This online tool visualises your thoughts, and lets you download them as JPEGs

In what seems a bit Orwell 1984, but is thankfully closer to a comforting personality quiz, Belgian news magazine Knack has developed a fascinating new questionnaire that visualises your thoughts and turns them into 3D sculptures. The tool, entitled Think in Colour, asks users a series of questions before coming up with a 3D shape that visualises the way your mind works, or “how black and white a person’s thinking is”, explains a release. It has launched with a multi-channel campaign created by independent creative agency Mutant.

Users visiting the Think in Colour site are asked how aligned they feel with various statements, covering topics from open-mindedness – “I have friends with radically different views about politics” – to curiosity – “I like to do things that are a bit frightening”. As you progress throughout the questionnaire, the “shape” assigned to your thoughts mutates, changing in texture, colour and movement in real-time depending on your answers. Finally, the tool offers you insight into how much you possess certain traits, and allows you to download a JPEG or GIF of your shape – which, if you’re anything like me, might resemble a futuristic-looking Ferrero Rocher at the end.

While the new tool presents a fun, creative way to explore your thoughts through 3D modelling, for Knack, it is a way to urge readers to explore the nuances of opinion and “turn a black and white way of thinking into a colourful train of thought”, explains the release. Bert Bultinck, editor-in-chief of Knack, says the platform is a “literal challenge to our readers to question their own way of thinking”. Bert adds: “If we’re serious about that, we must invest in tools that make that feasible.” In our current polarised landscape, Knack and Mutant emphasise the importance of getting a better understanding of your own thoughts.

The questions for Think in Colour were developed in collaboration with phycologists at the University of Brussels (VUB), measuring different parameters such as empathy, open-mindedness, flexibility and intellectual curiosity. The release explains it is based on other psychological tests, such as the BFI-2 and FIT-60 tests. Odin Saillé, founder and ECD of Mutant states: “We’re dealing with people’s thoughts here, so we spent a lot of time conversing with the people at the VUB to guarantee a relevant, well-thought-out tool and not a gimmick.”

For anyone looking to test out the questionnaire, it will remain up on the site after the campaign ends. Going forward, Knack says it will be used to interview people as part of a new weekly column.