather than a complete measure of well-being.
Languages and adaptations
Some item translations are reused from our existing IPIP banks; other wording was translated for this site with AI assistance. Translation does not by itself establish that a scale has the same measurement properties in another language.
Frequently asked questions
Is the test free, including the results?
Yes. You can answer all the statements and read your full report without paying or creating an account.
Is this the Life Orientation Test (LOT-R)?
No. It is the IPIP Optimism scale, which IPIP keys to Scheier, Carver and Bridges (1994), the paper behind the LOT-R. IPIP reports a correlation of .69 with the original scale, or .82 after correcting for measurement error. The statements and scoring differ, so your score cannot be compared directly with LOT-R scores or norms.
Does a score of 70 mean I am more optimistic than 70 percent of people?
No. The score is not compared with other people. It shows where your answers fall between 0 and 100: 0 would mean the least optimistic answer to every statement and 100 the most optimistic. The labels mark sections of the scale (an average answer below 2.5 or above 3.5), not norms or clinical cut-offs.
How is it different from the self-esteem test?
The two overlap a lot. Five of the ten statements, including “Feel comfortable with myself” and “Dislike myself”, also appear in our self-esteem test, so the scores tend to be similar. The optimism test adds statements about mood and outlook; the self-esteem test adds statements about your abilities and strengths.
How accurate is the test?
IPIP reports internal consistency (alpha) of .86 for the English scale. One score from ten answers is still approximate, and your current mood and circumstances can affect it. Our translations, including the Norwegian version, have not been validated as complete scales.
What if my score is low?
A low score can reflect what you are going through right now, and outlooks can change. It is not a diagnosis. If low mood lasts for weeks or affects your daily life, talk to your GP or a psychologist; our depression test (PHQ-9) screens for depressive symptoms. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, seek help immediately.
How should I answer the statements?
Choose how well each statement describes you in general, not only today or how you would like to be. There are no right or wrong answers.
License and reuse
Public domainIPIP places its items and scales in the public domain. They may be used, copied, adapted and translated for commercial and non-commercial purposes without a fee or separate permission.
The terms below apply to the test materials. Articles, translations, software and our result descriptions may have separate terms.
Sources and further reading
IPIP Optimism scale keyed to Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063–1078. IPIP key: https://www.ipip.ori.org/newSingleConstructsKey.htm