game 1 of 16 · measures risk
Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)
Inside TELLS it's “The Balloon” — pump to earn, bank before it pops. Each colour pops differently — learn which ones you can push.
part of the full 16-game test · about 12 minutes
What the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is
You pump a balloon: every pump adds money, and at some unknown point the balloon pops and takes the round's earnings with it. The task was published in 2002 by Lejuez and colleagues as the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, and it remains one of the most widely used behavioral measures of risk-taking — because unlike a questionnaire, the balloon doesn't care how risky you say you are.
What it measures
Your average pump count maps your appetite for risk: bank early and you're paying for certainty, push the edge and you're chasing the upside. In the TELLS version each balloon colour pops differently, so it also watches whether you learn the safe colours from the ones that burn you — adaptation, not just nerve.
You bank early. A bird in the hand beats two that might pop.
You push when the odds feel right and fold when they don't.
You keep pushing. The upside is the only number you really see.
Why hiring assessments use it
A balloon game modeled on the BART appears in gamified hiring assessments (pymetrics-style platforms use one as a flagship task). Recruiters read it as risk tolerance and learning from feedback. There is no universally 'good' score — a trading desk and an audit team want opposite balloons.
TELLS is an independent project — not affiliated with pymetrics, Harver, or any employer's assessment. This is the fun version.
Archetypes this game exposes
The risk axis is load-bearing for these three.
See what your play says about you
This game is 1 of 16. Play them all and the engine reads you onto 1 of 18 archetypes — free, sharable, no account.
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