the instruments

The 16 games — and the science under each one

None of these are invented quiz gimmicks. Every TELLS game is a playable version of a published psychology paradigm — the balloon risk test (BART), the Iowa Gambling Task, the dictator game, go/no-go, digit span, the n-back. The same family of tasks gamified hiring assessments run on candidates. Here you can play each one free and see exactly what it measures.

Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

in TELLS: “The Balloon”

Pump to earn, bank before it pops. Each colour pops differently — learn which ones you can push.

Trust Game (investment game)

in TELLS: “The Hand-off”

Send a stranger as much as you like. It triples on the way. They choose what to send back.

Dictator Game

in TELLS: “The Split”

You have $10, a stranger has $5, and all the power is yours. Give, keep — or take theirs.

Keypress effort task

in TELLS: “The Sprint”

When it turns gold, tap it as fast as you possibly can until time runs out.

Iowa Gambling Task

in TELLS: “The Decks”

Four decks — some kind, some cruel. Draw, learn which ones pay, and ditch the bad ones.

Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT)

in TELLS: “Easy or Hard”

Coast for a small sure thing, or grind for a bigger, riskier one.

Go/No-Go task

in TELLS: “The Trigger”

Tap the gold. Never tap the red. Faster, faster, faster.

Flanker task with rule switching

in TELLS: “The Arrows”

Blue: follow the middle arrow. Red: follow the side arrows. The rule flips on you.

Perceptual discrimination task

in TELLS: “The Faces”

Small mouth, tap left. Big mouth, tap right. Subtle and fast — stay sharp.

Digit span

in TELLS: “The Sequence”

Watch the code. Type it back. It gets longer.

11Decision-making

Tower of Hanoi / Tower of London

in TELLS: “The Tower”

Move the whole stack to the right peg — never a bigger disc on a smaller one. Fewest moves wins.

12Decision-making

Numerical magnitude comparison

in TELLS: “Bigger”

Two fractions, one's bigger. Tap it before the clock runs out.

13Decision-making

Number series reasoning

in TELLS: “What's Next”

Spot the pattern in the numbers and pick what comes next.

Visual search task

in TELLS: “Spot It”

Find the one shape that matches — colour and form — before time's up.

N-back task (2-back)

in TELLS: “The Letters”

Letters flow by. Hit MATCH when one repeats from two steps back.

16Emotional read

Facial emotion recognition

in TELLS: “The Read”

One look. Name what they're feeling before the clock runs out.

Play all 16, get the full read

One sitting, about 12 minutes — and the games tell you which of 18 archetypes you are.