How Do You Compare to Keanu Reeves? Personality Profiles of Public Figures on Lobe
Nazar Akrami
CEO & Founder
Personality becomes more meaningful when you can see it in context. Knowing that you score in the 72nd percentile on Extraversion is useful — but comparing that with how the public perceives Oprah Winfrey (92nd percentile) or Bill Gates (8th percentile) makes the number come alive.
That is the idea behind Lobe’s public figure profiles. Starting today, users can compare their own personality with 20 internationally recognized public figures across all six HEXACO dimensions.
How the profiles were created
Each profile is based on aggregated personality ratings from approximately 50 independent observers recruited through CloudResearch Connect. Raters assessed public figures on six bipolar dimensions corresponding to the HEXACO personality model (Ashton & Lee, 2007), using a 7-point scale. They were instructed to rate how the person typically behaves in public, not whether they liked them, agreed with their views, or admired what they do.
This is an important distinction. These profiles reflect public perception — how each person is seen — not how they would describe themselves. Observer-rated personality is a well-established method in personality research (Connelly & Ones, 2010), and it captures a perspective that self-report cannot: the social reputation of the individual.
To make comparisons meaningful, observer ratings were converted to percentiles using the same norm data that underpins all Lobe profiles — a reference sample of over 100,000 respondents from the HEXACO Personality Inventory (Lee & Ashton, 2018). This means a public figure’s percentile and a user’s percentile are on the same scale.
What the profiles reveal
The 20 profiles span entertainment, business, sports, politics, and music — and they show striking differences. Some highlights:
Keanu Reeves is perceived as one of the most agreeable and honest public figures in the set, scoring in the 93rd percentile on Honesty-Humility and the 98th on Agreeableness. His public reputation for kindness and modesty is reflected directly in the numbers.
Donald Trump shows one of the most distinctive profiles, scoring near the floor on Honesty-Humility (1st percentile) and Agreeableness (1st percentile), but near the ceiling on Extraversion (96th percentile). Raters agreed strongly on these dimensions despite political polarisation.
Lady Gaga leads on Openness to Experience (95th percentile), consistent with her public image as a creative boundary-pusher. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both perceived as highly introverted (8th percentile on Extraversion) but conscientious (80th and 51st percentile, respectively).
Two different methods, one shared scale
Every public figure profile on Lobe is clearly labelled as observer-rated. When a user compares their own profile — which is self-reported — with a public figure’s profile, they are comparing two different measurement methods. We communicate this transparently: comparisons are indicative, not definitive. The value is in the pattern, not the precision.
What comes next
The current set of 20 profiles features internationally recognised figures, most of them American. But personality is not limited by geography, and neither is Lobe. The plan is to expand public figure profiles to include well-known people from different countries and cultures — so that a user in Brazil, Japan, or Sweden can compare with public figures they actually know and care about.
Each new set will be built using the same methodology: independent observers from the relevant country rating public figures they know well, with results aggregated and converted to the same global percentile scale.
Personality is relative. The more reference points you have, the better you understand where you stand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
● Lobe now features personality profiles of 20 well-known public figures — from Oprah Winfrey and Keanu Reeves to Elon Musk and Taylor Swift.
● These profiles are based on aggregated ratings from independent observers, not self-reports — they reflect how the public perceives each person’s personality.
● Users can compare their own personality with any public figure and see where they align and where they differ.
● Lobe will be expanding these profiles to include public figures from around the world, so users in different countries can compare with people they know and recognize.
REFERENCES
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007). Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 150–166.
Connelly, B. S., & Ones, D. S. (2010). An other perspective on personality: Meta-analytic integration of observers’ accuracy and predictive validity. Psychological Bulletin, 136(6), 1092–1122.
Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2018). Psychometric properties of the HEXACO-100. Assessment, 25(5), 543–556.