A new study led by the UvA suggests that even a fictional personality system, the Hogwarts houses from Harry Potter, can reveal meaningful patterns in real-world entrepreneurial mindsets. The research team, headed by Martin Obschonka, analysed nearly 800,000 responses to TIME Magazine Harry Potter Personality Quiz, discovering that regions with more ‘Gryffindors’ and ‘Slytherins’ tend to have higher start-up activity. The project involved collaborators from NEOMA Business School, The University of St. Gallen, and the University of British Columbia.

Using fiction to understand entrepreneurial personality
Traditional entrepreneurship research often focuses on individual traits such as risk-taking or creativity. According to Obschonka, this narrow approach overlooks the broader character patterns that shape entrepreneurial thinking. ‘We do not have a real-world personality typology in research that captures the entrepreneurial mindset, especially its rule-breaking and norm-challenging nature.’ He explains. The well-known Hogwarts house system gives clear, easy-to-understand personality types that we can measure, making it a new way to study more complex pattern.

A unique dataset from TIME magazine
The Harry Potter Personality Quiz was developed through collaboration between TIME Magazine and members of the research team. Nearly 800,000 people across the United States completed the quiz, allowing the researchers to examine regional variation in character-related profiles. Participants were asked whether they agreed or disagreed on various topics, such as lying and facing fears.

The study shows that U.S. regions with higher proportions of Gryffindor- and Slytherin-like personalities tend to exhibit higher levels of start-up activity. These links stay the same even when we account for know entrepreneurial traits and regional economic differences. The findings were also replicated in a separate two-wave survey of more than 1,000 individuals: participants with stronger Gryffindor or Slytherin profiles reported higher entrepreneurial intentions and more positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship.
‘It is fascinating to see that even a purely fictional personality typology, like the Hogwarts houses, can still reveal useful information about real-world human behavior, including entrepreneurship’, says Obschonka.

Rule-challenging as the core link
A central insight from the study is that both Gryffindor and Slytherin share a foundation in rule-challenging behaviour. While their motives differ, both houses are associated with pushing boundaries and questioning norms and going against the status quo: attributes closely linked to entrepreneurial action, which often involves navigating uncertainty, challenging existing structures, and introducing new ideas.

Gryffindor represents a prosocial form of rule-challenging, driven by moral conviction or a sense of justice. Slytherin represents a strategic form of rule-challenging, driven by ambition, competitiveness, and instrumental, goal-oriented motives. ‘These overlapping but distinct forms of deviance provided the framework for analyzing different entrepreneurial pathways’, Obschonka states.

The Harry Potter stories illustrate that pursuing something new often involves bending the rules, whether through courageous action or through calculated planning. ‘Many new ventures emerge when people question conventions, think outside the box, and push beyond accepted boundaries’, Obschonka notes. ‘Entrepreneurs often rely on either moral courage or strategic ambition, tendencies that may stem from enduring personality patterns shaping how they pursue opportunities and innovation.’