Overthinking Test

This overthinking test helps you look at rumination: the tendency to return to the same events, problems, conversations or possible scenarios again and again, even when further thinking no longer brings anything new.

It covers mentally replaying situations, analysing the past and imagining how things could have gone differently, going in circles over a problem or a decision, and thinking ahead about what might happen.

The test is based on the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTSQ) by Brinker and Dozois, a questionnaire designed to assess the tendency toward repetitive and prolonged thinking.

The answers are combined into one overall measure of how prone you are to overthinking. In this adaptation the wording has been adjusted for clearer use in the app, and the original seven-point response scale has been simplified to five points.

You read each statement and rate how much it sounds like you, from “No, that’s not true for me” to “Yes, that’s true for me”, based on how you usually think and respond in similar situations.

After completing the test you receive your overall tendency to overthink, from low to high, with a description of how it may show up in the way you think about past and upcoming situations and how to tell useful reflection from thoughts going in circles.

The result helps you notice when thinking stops bringing new insight, and can be supplemented with personalized AI analysis in the Who Am I? app.

1. L. N. Kovács et al. — Validating the bifactor structure of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire: A psychometric study
2. V. Vidal-Arenas et al. — Examination of the latent structure of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire across countries, gender, and over time
3. H. T. Karatepe et al. — Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire