Archetype Test

Which of the 12 Jungian archetypes drives you?

8 min · Free · No account

Archetype Test: A lamp-lit desk with an open book of myths, a compass, a chess king, a paintbrush and a lantern, a hand turning the page

What are the 12 Jungian archetypes?

The twelve most archetype tests use are the Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Caregiver, Explorer, Rebel, Lover, Creator, Jester, Sage, Magician and Ruler. Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson set out this list in The Hero and the Outlaw (2001), building on Carl Jung's idea of archetypes as characters that recur across myths and stories. Jung himself never proposed a set list of twelve. This Jungian archetypes test scores you on all 12 and names the one you score highest on.

About this test

The same twelve characters turn up in myths, films and ads again and again: the Hero, the Rebel, the Sage, the Caregiver and eight more. This test gives you 48 statements about what you actually do and want, and scores you on all twelve. Your main archetype is the one you score highest on. The model builds on Carl Jung's idea of archetypes, and the twelve come from Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson's book The Hero and the Outlaw (2001). It works the same for anyone, whatever their gender. Read your result as a way to think about your motives, not as a measurement.

What you'll discover

Innocent
Wants life to be good and simple; trusts that things can work out.
Everyman
Wants to belong; down to earth and wary of people who put on airs.
Hero
Wants to prove their worth by meeting hard challenges and winning.
Caregiver
Wants to protect and look after other people.
Explorer
Wants freedom and new ground; dislikes feeling boxed in.
Rebel
Wants to change what isn't working, even if it means breaking rules.
Lover
Wants closeness, intimacy and beauty.
Creator
Wants to make something original that didn't exist before.
Jester
Wants to enjoy life and make it lighter for others.
Sage
Wants to understand; looks for the evidence before deciding.
Magician
Wants to transform situations and people; looks for the lever that changes things.
Ruler
Wants order and control so that things run well and people are safe.

Understanding the Archetype Test

This archetype test gives you 48 statements about what you do and what you want, four for each of the 12 archetypes, and asks how much each one sounds like you. It takes about 8 minutes. Your main archetype is free when you finish; the full report scores all twelve, so you can see whether one archetype clearly leads or two or three run close. It works the same for anyone, regardless of gender.

Carl Jung first used the word archetype in 1919, for patterns he believed were shared across human minds and showed up in myths, dreams and stories. The twelve here come later, and from a different field: Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson described them in The Hero and the Outlaw (2001), a book about building brands. Two of our names differ from theirs. We say the Rebel where they say the Outlaw, and the Everyman where they say the Regular Guy/Gal.

We should be plain about what this is. The 12 archetypes are a storytelling and branding framework, not a validated psychometric model, and we know of no peer-reviewed study that has tested this set of twelve as a measure of personality. The closest research we found, by Michael Faber and John Mayer (Journal of Research in Personality, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.11.003), measured how strongly people respond to archetypal characters in films, music and art, and found that those responses related to people's own life themes. Read your result as a mirror for your motives, not a measurement.

Where the Archetype Test comes from

Carl Jung introduced the term archetype in 1919, in his essay Instinct and the Unconscious, for inherited patterns he believed shaped myths, dreams and stories across cultures. The twelve used here were set out by Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson in The Hero and the Outlaw (2001), a book on building brands, where the Rebel is called the Outlaw and the Everyman the Regular Guy/Gal.

How the Archetype Test is scored

Four statements per archetype, each archetype scored from 4 to 20; your main archetype is the highest of the twelve. The framework was designed for storytelling and marketing, not measurement, and we know of no peer-reviewed study validating this set of twelve as a personality instrument. Read the result as a prompt for reflection.

For entertainment — no research basis

Mark, M., & Pearson, C. S. (2001). The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Written and fact-checked against the sources above on October 24, 2026. More on how we build and score these tests: our methodology.

Your questions, answered

Is there a female archetype test or a male archetype test?

This test uses one set of twelve archetypes for everyone, and anyone can score highest on any of them: a woman can be a Ruler, a man can be a Caregiver. Quizzes sold as feminine or masculine archetype tests usually draw on other books with their own lists. We kept to the twelve because they describe motives, and motives don't split by gender.

What is the difference between the Hero, the Ruler and the Rebel?

They're about different things. The Hero wants to prove their worth by beating a hard challenge. The Ruler wants order, so things run well and people are safe. The Rebel wants to change what isn't working, even by breaking rules. Picture a failing project: the Hero works all night to rescue it, the Ruler reorganizes the team, the Rebel asks why the project exists at all.

Is this a real Jungian test?

It builds on Jung's idea of archetypes, but Jung did not propose these twelve. The list comes from Mark and Pearson's 2001 book on brands, and it's the one most archetype quizzes use today. No version of the model has strong research behind it as a personality measure, ours included.

Can I have more than one archetype?

Yes, and most people do. Your main archetype is simply your highest score. The full report shows all twelve, and when your top two or three sit close together, it's worth reading each of those descriptions.

Is the archetype test free?

Yes. The test and your main archetype are free, with no account needed: just your email at the end. Every score, the written analysis and the certificate are in the full report: $1.99$2.41 in the first 30 minutes after you finish, $3.99$4.83 after that, or included in eTestor Unlimited.