HEXACO vs Big Five: Do You Need a Sixth Trait?.
The Big Five is the standard model of personality structure; HEXACO is its strongest scientific rival. The two agree far more than they differ - both measure broad, continuous, normed traits - but HEXACO makes one consequential claim: that lexical studies across languages recover six factors, not five, and that the sixth captures something the Big Five blurs.
The sixth factor: Honesty-Humility
Honesty-Humility - sincerity, fairness, modesty, and indifference to greed - is the H in HEXACO. In the Big Five, this content sits diffusely inside Agreeableness; HEXACO separates it because cross-language lexical studies kept recovering it as its own dimension.
The separation earns its keep empirically: low Honesty-Humility predicts workplace deviance, exploitative negotiation, infidelity, and unethical decision-making better than any Big Five trait, and it is the strongest personality correlate of the so-called dark triad. If your question involves integrity or ethical behavior, the H factor is the single most informative trait score available.
What else moves
Adding a sixth factor reshuffles two others. HEXACO Emotionality includes sentimentality and dependence-on-others but moves anger out: in HEXACO, trait anger lives in (low) Agreeableness, whereas the Big Five places it under Neuroticism. HEXACO Agreeableness is therefore about patience and forgiveness versus quickness to anger, a slightly different construct than Big Five Agreeableness. Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness remain essentially the same constructs in both models.
Which should you take?
For most purposes the models are interchangeable in quality: both are reliable, normed, and validated. Take the Big Five if you want maximum comparability with the research literature and the most widely shared vocabulary. Take HEXACO if integrity-related traits matter to your question, or if you have already done a Big Five test and want the added resolution of the H factor. Taking both is genuinely informative - the overlap is high but not total, and the differences are where the insight lives.
Frequently asked questions
Is HEXACO better than the Big Five?
Neither dominates. HEXACO captures integrity-related variance the Big Five spreads across Agreeableness; the Big Five has the larger research base and broader familiarity. The honest answer is that they are two well-validated lenses with about eighty percent overlap.
What does a low Honesty-Humility score mean?
A stronger pull toward self-interest: comfort with flattery or manipulation when useful, attraction to status and wealth, and a sense of entitlement. It is a risk indicator rather than a verdict - context and the other five traits matter - but it is the trait most predictive of ethically gray behavior.
Why does my Agreeableness score differ between the two tests?
The constructs differ slightly by design. HEXACO Agreeableness centers on patience and forgiveness (anger lives here, reversed), while Big Five Agreeableness blends warmth, trust, and the honesty content HEXACO splits out. A moderate shift between the two is expected, not an error.
Also relevant: Take the Big Five Personality Test
References
- 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.
- Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2004). Psychometric properties of the HEXACO Personality Inventory. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(2), 329-358.
- Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., & de Vries, R. E. (2014). The HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Emotionality factors: A review of research and theory. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(2), 139-152.
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