How the Wabiro Red Flag Test is scored

Nothing here is hidden or magical. The scoring is a set of deterministic rules, tested automatically, that you can read below. It is not a clinically validated instrument, and we do not claim it is.

What the test measures

The Wabiro Red Flag Test looks at eight relationship dimensions, each with a fixed weight in the final index:

Each dimension has three questions, 24 in total. Every question has a stable identifier, a dimension, a weight, a direction (risk or protective), four answers, translations, a scoring version and an internal editorial note explaining why it exists.

From answers to points

Every question offers four answers: never (0), rarely (1), sometimes (2), often (3).

Some questions describe a protective behaviour — for example "Do you clearly express your limits?". For those, the value is reversed (often = 0, never = 3) so that a higher number always means "more of the pattern to watch".

Dimension scores

For each dimension: score = 100 × (sum of points) ÷ (maximum possible points). With three questions of equal weight, the maximum is 9. Three "sometimes" answers give 6 ÷ 9 = 66.7.

The red flag index

The red flag index is the weighted average of the eight dimension scores, rounded to the nearest whole number:

index = 0.20 × boundaries + 0.15 × jealousy + 0.15 × accountability + 0.15 × communication + 0.10 × honesty + 0.10 × availability + 0.10 × conflict + 0.05 × empathy

Result levels

• 0–24 — Mostly green signals: mostly healthy patterns.
• 25–49 — A few patterns to watch: a few behaviours worth keeping an eye on.
• 50–74 — Several patterns deserve attention: several patterns show up regularly.
• 75–100 — Strong signals to examine: important relationship signals to look at honestly.

The same thresholds apply to each dimension individually. We deliberately never use the words "toxic", "narcissistic" or "abusive", and the test never produces a diagnosis.

Main and secondary pattern

Your main pattern is the profile attached to your highest-scoring dimension. Your secondary pattern is the profile of the second-highest dimension. Two exceptions:

• If your index is 24 or lower and no dimension reaches 40, you get the green profile ("The Steady One"), and the secondary pattern is your highest dimension — the thing to keep an eye on.
• If two dimensions tie exactly, the one listed first in the table above wins. Ties are rare because weights differ, but the rule is fixed so that the result is always reproducible.

Your two strengths are the two lowest-scoring dimensions; the three patterns to watch, the action for today and the sentence to say are attached to your main pattern.

Safety screening

One question ("Do you look through your partner's phone or messages without asking?") is also tagged as safety screening. Answering "sometimes" or "often" displays a calm notice with support resources, whatever your score. Screening never changes the score; it only decides whether the notice is shown. A result in the "strong signals" level shows the same notice.

Determinism and testing

The scoring engine is a pure function: the same answers always produce the same result, on any device, with no randomness. It is covered by automated tests for weights, reversed items, thresholds, ties, incomplete answers, profile selection and safety flags. Test content is versioned; a result always records the version it was computed with, and the premium report is generated from that exact version.

Future tests

The same engine powers the tests we are preparing (partner red flags, compatibility, attachment style, love language and others). Each one will publish its own method on this page when it launches — never before.

What this is not

This is not a validated psychometric instrument. Questions were written by the product team from well-known relationship concepts (repair attempts, contempt, boundaries, attachment behaviours) but have not been through psychometric validation. Treat results as a structured prompt for reflection — a mirror, not a measurement.