Social Intelligence Test: See Your Score Across Three Social Intelligence Factors
A self-assessment informed by the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale model of social intelligence: how well you read people, use that reading in the moment, and understand the wider social picture. You get a breakdown across all three factors, not one vague label, plus an optional PDF report.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Social Intelligence Test is a free, confidential 21-question self-assessment, informed by the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS). It takes about 5 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Three factors of social intelligence, not one score
Most online "social intelligence" quizzes hand you a single number. This one is built around the three factors researchers use to describe the skill: reading people accurately, putting that reading into practice, and tracking the wider social picture.
Social information processing
How accurately you read emotions, tone, and unspoken cues, and how well you can predict how someone is likely to react.
Social skills
How smoothly you put that reading into practice: starting conversations, adapting your style, and putting people at ease.
Social awareness
How well you track the wider picture: group dynamics, unspoken norms, and knowing when a moment calls for a different approach.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Scores three distinct factors | Usually one number | Yes, all three factors |
| Distinguishes from emotional intelligence | Blurs the two | Clear distinction, links to the EQ test |
| Accounts for neurodivergent readers | No | Yes, an honest note for autistic and ADHD readers |
| Original items, not copied from a proprietary test | Unclear | Yes, 21 original items |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, clinician reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Answers stay on your device | Often tracked | Scored in your browser; we only receive anonymous completion counts unless you ask for a PDF or report |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–84 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–27 | Developing social intelligence | Your answers suggest social intelligence is still developing for you, and that's genuinely useful to know: it's a skill you can build, not a fixed ceiling. |
| 28–55 | Solid social intelligence | Your answers suggest a solid, workable level of social intelligence. You read and navigate most everyday situations reasonably well, with room to sharpen specific spots. |
| 56–84 | Strong social intelligence | Your answers suggest strong social intelligence across the board: you read people accurately, act on it smoothly, and track group dynamics well. |
How the Social Intelligence Score Is Calculated
This test has 21 original statements, seven for each of the three factors: social information processing, social skills, and social awareness. Each statement is rated from 0 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), so each factor can total up to 28 points, for a combined score from 0 to 84. A few statements in each factor are worded as the opposite of the trait, such as regularly misreading how people feel, and those are scored in reverse so that disagreeing with them still counts toward a higher score.
The breakdown above shows your three factor scores separately, which matters because the pattern often says more than the total. Someone who reads people well but struggles to act on it in the moment will get real, different practice advice than someone who is socially smooth but misses group dynamics entirely. Treat the total as a general sense of where you land and the three bars as the more useful, specific information.
Social Intelligence vs Emotional Intelligence vs Social Anxiety
Social intelligence and emotional intelligence overlap but are not the same thing. Social intelligence, as this test measures it, is about reading and navigating other people and group situations. Emotional intelligence is broader and includes managing your own emotions, not just perceiving other people's. You can be highly self-aware about your own feelings and still find group dynamics hard to read, or vice versa. If you want the fuller picture of your own emotional skills, the Emotional Intelligence Test on Psychology.com looks at that directly.
Social intelligence is also not the same as social anxiety, even though the two can look similar from the outside. Social anxiety is about fear and self-consciousness in social situations, often alongside plenty of accurate social perception; a socially anxious person may read a room correctly and still feel too anxious to act on it. A lower score here reflects the skill of reading and navigating people, not how afraid or comfortable you feel doing it. If anxiety, not skill, feels like the bigger factor in your social life, the Social Anxiety Test is the better fit.
A Note for Autistic and ADHD Readers
Some autistic and ADHD readers score lower on the items about reading tone, facial expression, and unspoken cues, and that result deserves a careful read. Research on autism increasingly points to what's called the double empathy problem: the idea that miscommunication between autistic and non-autistic people runs in both directions, not as a one-sided deficit in the autistic person (Milton, 2012). Struggling to instantly decode a neurotypical facial expression is not the same as not caring how someone feels, and it says nothing about the depth of your empathy or your intentions toward people.
If this section resonated, our Autism Test looks specifically at traits associated with autism, including sensory and communication differences, in language that treats them as differences rather than deficits. Many autistic and ADHD people are highly attuned to people they know well, and read social situations differently rather than less. If a low score here surprises you given how much you genuinely care about the people in your life, that gap is worth noticing and is common.
How to Build Social Intelligence
Social intelligence responds to practice more than most people expect. If your lowest factor was social information processing, try naming the emotion you think someone is feeling before they tell you, even silently, and check yourself against what they say next; the Feelings Wheel tool can widen your vocabulary for this. If social skills scored lowest, low-stakes practice helps most: start one extra small conversation a day, or notice what makes people relax around you and do more of it deliberately. If social awareness was your lowest score, practice arriving a few minutes early to gatherings just to observe the room before you engage, which builds the habit of reading context before acting.
None of these factors are fixed traits you're stuck with. They are closer to skills, built the same way any skill is: through repetition, feedback, and paying attention to what worked. If social situations feel effortful in a way that's wearing you down, or if anxiety is doing more damage than a skills gap, a therapist can help you sort out which piece to work on first.
Methodology & sources
The three factors this test scores, social information processing, social skills, and social awareness, come from the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS), developed and validated by Silvera, Martinussen, and Dahl (2001). We did not reproduce the TSIS items themselves, which remain the authors' validated instrument. Instead, we wrote 21 original statements, seven per factor, informed by what each factor measures, so this test is independent and clearly labeled as such rather than presented as the TSIS.
This is an educational screener for self-reflection, not the TSIS in full and not a diagnostic or clinical tool. Social intelligence, as researchers use the term, describes a skill set that varies naturally across the population and that can be built with practice; it is not a measure of worth, intelligence in the general sense, or how much someone cares about others. We deliberately included a note for autistic and ADHD readers because cue-reading differences are well documented and do not mean less empathy or less investment in relationships.
References
- Silvera DH, Martinussen M, Dahl TI. The Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale, a self-report measure of social intelligence. Scand J Psychol. 2001;42(4):313-319.
- Milton D. On the ontological status of autism: the 'double empathy problem'. Disabil Soc. 2012;27(6):883-887.
- Mayer JD, Salovey P. What is emotional intelligence? In: Salovey P, Sluyter DJ, eds. Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications. New York: Basic Books; 1997:3-31.
- Goleman D. Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. New York: Bantam Books; 2006.
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 23). Social Intelligence Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/social-intelligence
Social Intelligence Test FAQ
What is social intelligence?
Social intelligence is the ability to understand and navigate other people and social situations: reading emotions and cues accurately, acting on that reading smoothly, and tracking group dynamics and unspoken norms. It is a skill set, not a fixed trait, and it can be built with practice.
How is this different from emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is broader and includes managing your own emotions, not just perceiving other people's. Social intelligence, as this test measures it, focuses specifically on reading and navigating other people and groups. The two overlap but are not interchangeable; our Emotional Intelligence Test covers the wider picture.
I'm autistic or have ADHD and scored lower on the reading-cues items. Does that mean I don't care about people?
No. Research on the "double empathy problem" suggests miscommunication between autistic and non-autistic people runs in both directions, not as a one-sided deficit (Milton, 2012). Struggling to quickly decode a facial expression is a difference in how information is processed, not a measure of how much you care. Many autistic and ADHD people are deeply attuned to people they know well.
Is this the official Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale?
No. The TSIS is a validated instrument, and this test does not reproduce its items. Ours is an independent screener informed by the three factors TSIS describes, with 21 original statements we wrote for this purpose. We label it clearly so it is never confused with the TSIS itself.
Can social intelligence actually improve?
Yes. Unlike some fixed traits, social intelligence responds well to deliberate practice, feedback from people you trust, and simply paying more attention to what works in your interactions. Small, repeated practice in your lowest-scoring factor tends to move the needle fastest.
Is a low score the same as being an introvert?
No. Introversion is about where you get your energy from, not how well you read or navigate people. Plenty of introverts score high on social intelligence, and plenty of extroverts score lower; the two measure different things entirely.
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