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Most stuck-in-the-past or forward-thinking characters

As part of the Statistical "Which Character" Personality Quiz, this website has had volunteers rate 2,125 characters on a 100 point scale from "stuck-in-the-past" to "forward-thinking". This page lists the 25 characters whose average ratings were the farthest to either side. Because the scale is bipolar, it is reversable. For example, a rating of 1/100 for "stuck-in-the-past" is the same as 100/100 for "forward-thinking". See the documentation for more information about how these ratings were collected.

Most stuck-in-the-past characters

RankAverage ratingNumber of ratersName
192.469Petunia Dursley (Harry Potter)
292.36Duke Orsino (Twelfth Night)
391.983Moaning Myrtle (Harry Potter)
491.043Javert (Les Misérables)
589.749Lorna Morello (Orange is the New Black)
688.264Brooks Hatlen (The Shawshank Redemption)
788.145Constance Langdon (American Horror Story: Season 1)
887.8154Luther Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy)
987.830Mal Cobb (Inception)
1087.650Gollum (Lord of the Rings)
1187.031Michael Groff (Sex Education)
1287.015Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
1386.975Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter)
1486.746Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice)
1586.356Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)
1685.7147Topper (Outer Banks)
1785.728Martha Scott (Baby Reindeer)
1885.630Charlie Carson (Downton Abbey)
1985.363Joel Barish (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
2085.295Principal Vernon (The Breakfast Club)
2185.137Pierce Hawthorne (Community)
2285.012Tony Johnson (After Life)
2385.026Prince Hamlet (Hamlet)
2484.722Man in Black (Westworld)
2584.652Billy Butcher (The Boys)

Most forward-thinking characters

RankAverage ratingNumber of ratersName
192.528Lady Sybil Crawley (Downton Abbey)
292.36Francisco d'Anconia (Atlas Shrugged)
392.025L (Death Note)
490.336The Oracle (The Matrix)
590.053Kim Ki-jung (Parasite)
689.621Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)
789.624Russell 'Stringer' Bell (The Wire)
889.034Ilana Wexler (Broad City)
988.820Peter Gregory (Silicon Valley)
1088.328Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
1187.8183Mark Watney (The Martian)
1287.816Miriam Maisel (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
1387.828Abby Sciuto (NCIS)
1487.414Heather Davis (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)
1587.326Light Yagami (Death Note)
1687.230Sandy Cheeks (SpongeBob SquarePants)
1787.1115Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)
1887.074Paul Atreides (Dune)
1987.0172Mulan (Mulan)
2086.828Mark Zuckerberg (The Social Network)
2186.713Sam Obisanya (Ted Lasso)
2286.624Saul Goodman (Breaking Bad)
2386.671Samantha Carter (Stargate SG-1)
2486.425Amanita Caplan (Sense8)
2586.214Don Shirley (Green Book)

Similar features

The survey has 525 different descriptive scales that the characters can be rated on. This list is the 10 other scales that that have the highest correlation with stuck-in-the-past<--->forward-thinking when aggregated at the character level.

  1. resists change (not likes change) (r=0.62)
  2. close-minded (not open-minded) (r=0.62)
  3. depressed (not bright) (r=0.61)
  4. old-fashioned (not progressive) (r=0.59)
  5. lost (not enlightened) (r=0.58)
  6. uncreative (not open to new experinces) (r=0.58)
  7. traumatized (not flourishing) (r=0.53)
  8. self-destructive (not self-improving) (r=0.53)
  9. 📉 (not 📈) (r=0.53)
  10. 😭 (not 😀) (r=0.52)

Notes

  Updated: 20 February 2026
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