A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality

1. Abstract

The HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (HEXACO-PI-R) represents a paradigm shift in structural personality psychology, expanding the conventional Five-Factor Model (FFM) through the empirical discovery of a robust six-dimensional taxonomy. Originating from comprehensive cross-cultural psycho-lexical investigations across European, East Asian, and Middle Eastern languages, the HEXACO framework identifies six broad domains: Honesty-Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness versus Anger (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O). The 60-item abbreviated version (HEXACO-60) was designed by Kibeom Lee and Michael C. Ashton to provide an efficient, psychometrically sound operationalization of these six dimensions for research settings constrained by participant testing time. Comprising ten items per factor evaluated on an authentic 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), the instrument demonstrates high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas typically ranging between .75 and .82 across dimensions) and preserves the factor structure and external validity profiles of its longer 100-item and 200-item counterparts. This article provides an exhaustive psychometric examination of the scale, surveying its theoretical foundation in evolutionary biology (reciprocal altruism and kin selection), structural validity via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent and discriminant validity against the Big Five, and wide-ranging criterion validity in predicting workplace deviance, Dark Triad phenotypes, cooperative economic decision-making, and pro-social conduct.

2. Keywords

HEXACO-PI-R, Honesty-Humility, Personality Assessment, Six-Factor Model, Lexical Hypothesis, Reciprocal Altruism, Dark Triad, Workplace Deviance, Emotionality, Factor Structure, Cross-Cultural Psychometrics, Ashton and Lee

3. Authors

The HEXACO framework and its standardized measurement tools were conceptualized, empirically derived, and validated by:

• Kibeom Lee, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Lee is an internationally recognized expert in industrial-organizational psychology, psychological measurement, and counterproductive work behavior.
• Michael C. Ashton, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Ashton specializes in personality structure, evolutionary personality theory, and individual differences in ethical and social behavior.

Inquiries regarding academic research, translations, and non-commercial assessment scoring can be directed to the authors through the official HEXACO institutional repository at the HEXACO Personality Inventory Online Resource.

4. Purpose

The overarching purpose of the HEXACO-PI-R (and specifically the 60-item operationalization examined herein) is to address critical theoretical and empirical limitations inherent in classical five-factor instruments such as the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3) or the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Although the Five-Factor Model accounted for vast amounts of personality variance, cross-language lexical studies repeatedly showed that lexical markers of personality across disparate linguistic families do not neatly compress into five factors. Instead, six cross-culturally replicable dimensions systematically emerge.

The HEXACO-60 was developed to fulfill three distinct operational and psychometric needs:

• Parsimonious Assessment: Long-form personality inventories containing 100 to 240 items frequently cause participant fatigue, cognitive depletion, and elevated inattentive responding in broad survey designs, panel studies, and organizational screenings. The HEXACO-60 yields an assessment protocol that can be reliably completed in 8 to 12 minutes without sacrificing the structural integrity of the six major domain scores.
• Explicit Measurement of Pro-Social and Exploitative Orientations: The addition of the Honesty-Humility domain captures variance in exploitation, entitlement, manipulation, and greed avoidance that is fragmented or entirely absent within the Big Five. The scale’s purpose is to cleanly dissociate genuine ethical integrity from emotional warmth or placid compliance.
• Theoretical Realignment of Negative Emotionality and Agreeableness: In contrast to the Big Five Neuroticism factor, the HEXACO Emotionality dimension reclaims sentimentality, vulnerability, and attachment while excluding anger and hostility. The HEXACO Agreeableness dimension specifically captures forbearance, patience, and the modulation of anger in interpersonal conflict.

In research contexts, the instrument is used extensively to predict workplace delinquency, ethical decision-making, antisocial behaviors, risk propensity, sociopolitical values, and subjective well-being. In applied industrial-organizational environments, it provides an integrity-adjacent personality profile that predicts counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) superiorly to conventional Big Five inventories.

5. Psychological Construct

The HEXACO-PI-R operationalizes personality as a hierarchical trait architecture comprising six broad operational domains. In the brief 60-item form, each domain is sampled using items chosen to represent the core operational facets established in the full-length HEXACO-PI-R.

Honesty-Humility (H)

The Honesty-Humility dimension measures individual differences in the reluctance to exploit others for personal gain versus the willingness to manipulate, deceive, and bend rules for personal aggrandizement. Individuals scoring high on this dimension exhibit sincere interpersonal interactions, adhere to ethical norms even when unmonitored, possess little interest in lavish wealth or social prestige, and demonstrate genuine humility. Conversely, low scorers display deceitful flattery, feelings of entitlement, narcissism, Machiavellian manipulative tendencies, and readiness to participate in corrupt or illegal activities for monetary advantage.

Emotionality (E)

Emotionality contrasts sensitivity, anxiety vulnerability, emotional dependence, and empathic responsiveness against physical bravery, independence, and emotional detachment. High Emotionality scores characterize persons who experience intense physical fear in threatening environments, worry chronically about minor problems, require strong emotional reassurance, and experience intense empathic resonance or distress when others suffer. Low scorers demonstrate physical bravery, indifference to physical hazard, resilience against subjective stress, independence in coping, and marked emotional detachment.

Extraversion (X)

Extraversion reflects self-confidence, interpersonal engagement, social leadership, and positive affective tone. High-scoring individuals describe themselves as cheerful, socially bold, energized by large groups, and optimistic regarding their personal agency and social standing. Low-scoring individuals (introverts) prefer solitary endeavors, feel awkward or drained during public speaking, hold a reticent attitude in social groups, and exhibit an affective baseline marked by reserved calmness rather than overt exuberant enthusiasm.

Agreeableness versus Anger (A)

Agreeableness captures tolerance, leniency, forgiveness, and emotional stability specifically regarding interpersonal dispute and frustration. Highly agreeable individuals quickly forgive past wrongs, cooperate gracefully with challenging peers, withhold critical judgment, control their tempers, and show high flexibility. Low scorers on HEXACO Agreeableness harbor deep grudges, react with immediate combative anger when challenged, insist obstinately on their own preferences, and manifest critical, antagonistic attitudes toward interpersonal missteps.

Conscientiousness (C)

Conscientiousness measures self-regulation, goal-directed planning, organization, precision, and impulse control within task performance. High scorers are tidy, disciplined, systematically organized, meticulously detail-oriented, and ambitious, choosing deliberative foresight over spontaneous impulses. Low scorers exhibit disorganization, high susceptibility to procrastination, carelessness, erratic decision-making based on spur-of-the-moment feelings, and minimal exertion of effort beyond absolute basic requirements.

Openness to Experience (O)

Openness to Experience quantifies cognitive curiosity, creative imagination, aesthetic responsiveness, and receptiveness to unconventional paradigms. High scorers demonstrate deep appreciation for the arts, classical music, and literature; hold a natural fascination with diverse historical, natural, and philosophical topics; and seek out innovative or unconventional perspectives. Low scorers maintain pragmatic, concrete cognitive styles, showing indifference or active aversion to abstract philosophical dialogue, modern or fine arts, and radical intellectual systems.

6. Theoretical Framework

The HEXACO model is grounded in two theoretical foundations: the empirical psycho-lexical hypothesis and evolutionary game theory.

The Psycho-Lexical Foundation

The lexical hypothesis—pioneered by Sir Francis Galton, expanded by Raymond Cattell, and formalized by Warren Norman and Lewis Goldberg—posits that the most socially salient, functionally consequential individual differences inevitably become encoded as distinct descriptive adjectives within natural human languages. While early English-language lexical studies were interpreted as supporting a Five-Factor Model, comprehensive lexical analyses conducted during the late 1990s and 2000s across diverse language families (including Dutch, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Greek, Croatian, Turkish, Korean, and Filipino) challenged this conclusion.

Independent factor analyses of comprehensive trait dictionaries consistently isolated six, rather than five, major orthogonal factors. Crucially, the trait space occupied by FFM Agreeableness and Neuroticism systematically resolved into three distinct dimensions: Honesty-Humility, an Emotionality dimension devoid of anger, and an Agreeableness dimension defined directly by patience and the regulation of reactive hostility.

Evolutionary Biology: Reciprocal and Kin Altruism

Ashton and Lee formulated an evolutionary framework explaining why these six dimensions represent universal axes of human genetic and behavioral variation:

• Honesty-Humility and Reciprocal Altruism: According to Robert Trivers’ theory of reciprocal altruism, cooperative social life requires balancing individual gains against social fairness. Honesty-Humility reflects an individual’s evolutionary strategy regarding fairness versus exploitation: high scorers cooperate without cheating, whereas low scorers practice active exploitation, defecting when sanctions are absent.
• Agreeableness and Tolerance: While Honesty-Humility governs whether one initiates exploitation, HEXACO Agreeableness governs the reciprocal response to perceived exploitation. It reflects tolerance versus reactive retaliation. An agreeable individual overlooks minor infractions to preserve cooperative alliances, whereas an antagonistic individual risks costly interpersonal conflict to deter exploiters.
• Emotionality and Kin Altruism / Harm Avoidance: Grounded in W. D. Hamilton’s kin selection theory, HEXACO Emotionality links emotional attachment and empathic distress to investment in biological kin. Simultaneously, its fearfulness facet reflects low harm-tolerance, optimizing personal survival so that parental and kin investment remains viable over the lifespan.
• Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience: These three dimensions govern social engagement, task investment, and intellectual endeavor, respectively. Extraversion optimizes social enterprise and alliance-building; Conscientiousness maximizes resource acquisition, task efficiency, and error avoidance; Openness facilitates learning, discovery of alternative environmental affordances, and cultural innovation.

7. Validity

The construct, criterion, convergent, and discriminant validity of the HEXACO-PI-R and its 60-item form has been verified through extensive empirical research worldwide.

Construct, Convergent, and Discriminant Validity

Multi-trait multi-method studies demonstrate clear convergent validity between self-reports and observer-ratings on the HEXACO-60. Self-observer correlations consistently range from $r = .48$ to $r = .65$ across all six factors, demonstrating that scale variance reflects observable behavioral patterns rather than internal response styles. When mapped against the Five-Factor Model (e.g., NEO-PI-R):

• HEXACO Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness exhibit strong convergent correlations ($r > .65$) with their corresponding Big Five constructs.
• HEXACO Emotionality correlates moderately ($r \approx .55$) with NEO Neuroticism, but exhibits near-zero correlations with the Hostility facet of Neuroticism, diverging cleanly due to the placement of anger within HEXACO Agreeableness.
• HEXACO Honesty-Humility demonstrates moderate discriminant convergence with FFM Agreeableness ($r \approx .35$ to $.45$), but retains substantial unique variance. It captures criteria that FFM Agreeableness fails to predict, such as corporate fraud, academic cheating, and subtle predatory workplace behaviors.

Predictive and Criterion Validity

Empirical studies consistently indicate that the HEXACO model provides incremental criterion validity over the Big Five across multiple critical behavioral domains:

• Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB) and Workplace Delinquency: In organizational studies, Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness together explain up to 30% of the variance in overt and subtle counterproductive work behaviors, including theft, time fraud, sabotage, and unexcused absenteeism. Honesty-Humility incrementally explains variance in integrity testing above all five FFM factors combined.
• The Dark Triad: Psychometric analyses by Lee and Ashton (2005) established that Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, and subclinical narcissism converge on the common core of low Honesty-Humility. When controlling for Honesty-Humility, the predictive power of the Dark Triad on ethical violations is largely eliminated.
• Behavioral Economics: In experimental game theory (e.g., the Dictator Game, Ultimatum Game, and Public Goods Game), Honesty-Humility directly predicts the fairness of offers made, whereas Agreeableness predicts the willingness to accept unfair offers or forgive defecting players.

8. Reliability

Despite its brief, 10-item-per-factor design, the HEXACO-60 demonstrates robust internal consistency and temporal stability across diverse cultural and linguistic samples.

Internal Consistency Reliability

In the seminal psychometric validation study by Ashton and Lee (2009) involving large collegiate samples ($N > 2,400$) and community samples, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the six domain scales demonstrated strong internal consistency:

• Honesty-Humility: $\alpha = .77$ to $.80$
• Emotionality: $\alpha = .78$ to $.81$
• Extraversion: $\alpha = .80$ to $.83$
• Agreeableness: $\alpha = .76$ to $.79$
• Conscientiousness: $\alpha = .76$ to $.80$
• Openness to Experience: $\alpha = .77$ to $.80$

Mean inter-item correlations across the subscales hover within the psychometrically recommended range of $.20$ to $.35$, ensuring an optimal balance between broad construct coverage and homogeneous scale measurement.

Test-Retest Stability

Longitudinal investigations confirm that the HEXACO-60 possesses high test-retest reliability over extended intervals. Test-retest coefficients over intervals spanning 3 to 12 months range from $r_{tt} = .72$ to $r_{tt} = .84$, confirming that the scale captures stable dispositional traits rather than transient psychological states.

9. Factor Analysis

The factorial validity of the HEXACO-60 has been examined using both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

When the 60 items are subjected to principal axis factoring or principal component analysis with varimax or oblimin rotation, six distinct factors emerge matching the theoretical domains. Each factor is defined by its ten targeted items, with primary factor loadings typically ranging between $.40$ and $.72$. Cross-loadings on non-target factors remain small, rarely exceeding $.20$. The orthogonal or low oblique correlations among the six extracted latent factors ($r < .15$) support the independence of these personality axes.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

In standard independent-cluster confirmatory factor analyses, broad personality inventories evaluating multidimensional behavioral domains often exhibit marginal fit indices due to legitimate item cross-loadings and semantic nuance across facets. However, when evaluated using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) or bifactor structures, the HEXACO-60 achieves strong model fit indices across general adult and student populations:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI) $ge .92$
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) $ge .90$
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) $le .048$ ($90%\text{ CI } [.044, .052]$)
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) $le .045$

Multi-group CFA investigations confirm measurement invariance (configural, metric, and scalar invariance) across gender, age cohorts, and diverse language translations (e.g., German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Dutch), allowing meaningful cross-cultural comparisons.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The HEXACO-60 is an abbreviated, self-report (or observer-report) psychometric inventory designed for efficient administration in personality, social, organizational, and clinical research contexts.

• Test Type: Standardized self-report inventory (observer-rating form also available)
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil questionnaire or computerized online survey
• Number of Items: 60 items (10 items per personality factor)
• Response Scale: 5-point Likert scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral (neither agree nor disagree), 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree
• Administration Time: Approximately 8 to 12 minutes
• Target Population: Adolescents and adults (reading level: Grade 8 and above)
• Factor Assignment:
  • Honesty-Humility (H): Items 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60
  • Emotionality (E): Items 5, 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41, 47, 53, 59
  • Extraversion (X): Items 4, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58
  • Agreeableness (A): Items 3, 9, 15, 21, 27, 33, 39, 45, 51, 57
  • Conscientiousness (C): Items 2, 8, 14, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56
  • Openness to Experience (O): Items 1, 7, 13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55
• Scoring Protocol & Reverse Scoring:
  • Items marked with (R) must be reverse-scored prior to calculating scale scores: $1 \rightarrow 5$, $2 \rightarrow 4$, $3 \rightarrow 3$, $4 \rightarrow 2$, $5 \rightarrow 1$ (or calculated via formula: $\text{New Score} = 6 – \text{Raw Score}$).
  • Honesty-Humility (H): 6, 12(R), 18(R), 24, 30(R), 36, 42(R), 48(R), 54(R), 60
  • Emotionality (E): 5, 11, 17, 23, 29(R), 35(R), 41(R), 47, 53, 59(R)
  • Extraversion (X): 4, 10(R), 16, 22, 28, 34(R), 40, 46(R), 52(R), 58(R)
  • Agreeableness (A): 3, 9(R), 15(R), 21(R), 27, 33, 39(R), 45, 51(R), 57
  • Conscientiousness (C): 2, 8, 14(R), 20(R), 26, 32(R), 38, 44(R), 50, 56(R)
  • Openness to Experience (O): 1, 7(R), 13, 19, 25(R), 31, 37(R), 43, 49(R), 55(R)
  • Scale scores are calculated by computing the mean of the 10 corresponding items for each domain, resulting in domain scores ranging from 1.00 to 5.00.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The original long-form HEXACO Personality Inventory was published in 2004, followed by the revised HEXACO-PI-R in 2007 and the brief 60-item version in 2009 by Michael C. Ashton and Kibeom Lee.

Licensing and Academic Access: The HEXACO-PI-R (including the 200-item, 100-item, and 60-item variants) is an open-access psychometric instrument for non-commercial academic research, personal educational assessment, and scholarly inquiry. Researchers and students may administer, score, and utilize the instrument without royalties or payment of licensing fees, provided proper academic citation is attributed to the authors. For commercial applications (e.g., personnel recruitment, corporate consulting, clinical billing), explicit licensing permission and commercial evaluation contracts must be obtained directly from the test developers via hexaco.org.

12. References

• Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2001). A theoretical basis for the major dimensions of personality. European Journal of Personality, 15(5), 327–353. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.417
• Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007). Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 150–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294907
• Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2009). The HEXACO-60: A short measure of the six major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(4), 340–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890902935878
• Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., Perugini, M., Szarota, P., de Vries, R. E., Di Blas, L., Boies, K., & De Raad, B. (2004). A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: Solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(2), 356–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.356
• Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216
• Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I & II. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(64)90038-4
• Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2004). Psychometric properties of the HEXACO Personality Inventory. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(2), 329–358. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr3902_8
• Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2005). Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and Narcissism in the Five-Factor Model and the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(7), 1571–1582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.016
• Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2018). Further assessment of the HEXACO Personality Inventory: Two new facet scales and an observer report form. Psychological Assessment, 30(9), 1177–1191. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000561
• Trivers, R. L. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46(1), 35–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/406755

13. Items of the Scale