Theoretical and empirical dissociations between the Dark Factor of Personality and low Honesty-Humility

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Recent research suggests that the common core of all aversive traits can be understood through the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Previously, the overlap among aversive traits has also been described as the low pole of HEXACO Honesty-Humility. Relying on longitudinal data and a range of theoretically derived outcome criteria, we test in four studies (total N > 2,500) whether and how D and low Honesty-Humility differ. Although the constructs shared around 66% of variance (meta-analytically aggregated across all studies), they longitudinally differently accounted for diverse aversive traits and showed theoretically meaningful and distinct associations to pretentiousness, distrust-related beliefs, and empathy. These results suggest that D and low Honesty-Humility are best understood as strongly overlapping, yet functionally different and nomologically distinct constructs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104154
JournalJournal of Research in Personality
Volume95
Number of pages12
ISSN0092-6566
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant 2277, Research Training Group „Statistical Modeling in Psychology“ (SMiP). We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the studies. Additional materials (including data and analysis scripts) are provided online on the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/35sdh ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.

    Research areas

  • D factor, Dark Factor of Personality, Dark traits, Honesty-Humility

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