A study conducted by the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) suggests that even a fictional personality system like Hogwarts houses from the Harry Potter saga can reveal significant trends in real-world entrepreneurial mentality.
The research team, led by Martin Obschonkaanalyzed nearly 800,000 responses to the magazine’s Harry Potter personality questionnaire TIME and found that areas with more Gryffindors and Slytherins tend to have greater entrepreneurial activity.
Traditional entrepreneurship research often focuses on individual characteristics such as risk taking or creativity. According to Obschonka, this approach neglects the broader personality patterns that shape entrepreneurial thinking.
“We don’t have a personality typology world in research that captures the entrepreneurial mindset, particularly its transgressive and challenging nature,” he explains.
The famous Hogwarts house system offers clear and easy to understand personality types that can be measured, making it a new way to study more complex models.
Quiz
The Harry Potter Personality Quiz was developed through collaboration between the magazine TIME and members of the research team. Almost 800,000 people in the United States completed the questionnaire, allowing researchers to examine regional variations in trait profiles.
Researchers asked participants whether or not they agreed with various topics, such as lie and face your fears.
Study shows US regions with highest proportion of Gryffindor and Slytherin-like personalities tend to display higher levels of entrepreneurial activity. These links remain even when known entrepreneurial characteristics and regional economic differences are considered.
The results were also replicated in an independent survey of two tours with more than 1,000 people. Participants with more Gryffindor or Slytherin profiles reported greater entrepreneurial intentions and more positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship.
“It’s fascinating to see that even a purely fictional personality typology, like Hogwarts houses, can still reveal useful information about real human behavior,” he says.including entrepreneurship” said Obschonka.
Challenge the rules
A key finding of the study is that Gryffindor and Slytherin share a common base of behavior that defies the rules. Although their motivations differ, both houses are associated with pushing boundaries, questioning norms, and opposing the status quo: attributes related to entrepreneurial action, which often involves facing uncertainty, questioning existing structures, and introducing new ideas.
Gryffindor represents a prosocial way of challenging the rules, motivated by moral conviction or a sense of justice, according to the study. Slytherin symbolizes a strategic way to question the rules, driven by ambition, competitiveness and instrumental and goal-oriented motivations.
“These forms of deviationwhich overlap but are different, provided the framework to analyze different trade routes,” says Obschonka.
The Harry Potter stories illustrate that pursuing something new is often involves breaking the ruleswhether through courageous actions or calculated planning, according to the study.
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