hexacohonesty-humilitysafety
HEXACO honesty-humility: not just agreeableness
Across four German samples (N=3976), honesty-humility and agreeableness are correlated but distinguishable — and they increment each other in predicting outcomes.
Citation
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007 / 2025). Journal of Research in Personality / European Journal of Personality — DOI 10.1177/27000710251323583
View source5 min · Updated 2026-08-27
Educational context only, not a diagnosis or clinical assessment. Product-authored items are labeled where validated instruments do not apply.
§ 01 — Findings
What the study found
- Two-factor models (honesty-humility vs. agreeableness) fit better than single-factor models across all four 2025 samples.
- Latent correlations were modest (ρ=.33–.51) for most agreeableness operationalizations.
- HEXACO facets covered: sincerity, fairness, greed-avoidance, modesty, plus emotionality (fearfulness, anxiety, sentimentality, dependence, fearlessness).
§ 02 — Encoding
How we encode it
- Why exploitation-risk, entitlement, and manipulation-resistance are routed to honesty_humility (not agreeableness) in our scoring.
- Why emotionality is a separate signal from neuroticism — sentimentality is not anxiety.