THE PERSONALITY TEST

In the vein of The Happiness Project and 10% Happier, THE PERSONALITY TEST will chronicle a year-long experiment for journalist Olga Khazan to change her personality through concerted activities and efforts.

Pandemic isolation led to deep self-reflection for many of us. For Atlantic reporter Olga Khazan, her introspection led to a dissatisfaction with her personality - and the open question of whether she could do anything about it.

So, she began exploring this subject. What is personality? Can you change it as an adult or are you hardwired from childhood? What are the qualities of personality that you can reasonably work on?

Olga became the guinea pig of her own experiment and for three months focused on improving what psychologists believe to be five key areas of personality: neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to new things, and extroversion. Along the way, she explored the science behind the "big five" traits and argues that we have more power to change seemingly fundamental aspects of our personality than we realize.

Her self-study became the basis of a hugely popular cover story for The Atlantic, and it is now the subject of her next book. The Personality Test takes readers on a journey of self-discovery and self-improvement through the author's own personal quest, but it also provides enough guidance and insight for readers to work on their own personality fixes.

This is the natural follow up or complement to all of the happiness and habit books that have done so well over the years. Olga's sense of humor and self-deprecating, somewhat desperate narrative voice keep the storyline moving - in kind of a Gary Shteyngart meets Julie & Julia way - while her training as a health and science reporter allow her to delve deeper into the psychology and insight of this field to give the book more heft. What we end up with is the perfect post-pandemic "new-you" book idea, by an author who has the kind of impressive platform and network to ensure lift-off at launch.