If you google "Perfect Storm," you ought to find the circumstances surrounding Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, SOUR. During the pandemic, the teenager rose to international stardom with her runaway single off of SOUR, 'Driver's License.' The song is a lamenting pop ballad that propelled Rodrigo into the spotlight, and since then, we've seen her everywhere. She's appeared in photoshoots wearing soft-girl faves, like Blue Marine and Miu Miu. We've also seen her in music videos and Instagram posts, where she's pictured wearing outfits that reference her favorite films and the 90s singers that inspire her. She’s also become an instant fashion sustainability icon, as she continually wears vintage clothing at public appearances, is paparazzied thrift shopping with friends, and resold the outfits that she wore in her music videos on Depop.
Beyond all of that media coverage, she's still a relatively new public figure. Consequently, we don't know much about who she is, other than what we can gather from her fashion habits and what she has revealed about her life through her songs. That's why we're running Olivia Rodrigo's style through the Big Five Personality test. By using psychology's most widely accepted gauge for understanding personality types, we're going to infer where Olivia Rodrigo would rank for each of the five fundamental personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). Cause what sweeter way is there to get to know the SOUR singer than how she expresses herself through her style and her music?
OPENNESS: Moderate-High
Olivia Rodrigo hosts a “promenade social gathering” to celebrate the release of her concert film Sour Prom. (Photo: @oliviarodrigo).
According to psychologists, this trait is defined by having a penchant for travel that’s underpinned by wanting to experience new things and being a sponge for new ideas. Most people who rank high on openness are the creative and highly imaginative type, rather than someone with two feet planted firmly on the ground. With clothing, people on the higher end tend to veer toward outfits that accentuate their creativity, like what Olivia Rodrigo and her stylists, AKA as the "wardrobe scientists," Chloe & Chenelle Delgadillo, will often do with her outfits. Together, they use her clothes to accentuate the angsty pop themes on her album and explore Rodrigo's interest in 90s nostalgia. For example, her ensemble for the SOUR Prom afterparty. While there, Rodrigo wore a hot pink midi dress from the Betsey Johnson archives with bright blue sparkly heels and modernized the look with chunky pearl necklaces and bubble braids.
Not only is this just one example of where Rodrigo is gorgeously on-trend, but she’s also a stylized and updated vision of 90s teen angst. The Gen-Z singer's clever revisitation and referencing of the past in her fashion and in her music is a sign that she’s someone who is highly imaginative and curious about things outside of her immediate bubble. It lands Roridgo at a moderate-high score for the personality trait, which she confirms in her approach to life as well, with her creativity-fueled career and ability to transform her experiences into art.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: Moderate-High
Olivia Rodrigo pulls off sky-high Giuseppe Zanotti platform heels and high socks on her visit to the Withe House. (Photo: vanityfair.com)
A sense of duty and self-discipline are essential features of high conscientiousness, and Olivia Rodrigo doesn't lack either. By the time she reached 18 years of age, she had already worked with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media where she advocated for the equal representation of women in film and TV and was the face of “She Can STEM,” a campaign that pushed for women to explore careers in the sciences. Just this month, she visited the White House to address America's youth, urging them to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and stop the spread of the virus. Between her advocacy efforts and promotional outpour for her album, you’d think Rodrigo has more hours in a day than the average person. However, we believe that it’s a sign of determination and being efficiently organized, which, in psychology, are both associated with high conscientiousness.
The vintage Chanel twinset she wore while visiting the White House also reflected the orderly quality of the personality trait with its sharp tailoring and coordination. However, Rodrigo isn't as undividedly on the straight and narrow as someone who would score acutely high for conscientiousness, and neither was the rest of the outfit. She included massive Giuseppe Zanotti platforms that took the look to an unexpected and interesting place - reminding us that even though Olivia is responsible, she can also be unbuttoned and will happily cut loose while performing for a dance break.
EXTROVERSION: Moderate-High
Olivia Rodrigo wears shiny red platform boots while thrift shopping with Conan Gray. (Photo: pages.com)
Extroverts favor styles that make them stand out in the crowd, and Olivia Rodrigo's style is nothing short of eye-catching. The singer leans into her creativity with her fashion, which furthers her ascent into the limelight. Outfits such as her plaid D-Squared Mini Dress with Marc Jacobs multi-buckle platform boots that she posted on Instagram and the bright-red Naked Wolfe platforms, Mimi Wade top, and mini grey skirt she wore while paparazzied in Manhattan have inspired countless tweets and articles about the singer's sartorial style. These arresting looks, combined with her centering SOUR's digital performance around prom, the most social night of one's high school career, leads us to believe she scores high on the extroversion scale. However, the singer has stated in interviews that she loves to be a bit of a homebody, and needs to recharge in solitude at least once a day. This contrast between sociable and private, combined with her striking style, renders her a moderate-high score for the personality trait in our books.
AGREEABLENESS: Moderate
Olivia Rodrigo’s moderate agreeableness score demonstrated in the Ashley Williams London’s SS21 Paris Dress combined with Stinky Jewelz’s chunky necklaces. (Photo: @oliviarodrigo)
Highly agreeable individuals value harmony and are lenient with others to avoid conflict, whereas people who score low on agreeableness will unwaveringly speak their mind. In fashion, the former plays out in pastels, bright colors, and inoffensive styling. In contrast, the latter is more drawn to darker colors and edgier details, like studs, spikes, or tears in and on their clothing.
Olivia Rodrigo ranks at the moderate end for agreeableness since she often makes style choices indicative of mix between soft-girl and punk sensibilities, like pairing her vintage pink Prada dress with fishnets and Doc Martens saddle shoes during her SNL performance of 'Driver's License.' Similarly, she paired her Ashley Williams London baby pink lace dress with layers of Stinky Jewelz's chunky necklaces on Instagram and wore teeth-inspired jewelry and a Twilight baguette bag for a LBD look. This continual balance between soft and tough in her clothing is mirrored in her life as well, between the critical eye she casts in her lyrics to the amiability she displays in interviews and with fans. Additionally, the -dgaf attitude she has about dropping f-bombs in SOUR while making butterflies be one of the core visual themes for the album - it all goes to show that vocals aren't the only range this singer has got.
NEUROTICISM: Moderate-High
Olivia Rodrigo performs her hit single "Good 4 U" for the first time on Saturday Night Live. (Photo: teenvogue.com)
Transforming emotions into art, dealing with anxiety, and having a predisposition toward sadness are all things that psychologists have associated with high neuroticism, and, with the tracks on SOUR, it's clear that Olivia Rodrigo likely scores on the higher end for the trait. She's also drawn to classic touchstones of the "back-off" style synonymous with high neuroticism, like amorous leather blazers, Doc Martens, and layered, industrial jewelry. It’s no coincidence that Rodrigo is drawn to styles that protect and shield you from the world, because as she puts it, “it’s brutal out here.”
However, in interviews and videos, Rodrigo typically comes across as calm, comfortable in her own skin, and even-tempered - all qualities of someone who would score lower for the trait. This contrast between how she expresses herself in her music and fashion, versus how she presents herself to others in-person and in her downtime, result in a moderate-high score. Whether she continues to make heartbreak ballads or goes from SOUR to SWEET in her next album, we can still anticipate more of the high-level artistry that she and others who score high on this personality trait are known for, and we, for one, cannot wait.
Curious about your own Big 5 personality scores? Take the test on PSYKHE.
We use the ‘Driver’s License’ singer’s sartorial style to infer where she would score on the Big Five Personality test.