HEXACO Personality Inventory – Revised 60

What it measures

A six-factor personality inventory that extends the Big Five by adding a sixth factor — Honesty-Humility (H) — capturing sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty. The HEXACO model emerged from cross-cultural lexical studies in multiple languages and consistently identifies Honesty-Humility as a replicable personality factor absent from the Big Five. Low Honesty-Humility predicts the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy), unethical consumer behaviour, acceptance of corporate misconduct, and susceptibility to deceptive marketing. HEXACO is increasingly used in consumer, organisational, and forensic psychology research where the ethical/moral dimension of personality is theoretically relevant.

Response format

Likert (1–5, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Representative items

• I wouldn't use flattery to get a raise or promotion. (Honesty-Humility)
• I'd be tempted to buy stolen goods if I could save money. (R, Honesty-Humility)
• I feel reasonably satisfied with myself. (Emotionality)
• I am usually quite flexible in my opinions. (Agreeableness)
• I often push myself very hard when trying to achieve a goal. (Conscientiousness)

Usage notes & scoring

(R)=reverse-scored. Six subscale scores. No single total recommended. Honesty-Humility is the most novel and theoretically important addition to the Big Five framework — it predicts ethical behaviour, acceptance of inequality, and antisocial conduct uniquely, over and above the other five factors. The HEXACO-24 provides a very brief 4-item-per-factor version for time-limited surveys.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Ashton, M.C., & Lee, K. (2009). The HEXACO-60: A short measure of the major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(4), 340–345.

Keywords