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Count the Triangles: What Your Total Might Say About Your Personality
At some point scrolling through social media, you’ve probably seen it:
an image filled with overlapping shapes and a deceptively simple question—
The comments section is chaos.
“18!”
“No way, it’s 27.”
“You’re all wrong—it’s 34.”
And then comes the kicker: someone claims your answer reveals something deep about your personality.
But does it?
While counting triangles won’t replace a clinical personality assessment anytime soon, the exercise taps into something very real: how we perceive patterns, process information, and approach problem-solving. And that can say interesting things about how our minds work.
So let’s break it down—what counting triangles is actually testing, why people see wildly different numbers, and what your total might suggest about your personality and cognitive style.
Why Triangle Puzzles Are So Addictive
Triangle-counting puzzles look simple, but they mess with your brain in sneaky ways.
They work because they rely on:
Pattern recognition
Attention to detail
Cognitive flexibility
Your brain naturally wants to identify familiar shapes quickly. But in these puzzles, triangles overlap, intersect, hide inside larger triangles, or form from negative space. The challenge isn’t counting—it’s seeing.
That’s why two intelligent people can stare at the same image and come up with totally different answers—and both feel confident they’re right.
What’s Really Being Tested (Hint: It’s Not Intelligence)
Before we get into personality interpretations, let’s clear up a myth:
Triangle puzzles don’t measure IQ. They measure how you look at information, not how much information you can handle.
Specifically, they tap into:
Global vs. local processing – Do you see the big picture first, or the small pieces?
Cognitive patience – Do you rush to an answer or keep re-checking?
Continue reading…
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