Honesty-humility
The tendency to be sincere, fair, modest and uninterested in wealth and status for their own sake. Low scorers flatter to get ahead, bend rules for gain, feel entitled to special treatment and are drawn to luxury and status.
What drives it
Captures whether a person will exploit others when they can get away with it. Useful because it is the trait most hidden by charm: low scorers are often likeable, which is exactly why they succeed in exploiting.
How it shows
Work
High: does not inflate their contribution, declines perks they did not earn, says 'I don't know', can be under-promoted because they do not self-promote. Low: flatters the boss and ignores juniors, takes credit, games metrics, expense irregularities, 'everyone does it'. Low scorers are overrepresented in fraud, bullying and sexual harassment cases.
Relationships
High: what you see is what you get; modest about money and status. Low: tells different stories to different people, attracted to partners as status symbols, keeps a mental ledger of advantage, higher rates of infidelity.
Self
Notice your reaction when you get away with something small: relief, or a pull to do it again. Notice whether you feel you deserve more than the people around you.
What tells it apart
Agreeableness: Agreeableness concerns how you handle conflict; honesty-humility concerns whether you will cheat. Watch how the person treats waiters, juniors and people who cannot help them: a low-H, high-A person is charming upward and cold downward.
Psychological entitlement: Entitlement is one facet of low honesty-humility, the belief in deserving more; the full trait also includes sincerity and fairness. Someone can feel entitled yet refuse to lie to get what they want.
A test
Watch what the person does with an unobserved advantage: a pricing error in their favour, an unclaimed credit, a rule nobody enforces.
Questions to carry
- With an unobserved advantage, like a pricing error in their favour, what does the person do?
- Where have I bent a rule nobody enforces, and how did I explain it to myself?
How strong the research is
moderate. Consistently predicts cheating, exploitation and counterproductive work behaviour in self-report and lab studies; effects in real-world records are smaller but present.
Where it comes from
Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton, 2004
On the family tree: Michael Ashton and Kibeom Lee
Sources
- Kibeom Lee and Michael C. Ashton, Psychometric Properties of the HEXACO Personality Inventory (2004)