Your Profile Explained

Why does my profile matter?

Because secretly, spies are just like us - ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Real spies like Oleg Penkovsky or fictional ones like James Bond use spy skills we all possess: from agility, empathy and risk tolerance to analysis, observation and composure. Your profile is an authentic assessment of your spy skills.

Intelligence agencies train their recruits to understand and use these same spy skills. We worked with top psychologists and a former Head of Training at British Intelligence to perfect a unique methodology to uncover your spy skills, create your individual profile, and inspire you to develop your potential.

How does the profiling work?

First, your behaviors and preferences are tested for a dozen spy skills in our interactive challenges and assessments. Second, your results are compared to millions of others. Third, our proprietary algorithm maps your results against the ideal results for each of the major spy roles to see which one you’re best suited to. Finally, your results and your spy role are combined to produce a confidential and comprehensive profile which is available to you online.

What’s in my profile?

In addition to your detailed scores in the challenges and assessments, your profile explains what your score on each spy skill says about you. Your profile also introduces you to real spies (and fictional ones) with a profile similar to yours, and explains what's involved in their spy role and in a typical operation. Over time, your profile will evolve as you develop your skills through exciting challenges and experiences, both physical and digital.

Why should I trust the results?

Your profile is authentic, it's based upon scientific research* and methods commonly used by psychologists to identify and evaluate people’s cognitive, emotional, and social traits. Our experts have extensive experience assessing, training and developing recruits in intelligence agencies and worked hard to ensure authenticity.

*The science behind the results

If you’d like to know more about the attributes measured and the science behind them there's a list of key academic papers that informed our profile system at the bottom of this page.

FAQs

1. Would taking more challenges change my results?

Maybe. Each test you complete helps to develop the accuracy of your profile. Your ideal spy role may even change as you progress. For example, if on your first visit you skipped the Special Ops laser tunnels, and on your second visit you ace them, then our profile algorithm might suggest a more physically demanding spy role for you.

2. My profile has changed; why?

From time to time we update our algorithm to improve accuracy. Your profile may change a little to more precisely reflect your scores relative to others.

3. What are the major spy roles I could be assigned?

Spymaster: A leader of an intelligence organization

Intelligence Analyst: An expert who gleans crucial insights from intelligence

Spycatcher: A specialist in counterintelligence; thwarting enemy spies

Hacker: Someone who breaks into enemy computer systems or protects their own systems from cyber attack

Cryptologist: A mathematical master of making and breaking codes

Agent Handler: A manager of agents who provide secret intelligence or operational support

Surveillance Officer: Someone who follows and observes suspected enemies

Technical Operations Officer: A person who gathers intelligence by tapping phones, breaking into buildings, planting cameras, and other means

Special Operations Officer: Someone who gathers intelligence and destroys targets in hostile environments

Intelligence Operative: The heart of an intelligence organization, involved in an array of operations, from servicing dead drops to setting up safe houses

4. Will spy agencies contact me if I have an interesting profile?

No. We do get inquiries from intelligence organizations but we take data privacy VERY seriously, so if you are interested in a role in the intelligence world we suggest you look at the websites for the services in your country and see what roles they have on offer.

5. What do you do with my data?

We believe your data is yours. We use your identity band to tailor your experience to you and score what you do at SPYSCAPE HQ. The scores are used to create your confidential profile and assign you a spy role. We also use anonymous aggregate data to continuously improve the challenges. We do not use these data for anything else.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PROFILES

Brainpower

Raven, J. (2000). The Raven's progressive matrices: change and stability over culture and time. Cognitive psychology, 41(1), 1-48.

Murray, A. L., Johnson, W., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2014). How are conscientiousness and cognitive ability related to one another? A re-examination of the intelligence compensation hypothesis. Personality and Individual Differences, 70, 17-22.

Reynolds, J., McClelland, A., & Furnham, A. (2014). An investigation of cognitive test performance across conditions of silence, background noise and music as a function of neuroticism. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 27(4), 410-421.

Ahmetoglu, G., Dobbs, S., Furnham, A., Crump, J., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Bakhshalian, E. (2016). Dark side of personality, intelligence, creativity, and managerial level. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(2), 391-404.

Composure

Uppal, N. (2014). Moderation effects of job characteristics on the relationship between neuroticism and job performance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 22(4), 411-421.

Huang, J. L., Ryan, A. M., Zabel, K. L., & Palmer, A. (2014). Personality and adaptive performance at work: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 162.

Dima, D., Friston, K. J., Stephan, K. E., & Frangou, S. (2015). Neuroticism and conscientiousness respectively constrain and facilitate short‐term plasticity within the working memory neural network. Human brain mapping, 36(10), 4158-4163.

Inquisitiveness

Litman, J. A., & Spielberger, C. D. (2003). Measuring epistemic curiosity and its diversive and specific components. Journal of personality assessment, 80(1), 75-86.

Mussel, P. (2013). Introducing the construct curiosity for predicting job performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 453-472.

Minbashian, A., Earl, J., & Bright, J. E. (2013). Openness to experience as a predictor of job performance trajectories. Applied Psychology, 62(1), 1-12.

Hot Risk

Lauriola, M., Panno, A., Levin, I. P., & Lejuez, C. W. (2014). Individual differences in risky decision making: A meta‐analysis of sensation seeking and impulsivity with the balloon analogue risk task. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 27(1), 20-36.

Fukunaga, R., Brown, J. W., & Bogg, T. (2012). Decision making in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): anterior cingulate cortex signals loss aversion but not the infrequency of risky choices. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(3), 479-490.

Cold Risk

Charness, G., & Jackson, M. O. (2009). The role of responsibility in strategic risk-taking. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 69(3), 241-247.

Rogers, J., Viding, E., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2013). Instrumental and disinhibited financial risk taking: Personality and behavioural correlates. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(6), 645-649.

Interpersonal Skills

Akhtar, R., Boustani, L., Tsivrikos, D., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015). The engageable personality: Personality and trait EI as predictors of work engagement. Personality and Individual Differences, 73, 44-49.

Mittal, E. V., & Sindhu, E. (2012). Emotional intelligence and leadership. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(16).

Sociability

Huang, J. L., Bramble, R. J., Liu, M., Aqwa, J. J., Ott‐Holland, C. J., Ryan, A. M., ... & Wadlington, P. L. (2016). Rethinking the association between extraversion and job satisfaction: The role of interpersonal job context. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(3), 683-691.

Lü, W., Wang, Z., Liu, Y., & Zhang, H. (2014). Resilience as a mediator between extraversion, neuroticism and happiness, PA and NA. Personality and Individual Differences, 63, 128-133.

Conscientiousness

Carter, N. T., Dalal, D. K., Boyce, A. S., O’connell, M. S., Kung, M. C., & Delgado, K. M. (2014). Uncovering curvilinear relationships between conscientiousness and job performance: How theoretically appropriate measurement makes an empirical difference. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(4), 564.

Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492.

Duckworth, A., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Self-control and grit: Related but separable determinants of success. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(5), 319-325.

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(6), 1087.

Ohme, M., & Zacher, H. (2015). Job performance ratings: The relative importance of mental ability, conscientiousness, and career adaptability. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 87, 161-170.

Your Profile Explained

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Why does my profile matter?

Because secretly, spies are just like us - ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Real spies like Oleg Penkovsky or fictional ones like James Bond use spy skills we all possess: from agility, empathy and risk tolerance to analysis, observation and composure. Your profile is an authentic assessment of your spy skills.

Intelligence agencies train their recruits to understand and use these same spy skills. We worked with top psychologists and a former Head of Training at British Intelligence to perfect a unique methodology to uncover your spy skills, create your individual profile, and inspire you to develop your potential.

How does the profiling work?

First, your behaviors and preferences are tested for a dozen spy skills in our interactive challenges and assessments. Second, your results are compared to millions of others. Third, our proprietary algorithm maps your results against the ideal results for each of the major spy roles to see which one you’re best suited to. Finally, your results and your spy role are combined to produce a confidential and comprehensive profile which is available to you online.

What’s in my profile?

In addition to your detailed scores in the challenges and assessments, your profile explains what your score on each spy skill says about you. Your profile also introduces you to real spies (and fictional ones) with a profile similar to yours, and explains what's involved in their spy role and in a typical operation. Over time, your profile will evolve as you develop your skills through exciting challenges and experiences, both physical and digital.

Why should I trust the results?

Your profile is authentic, it's based upon scientific research* and methods commonly used by psychologists to identify and evaluate people’s cognitive, emotional, and social traits. Our experts have extensive experience assessing, training and developing recruits in intelligence agencies and worked hard to ensure authenticity.

*The science behind the results

If you’d like to know more about the attributes measured and the science behind them there's a list of key academic papers that informed our profile system at the bottom of this page.

FAQs

1. Would taking more challenges change my results?

Maybe. Each test you complete helps to develop the accuracy of your profile. Your ideal spy role may even change as you progress. For example, if on your first visit you skipped the Special Ops laser tunnels, and on your second visit you ace them, then our profile algorithm might suggest a more physically demanding spy role for you.

2. My profile has changed; why?

From time to time we update our algorithm to improve accuracy. Your profile may change a little to more precisely reflect your scores relative to others.

3. What are the major spy roles I could be assigned?

Spymaster: A leader of an intelligence organization

Intelligence Analyst: An expert who gleans crucial insights from intelligence

Spycatcher: A specialist in counterintelligence; thwarting enemy spies

Hacker: Someone who breaks into enemy computer systems or protects their own systems from cyber attack

Cryptologist: A mathematical master of making and breaking codes

Agent Handler: A manager of agents who provide secret intelligence or operational support

Surveillance Officer: Someone who follows and observes suspected enemies

Technical Operations Officer: A person who gathers intelligence by tapping phones, breaking into buildings, planting cameras, and other means

Special Operations Officer: Someone who gathers intelligence and destroys targets in hostile environments

Intelligence Operative: The heart of an intelligence organization, involved in an array of operations, from servicing dead drops to setting up safe houses

4. Will spy agencies contact me if I have an interesting profile?

No. We do get inquiries from intelligence organizations but we take data privacy VERY seriously, so if you are interested in a role in the intelligence world we suggest you look at the websites for the services in your country and see what roles they have on offer.

5. What do you do with my data?

We believe your data is yours. We use your identity band to tailor your experience to you and score what you do at SPYSCAPE HQ. The scores are used to create your confidential profile and assign you a spy role. We also use anonymous aggregate data to continuously improve the challenges. We do not use these data for anything else.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PROFILES

Brainpower

Raven, J. (2000). The Raven's progressive matrices: change and stability over culture and time. Cognitive psychology, 41(1), 1-48.

Murray, A. L., Johnson, W., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2014). How are conscientiousness and cognitive ability related to one another? A re-examination of the intelligence compensation hypothesis. Personality and Individual Differences, 70, 17-22.

Reynolds, J., McClelland, A., & Furnham, A. (2014). An investigation of cognitive test performance across conditions of silence, background noise and music as a function of neuroticism. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 27(4), 410-421.

Ahmetoglu, G., Dobbs, S., Furnham, A., Crump, J., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Bakhshalian, E. (2016). Dark side of personality, intelligence, creativity, and managerial level. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(2), 391-404.

Composure

Uppal, N. (2014). Moderation effects of job characteristics on the relationship between neuroticism and job performance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 22(4), 411-421.

Huang, J. L., Ryan, A. M., Zabel, K. L., & Palmer, A. (2014). Personality and adaptive performance at work: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 162.

Dima, D., Friston, K. J., Stephan, K. E., & Frangou, S. (2015). Neuroticism and conscientiousness respectively constrain and facilitate short‐term plasticity within the working memory neural network. Human brain mapping, 36(10), 4158-4163.

Inquisitiveness

Litman, J. A., & Spielberger, C. D. (2003). Measuring epistemic curiosity and its diversive and specific components. Journal of personality assessment, 80(1), 75-86.

Mussel, P. (2013). Introducing the construct curiosity for predicting job performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 453-472.

Minbashian, A., Earl, J., & Bright, J. E. (2013). Openness to experience as a predictor of job performance trajectories. Applied Psychology, 62(1), 1-12.

Hot Risk

Lauriola, M., Panno, A., Levin, I. P., & Lejuez, C. W. (2014). Individual differences in risky decision making: A meta‐analysis of sensation seeking and impulsivity with the balloon analogue risk task. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 27(1), 20-36.

Fukunaga, R., Brown, J. W., & Bogg, T. (2012). Decision making in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): anterior cingulate cortex signals loss aversion but not the infrequency of risky choices. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(3), 479-490.

Cold Risk

Charness, G., & Jackson, M. O. (2009). The role of responsibility in strategic risk-taking. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 69(3), 241-247.

Rogers, J., Viding, E., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2013). Instrumental and disinhibited financial risk taking: Personality and behavioural correlates. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(6), 645-649.

Interpersonal Skills

Akhtar, R., Boustani, L., Tsivrikos, D., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015). The engageable personality: Personality and trait EI as predictors of work engagement. Personality and Individual Differences, 73, 44-49.

Mittal, E. V., & Sindhu, E. (2012). Emotional intelligence and leadership. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(16).

Sociability

Huang, J. L., Bramble, R. J., Liu, M., Aqwa, J. J., Ott‐Holland, C. J., Ryan, A. M., ... & Wadlington, P. L. (2016). Rethinking the association between extraversion and job satisfaction: The role of interpersonal job context. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(3), 683-691.

Lü, W., Wang, Z., Liu, Y., & Zhang, H. (2014). Resilience as a mediator between extraversion, neuroticism and happiness, PA and NA. Personality and Individual Differences, 63, 128-133.

Conscientiousness

Carter, N. T., Dalal, D. K., Boyce, A. S., O’connell, M. S., Kung, M. C., & Delgado, K. M. (2014). Uncovering curvilinear relationships between conscientiousness and job performance: How theoretically appropriate measurement makes an empirical difference. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(4), 564.

Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492.

Duckworth, A., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Self-control and grit: Related but separable determinants of success. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(5), 319-325.

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(6), 1087.

Ohme, M., & Zacher, H. (2015). Job performance ratings: The relative importance of mental ability, conscientiousness, and career adaptability. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 87, 161-170.

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Your Spy SKILLS

We all have valuable spy skills - your mission is to discover yours. See if you have what it takes to be a secret agent, with our authentic spy skills evaluation* developed by a former Head of Training at British Intelligence. It's FREE so share & compare with friends now!

dISCOVER Your Spy SKILLS

* Find more information about the scientific methods behind the evaluation here.