Altruism

It distinguishes helping that comes from wanting to from helping that comes from obligation.

High scorers find helping fulfilling. Low scorers find it draining, or do it for other reasons.

The facet that motivated this whole project. Its standard items ask about people in general, so someone guarded with strangers and unconditional with a small circle gets back an average that describes neither.

Four public-domain statements, answered on a five-point scale. Items marked − are reverse keyed: agreeing with them counts against the trait, which is what stops agreeing with everything from producing a high score.

• +Love to help others
• +Am concerned about others
• -Am indifferent to the feelings of others
• -Take no time for others

Four items is not many. A facet measured this way carries real uncertainty, which is why every score on this site is reported as a range rather than a single number.

This is one of the traits asked four times over — once for each level of closeness, from your inner circle out to strangers. Our prediction for it: steep.

The facet that motivated the whole instrument: IPIP items ask about people in general.

• +I go out of my way to help ⟨group⟩.
• +I put the needs of ⟨group⟩ before my own.
• -Helping ⟨group⟩ feels more like a burden than a pleasure.

⟨group⟩ is replaced by each of the four closeness anchors in turn.