The Jealousy Test

About this test

Jealousy has a bad name, but in small doses it signals nothing abnormal: it means you have something to lose. The problem was never feeling a twinge when a stranger comments on a photo — it's what you do with that twinge in the following hour. Between asking a question and opening a location tracker there is a line, and it's easier to see in other people than in yourself.

So this test offers sixteen very ordinary situations: a phone turned face down, an ex in recent contacts, three hours of silence on a Saturday night, a colleague who comes up too often, a weekend away with friends. Each one has four possible responses, running from calm indifference to active checking. The scale doesn't measure how intensely you feel — it measures what you allow yourself to do about it.

Two notes. A low score isn't a medal: a total absence of reaction can also signal disinterest, or a relationship that matters less than you say. And a high score doesn't describe a personality, only a period: jealousy climbs after a betrayal, a move, a lost job, and falls again when the rest steadies.

How it works

Each answer is worth 0 to 6 points. Checking behaviours — reading a phone, a location, a third party's profile — are weighted more heavily than feelings, because they act on someone else and not only on you. The total is scaled to 100.