Using the Big Five Aspect Scales to translate between the HEXACO and Big Five personality models

What is the moral person like? An examination of the shared and unique perspectives on moral character

OBJECTIVE

The psychological profile of the moral person might depend on whose perspective is being used. Here, we decompose moral impressions into three components: (a) Shared Moral Character (shared variance across self- and informant reports), (b) Moral Identity (how a person uniquely views their morality), and (c) Moral Reputation (how others uniquely view that person's morality).

METHOD

In two samples (total N  = 458), we used an extended version of the Trait-Reputation-Identity model to examine the extent to which each perspective accounts for the overall variance in moral impressions and the degree to which social and personal outcomes were associated with each perspective, controlling for method variance (i.e., positivity and acquiescence bias).

RESULTS

Results suggest that moral character impressions are strongly influenced by positivity and largely idiosyncratic. All components were related to higher levels of agreeableness. For the most part, however, the three components had unique correlates: people higher in Shared Moral Character tended to have higher standings on conscientiousness and honesty-humility, were more respected, and donated more during an in-lab game; people higher in Moral Identity endorsed various moral foundations to a greater extent; and people higher in Moral Reputation valued the loyalty foundation less.

CONCLUSION

These results demonstrate the value of considering multiple perspectives when measuring moral character.

Opinion: Which animals have personality?

Human personality generally refers to coherent individuating patterns in affect, behavior, and cognition. We can only observe and measure behavior, from which we then infer personality and other psychological processes (affect, cognition, etc.). We emphasize that the study of personality always explains or summarizes patterns not only in behavior but also in these other psychological processes inferred from behavior. We thus argue that personality should be attributed only to nonhuman animals with behaviors from which we can infer a sufficiently rich set of psychological processes. The mere inference of a biological trait that explains behavioral variability, on our view, is not sufficient to count as a personality construct and should be given a different term. Methodologically, inferring personality in nonhuman animals entails challenges in characterizing ecologically valid behaviors, doing so across rich and varied environments, and collecting enough data. We suggest that studies should gradually accumulate such corpora of data on a species through well-curated shared databases. A mixture of approaches should include both top-down fit with extant human personality theories (such as the Big Five) as well as bottom-up discovery of species-specific personality dimensions. Adopting the above framework will help us to build a comparative psychology and will provide the most informative models also for understanding human personality, its evolution, and its disorders.

A Short Measure of the Big Five Aspects: Development and Validation of the BFAS-40

We present psychometric evidence for the BFAS-40, an abbreviated measure of the Big Five Aspects Scale (DeYoung et al., 2007). In Study 1, we developed the BFAS-40 using metaheuristic algorithms and cross-validated the factor structure of the shortened measure. In Study 2, we demonstrated that the BFAS and BFAS-40 correlate with external criteria in similar ways. In Studies 3 and 4, we provide convergent validity evidence by examining correlations between the BFAS-40 and other measures of typical and clinically relevant personality. Finally, in Study 5, we provide evidence of test-retest reliability as well as additional construct validity evidence. Across these five studies, we demonstrate that the BFAS-40 is a short, reliable, and valid measure of the Big Five Aspects.

Personality traits beyond Neuroticism predict post-concussive symptomatology in the post-acute period after mild traumatic brain injury in premorbidly healthy adults

There is growing evidence that an individual's personality traits are related to post-concussion symptomatology beyond the acute period after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Few studies, however, have analyzed this impact beyond the personality trait of Neuroticism. We examined the impact of personality traits on post-concussion symptoms (PCS) by measuring the Big Five personality domains and their lower-order aspects in 87 pre-morbidly healthy participants assessed 6-12 weeks post-mTBI (n = 53) or physical trauma (n = 34). As expected, Neuroticism predicted PCS endorsement in both groups. Conscientiousness and Openness/intellect were predictive of lower PCS endorsement, but only in the mTBI group. Withdrawal, one aspect within the Neuroticism domain, independently predicted PCS endorsement in the mTBI group; the remaining Neuroticism aspect, Volatility, did not predict PCS endorsement in either group. These findings suggest that individuals high in Neuroticism are more likely to report PCS following mTBI and that this relationship is driven by susceptibility to depression/anxiety symptoms (Withdrawal aspect) rather than irritability (Volatility aspect). Further, they suggest that the current focus on the relationship between Neuroticism and PCS reporting in individuals with mTBI should be broadened to include other personality domains, such as Conscientiousness and Openness/intellect.

Unraveling the Relation Between Personality and Well-Being in a Genetically Informative Design

In the current study, common and unique genetic and environmental influences on personality and a broad range of well-being measures were investigated. Data on the Big Five, life satisfaction, quality of life, self-rated health, loneliness, and depression from 14,253 twins and their siblings (age M: 31.82, SD: 14.41, range 16–97) from the Netherlands Twin Register were used in multivariate extended twin models. The best-fitting theoretical model indicated that genetic variance in personality and well-being traits can be decomposed into effects due to one general, common factor ( Mdn: 60%, range 15%–89%), due to personality-specific ( Mdn: 2%, range 0%–78%) and well-being-specific ( Mdn: 12%, range 4%–35%) factors, and trait-specific effects ( Mdn: 18%, range 0%–65%). Significant amounts of non-additive genetic influences on the traits’ (co)variances were found, while no evidence was found for quantitative or qualitative sex differences. Taken together, our study paints a fine-grained, complex picture of common and unique genetic and environmental effects on personality and well-being. Implications for the interpretation of shared variance, inflated phenotypic correlations between traits and future gene finding studies are discussed.

Is There a "Gifted Personality"? Initial Evidence for Differences between MENSA and General Population Members in the HEXACO Personality Inventory

Contrary to the common notion that personality and intelligence are unrelated constructs, numerous correlational studies have demonstrated substantial associations between the two domains. Moreover, samples of intellectually gifted individuals have been found to differ from the general population in specific aspects of their personalities. However, most studies so far have relied on the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM), while none have investigated this phenomenon using the HEXACO personality framework. We recruited 617 adult members of the international high-IQ society MENSA and compared them to 3 reference samples (combined N = 112,637) regarding their personalities as measured by the HEXACO-60 personality inventory. We found that gifted persons scored higher in Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness but lower in Emotionality compared to reference samples. Interestingly, gifted individuals scored only slightly higher in Openness to Experience, and no consistent differences emerged for Agreeableness. We demonstrate that some known personality differences between gifted and non-gifted persons translate from the FFM to the HEXACO model, while others do not. Our results indicate that within the HEXACO factor structure differences in sociability are more pronounced, while intellect-related differences are comparatively weak.

The effect of personality traits on employees' annual salaries in Chinese startups

Personality is a relatively regular habit of a person. It exerts a specific influence on personal behavior and the corresponding results. At the same time, personality can provide a certain degree of explanation for the differences among individuals in behavior and the related consequences. Economic differences are one of the discrepancies that exist among individuals. In order to explore the quantitative relationship between personality and individual income, this study takes 376 active employees of Chinese startups as the primary research objects. Additionally, considering the simplification and convenience of the survey, the annual salary investigated by this study is the pre-tax income of active startup employees. It uses quantitative methods to analyze the relationship between their personality traits and annual salary. Unlike the measures used in previous studies, this study employed the HEXACO-60 Inventory created by Ashton and Lee to investigate employees' personality traits. Compared to the Big Five model, HEXACO (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Consciousness, Open to Experience, and Agreeableness) adds a new dimension to evaluate personality traits, called Honesty-Humility (H-H). H-H did not appear in previous studies related to personality and individual income. Therefore, there is no reference to the relationship between H-H and personal earnings. Considering that the content of H-H is highly consistent with the components of inter locus of control and the core spirit advocated by the Confucian culture, which influences Chinese people profoundly, this paper proposes a bold hypothesis, that is, H-H has a positive correlation with employees' annual salaries. Meanwhile, other corresponding hypotheses for the correlation between the other personality traits in HEXACO and employees' annual salaries are proposed. After that, the above hypotheses are tested with the help of correlation analysis. Then, the following conclusions can be quickly drawn. Consciousness, eXtraversion, Open to Experience, and Honesty-Humility positively correlate with employees' annual salaries. In comparison, Emotionality and Agreeableness negatively correlate with employees' annual salaries.

Personality and Affective Correlates of Openness to Experience from Big Five and HEXACO Personality Models: The Dual Nature of Big Five Openness

Openness to Experience is considered to be one of the broadest personality traits. Different operationalizations of Openness to Experience within and between personality models incorporate various features of this trait. Differences in Openness facets across inventories may lead to differences in relation to certain outcomes. Hence, the current study looked to explore the personality and affective correlates of Openness domains and facets from the Big Five and HEXACO model. The sample consisted of 540 participants who completed measures assessing Openness to Experience domains and facets from Big Five and HEXACO, schizotypy, Disintegration, need for cognition, subjective well-being, and mania. Results revealed that schizotypy and Disintegration had mostly non-significant correlations with Openness domains from both models. However, multiple facets of Openness had significant both positive and negative correlations with these constructs. In contrast to HEXACO, Openness from the Big Five model could be presented with two distinct subdomains. The Pure Openness subdomain is related to higher mania, while Pure Intellect is associated with lower schizotypy, higher well-being, and higher need for cognition. Our results suggest that measuring Openness at lower structural levels provides us with more nuanced patterns of relationships among constructs.

The effects of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) on mood, attention, heart rate, skin conductance and EEG in healthy young adults

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a warm tingling sensation which is often accompanied by feelings of calmness and relaxation. The present study examined the effects of an ASMR video on mood, attention, heart rate (HR), electrodermal activity (EDA), electroencephalography (EEG) and the interaction with personality factors in 38 young adults (33 females and 5 males). Based on the ASMR-checklist responses of having tingles during watching the ASMR video 15 participants out of 38 were classified as ASMR-experiencers. Mood, attention and personality characteristics were measured by the Profile of Mood States, the Flanker task and HEXACO. EEG, HR and EDA were recorded during the ASMR and control videos. Depressive feelings decreased after watching the ASMR video in individuals experiencing tingles relative to those not experiencing tingles. Furthermore, in all participants, irrespective of experiencing tingles, a decrease of HR during watching the ASMR video was found. In ASMR-experiencers scoring low on Conscientiousness EDA tended to increase and HR tended-relatively to the group not experiencing tingles-to decrease during watching the ASMR video. EEG recordings indicated that watching the ASMR video was associated with decreased alpha power in ASMR-sensitive participants and decreased theta as well as increased beta power in the whole group of participants. The observed ASMR-induced decrease of alpha and theta power and increase of beta power and (only in low conscientious participants) EDA may reflect that, apart from relaxation, ASMR is related to arousal and focused attention.

Agreeableness and Its Consequences: A Quantitative Review of Meta-Analytic Findings

Agreeableness impacts people and real-world outcomes. In the most comprehensive quantitative review to date, we summarize results from 142 meta-analyses reporting effects for 275 variables, which represent N > 1.9 million participants from k > 3,900 studies. Arranging variables by their content and type, we use an organizational framework of 16 conceptual categories that presents a detailed account of Agreeableness’ external relations. Overall, the trait has effects in a desirable direction for 93% of variables (grand mean [Formula: see text]). We also review lower order trait evidence for 42 variables from 20 meta-analyses. Using these empirical findings, in tandem with existing theory, we synthesize eight general themes that describe Agreeableness’ characteristic functioning across variables: self-transcendence, contentment, relational investment, teamworking, work investment, lower results emphasis, social norm orientation, and social integration. We conclude by discussing potential boundary conditions of findings, contributions and limitations of our review, and future research directions.

Exploring the stability of HEXACO-60 structure and the association of gender, age, and social position with personality traits across 18 countries

OBJECTIVES

The present paper tests the cross-national stability of the HEXACO-60 structure across 18 countries from four continents. Gender and age differences across countries will be examined. Finally, this is the first study to explicitly analyze the relationships between the HEXACO and social position.

METHOD

Ten thousand two hundred and ninety eight subjects (5,410 women and 4,888 men) from 18 countries and 13 languages were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis techniques were used to test configural, metric and scalar invariance models. Congruence coefficients with the original structure of the HEXACO-60 were computed for every culture. Effect sizes of gender, age, and social position factors across countries were also computed.

RESULTS

HEXACO-60 demonstrates configural and metric invariance, but not scalar invariance. Congruence coefficients show a great equivalence in almost all countries and factors. Only Emotionality presents a large gender difference across countries. No relevant effect of age is observed. A profile of high scores on Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, and low scores on Emotionality increases the likelihood of achieving a higher social position, although the effect sizes are small.

CONCLUSIONS

HEXACO-60 is a useful instrument to conduct personality trait research and practice around the world. Implications of gender, social position, and country differences are discussed.

Prosociality Beyond Big Five Agreeableness and HEXACO Honesty-Humility: Is Openness/Intellect Associated With Cooperativeness in the Public Goods Game?

Who is cooperative? Although Big Five (B5) Agreeableness and HEXACO Honesty-Humility are correlates of charitable prosociality, distinctions between “charity” and “cooperation” suggest that additional traits could be associated with cooperative prosociality. Echoing prior theoretical and empirical indications that B5 Openness/Intellect may play a role in cooperation, Study 1 ( N = 119; exploratory) revealed a significant correlation between Openness/Intellect and cooperativeness in the one-shot Public Goods Game that did not generalize to charitableness in the Dictator Game. We therefore conducted three preregistered replications to discern the robustness of this Openness/Intellect–cooperativeness link. As expected, Openness/Intellect showed no consistent correlation with charitable behavior. Surprisingly, the predicted correlation between Openness/Intellect and cooperative behavior was also inconsistent, partially replicating in Study 3 ( N = 304) but not Studies 2 or 4 ( Ns = 131; 552). Across our replications, cooperative behavior was most strongly correlated with Honesty-Humility (internal meta-analytic [Formula: see text] = .15, p = .005). The correlation between Openness/Intellect and cooperative behavior across our replications was significant and identical in magnitude to that between Agreeableness and cooperative behavior, though this effect-size was weak (internal meta-analytic [Formula: see text] = .08, p < .001). We therefore conclude that Openness/Intellect is a nonnull but very modest correlate of cooperativeness.

On the Comparability of Basic Personality Models: Meta-Analytic Correspondence, Scope, and Orthogonality of the Big Five and HEXACO Dimensions

Models of basic personality structure are among the most widely used frameworks in psychology and beyond, and they have considerably advanced the understanding of individual differences in a plethora of consequential outcomes. Over the past decades, two such models have become most widely used: the Five Factor Model (FFM) or Big Five, respectively, and the HEXACO Model of Personality. However, there is no large-scale empirical evidence on the general comparability of these models. Here, we provide the first comprehensive meta-analysis on (a) the correspondence of the FFM/Big Five and HEXACO dimensions, (b) the scope of trait content the models cover, and (c) the orthogonality (i.e., degree of independence) of dimensions within the models. Results based on 152 (published and unpublished) samples and 6,828 unique effects showed that the HEXACO dimensions incorporate notable conceptual differences compared to the FFM/Big Five dimensions, resulting in a broader coverage of the personality space and less redundancy between dimensions. Moreover, moderator analyses revealed substantial differences between operationalizations of the FFM/Big Five. Taken together, these findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the understanding of basic personality dimensions and their assessment.

Personality change and sustainability attitudes and behaviors

Withstanding the climate crisis will depend in part on individuals behaving in a more environmentally sustainable manner. However, relatively little is known about the individual factors that promote sustainable attitudes and behaviors (SABs). Although there are established cross-sectional associations between personality traits and SABs, it is unclear whether changes in personality are related to increases in SABs over time, and how personality is differentially related to specific SABs. Using data from 61,479 participants in New Zealand, we tested preregistered hypotheses about how personality codevelops with valuing the environment, believing in climate change, concern about climate change, personal environmental efficacy, personal environmental sacrifice, and support for the Green Party. We found that SABs generally increased from 2009 to 2017, although there was variation across age cohorts, SAB variables, and samples. We replicated concurrent correlations between broad personality traits—particularly Agreeableness, Openness, and Honesty/Humility—and SABs and present novel evidence that increases in SAB are related to changes in traits, particularly Agreeableness. These findings have implications for both understanding the factors associated with changes in SABs over time and understanding the factors that drive personality change.

Personality and moral judgment: Curious consequentialists and polite deontologists

OBJECTIVE

How does our personality relate to the ways in which we judge right from wrong? Drawing on influential theories of moral judgment, we identify candidate traits that may be linked with inclinations toward (a) consequentialist judgments (i.e., those based on the outcomes of an action) and (b) deontological judgments (i.e., those based on the alignment of an action with particular moral rules).

METHOD

Across two studies (total N = 843) we examined domains and aspects of the Big Five in relation to inclinations toward consequentialist and deontological judgments.

RESULTS

In both studies, we found a unique association between intellect (curiosity, cognitive engagement) and consequentialist inclinations, in line with the view that deliberative cognitive processes drive such inclinations. We also found a consistent unique association between politeness (respectfulness, etiquette) and deontological inclinations, in line with the view that norm-adherence drives such inclinations. Neither study yielded a significant unique relation between deontological inclinations and compassion (sympathy, empathic concern)-or any other emotion-infused trait (e.g., Neuroticism)-as would be expected based on emotion-centered views of deontological moral judgment.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings have implications for theories of moral judgment, and reveal how our personality may guide our approach to questions of ethics and morality.

Personality neuroscience and psychopathology: should we start with biology and look for neural-level factors?

"Personality is an abstraction used to explain consistency and coherency in an individual's pattern of affects, cognitions, desires and behaviors [ABCDs]" (Revelle, 2007, p. 37). But personality research currently provides more a taxonomy of patterns than theories of fundamental causes. Psychiatric disorders can be viewed as involving extremes of personality but are diagnosed via symptom patterns not biological causes. Such surface-level taxonomic description is necessary for science, but consistent predictive explanation requires causal theory. Personality constructs, and especially their clinical extremes, should predict variation in ABCD patterns, with parsimony requiring the lowest effective causal level of explanation. But, even biologically inspired personality theories currently use an intuitive language-based approach for scale development that lacks biological anchors. I argue that teleonomic "purpose" explains the organisation and outputs of conserved brain emotion systems, where high activation is adaptive in specific situations but is otherwise maladaptive. Simple modulators of whole-system sensitivity evolved because the requisite adaptive level can vary across people and time. Sensitivity to a modulator is an abstract predictive personality factor that operates at the neural level but provides a causal explanation of both coherence and occasional apparent incoherence in ABCD variation. Neuromodulators impact all levels of the "personality hierarchy" from metatraits to aspects: stability appears altered by serotonergic drugs, neuroticism by ketamine and trait anxiety by simple anxiolytic drugs. Here, the tools of psychiatry transfer to personality research and imply both interaction between levels and oblique factor mappings to ABCD. On this view, much psychopathology reflects extremes of neural-level personality factors, and we can view much pharmacotherapy as temporarily altering personality. So, particularly for personality factors linked to basic emotions and their disorders, I think we should start with evolutionary biology and look directly at conserved neural-level modulators for our explanatory personality constructs and only invoke higher order, emergent, explanations when neural-level explanation fails.