About Us

Individuals want to understand themselves, how they are seen by others and where they fit and why.

Psychologists, counsellors, coaches, and many other professionals need to understand their clients well to help them best.

Employers need to find and promote the right people for the right jobs and help their employees grow.

Personomist’s mission is to use modern psychometrics and the latest personality research to achieve these aims.

Many popular personality tests tell intuitive but unscientific fairy tales, while others provide feedback that is too general to be useful. Most tests are based on psychometrics of the 19th century.

Personomist is developed by personality scientists and is based on recent advances in personality research, statistical modelling and Big Data.

René Mõttus

Professor of Personality Psychology

René Mõttus (PhD) is the Professor of Personality Psychology at the University of Edinburgh and University of Tartu. As a widely recognised expert in personality assessment and its real-life consequences, he has published 100+ academic articles, lead international research teams, edited academic journals, and advised businesses. René has been among the leading researchers to systematically show the practical value of nuanced personality assessments that combine multiple sources of information and modern statistics—the essence of Personomist. This work has been covered by outlet such as The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, Euronews, Fortune, Inc and others. René co-hosts the Personality Psychology Podcast and blogs for Psychology Today.

Kätlin Anni

Research Fellow in Well-Being Studies

Kätlin Anni (PhD) is a Research Fellow in Well-Being Studies at the University of Tartu. Her research examines how psychological individual differences, especially personality, relate to people’s occupational choices and well-being. She has extensive experience as a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist in the healthcare system and now teaches future clinicians as a lecturer in clinical psychology. Kätlin has led the Estonian adaptation of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) and contributed to the adaptation projects for several psychological tests, which are widely used in the everyday work of mental health specialists. She is particularly interested in bridging psychological research and real-world application, a focus she continues with Personomist.

Uku Vainik

Professor of Behavioural Genetics at Institute of Psychology and Institute of Genomics

Uku Vainik (PhD) is a Professor of Behavioural Genetics at Institute of Psychology and Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Estonia. He is further an adjunct professor at Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Canada. He mixes personality, genetics, and brain sciences to understand health behaviours, for instance why some of us overeat. Together with René, he has lead large scale online personality studies at Estonian Biobank, collecting data from 7% of all adults. He appears regularly in Estonian and sometimes also in international media, eg Economist.