Truth will out: Linking personality, morality, and honesty through indirect questioning

TY - JOUR

T1 - Truth will out

T2 - Linking personality, morality, and honesty through indirect questioning

AU - Hilbig, Benjamin

AU - Moshagen, Morten

AU - Zettler, Ingo

PY - 2015/3/13

Y1 - 2015/3/13

N2 - Individual differences in morality and honesty are inherently connected such that individuals more likely to engage in immoral behavior will typically be less likely to admit to it. Indeed, this is a central prediction of the Honesty-Humility (HH) factor of personality, recently proposed as part of the HEXACO Model of Personality (Honesty-Humility [H], Emotionality [E], Extraversion [X], Agreeablenes [A], Conscientiousness [C], and Openness to Experience [O]). However, this very link between morality and honesty necessarily limits the conclusiveness of typical investigations—especially those relying on self-report data for both constructs. Herein, we apply an indirect questioning technique to overcome such limitations and provide evidence for individual differences in trait honesty and morality in line with the HH factor of personality. Specifically, results show that individuals low in (self-reported) HH are indeed more likely to engage in immoral behavior although less likely to be upfront about it when directly questioned.

AB - Individual differences in morality and honesty are inherently connected such that individuals more likely to engage in immoral behavior will typically be less likely to admit to it. Indeed, this is a central prediction of the Honesty-Humility (HH) factor of personality, recently proposed as part of the HEXACO Model of Personality (Honesty-Humility [H], Emotionality [E], Extraversion [X], Agreeablenes [A], Conscientiousness [C], and Openness to Experience [O]). However, this very link between morality and honesty necessarily limits the conclusiveness of typical investigations—especially those relying on self-report data for both constructs. Herein, we apply an indirect questioning technique to overcome such limitations and provide evidence for individual differences in trait honesty and morality in line with the HH factor of personality. Specifically, results show that individuals low in (self-reported) HH are indeed more likely to engage in immoral behavior although less likely to be upfront about it when directly questioned.

U2 - 10.1177/1948550614553640

DO - 10.1177/1948550614553640

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1948-5506

VL - 6

SP - 140

EP - 147

JO - Social Psychological and Personality Science

JF - Social Psychological and Personality Science

IS - 2

ER -