The H Factor of Personality

Kibeom Lee, Michael C. Ashton

Description

The “H” in the H factor stands for “Honesty-Humility,” one of the six basic dimensions of the human personality. People who have high levels of H are sincere and modest; people who have low levels are deceitful and pretentious. It isn’t intuitively obvious that traits of honesty and humility go hand in hand, and until very recently the H factor hadn’t been recognized as a basic dimension of personality. But scientific evidence shows that traits of honesty and humility form a unified group of personality traits, separate from those of the other five groups identified several decades ago.

This book, written by the discoverers of the H factor, explores the scientific findings that show the importance of this personality dimension in various aspects of people’s lives: their approaches to money, power, and sex; their inclination to commit crimes or obey the law; their attitudes about society, politics, and religion; and their choice of friends and spouse. Finally, the book provides ways of identifying people who are low in the H factor, as well as advice on how to raise one’s own level of H.

Sujets

• Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 21 mai 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• EAN13: 9781554588657
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE H FACTOR of PERSONALITY
THE H FACTOR of PERSONALITY
WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE MANIPULATIVE, SELF-ENTITLED, MATERIALISTIC, AND EXPLOITIVE-AND WHY IT MATTERS FOR EVERYONE
Kibeom Lee and Michael C. Ashton
Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Lee, Kibeom, 1966- The H factor of personality : why some people are manipulative, self-entitled, materialistic, and exploitive-and why it matters for everyone / Kibeom Lee and Michael C. Ashton.
Includes bibliographical references and index. Also issued in electronic format. ISBN 978-1-55458-834-3
1. Personality. 2. Honesty-Psychologicial aspects. 3. Humility-Psychological aspects. I. Ashton, Michael Craig, 1970- II. Title.
BF698.3.L43 2012 155.2 64 C2012-904278-1
----
Electronic monograph issued in multiple formats. Also issued in print format. ISBN 978-1-55458-864-0 (PDF).-ISBN 978-1-55458-865-7 (EPUB)
1. Personality. 2. Honesty-Psychologicial aspects. 3. Humility-Psychological aspects. I. Ashton, Michael Craig, 1970- II. Title.
BF698.3.L43 2012 155.2 64 C2012-904279-X
Cover design by Martyn Schmoll. Front-cover portrait by Veer; graph from iStockphoto. Text design by Janette Thompson (Jansom).
2012 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca
This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100% post-consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy.
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
CONTENTS
List of Boxes
Acknowledgements
1 Meet the H Factor
2 The Missing Link of Personality Psychology
The Big Five Personality Factors
Six Personality Factors
3 HEXACO: The Six Dimensions of Personality
Engagement and Endeavour: Openness to Experience (O), Conscientiousness (C), and Extraversion (X)
Altruism versus Antagonism: Honesty-Humility (H), Agreeableness (A), and Emotionality (E)
4 A Field Guide to Low-H People
Low H, Low E: Greed without Fear-or Pity
Low H, High E: Weaseling and Whining
Low H, High X: Narcissism Run Wild
Low H, Low X: The Smug Silent Types
Low H, Low A: Just Plain Nasty
Low H, High A: Inoffensive but Insincere
Low H, Low C: An Employer s Worst Nightmare
Low H, High C: Selfish Ambition
Low H, Low O: Shallow and Narrow
Low H, High O: Sophisticated Snobbery
5 Can You Tell Someone s Level of H?
Personality in Strangers
Self-Reports of H: Are They Honest?
Knowing Someone s Personality: H Is among the Last Things You Learn
H in the Workplace: Hard to Tell
6 Do High-H People Flock Together?
Similarity Beyond Personality
Similarity-and Perceived Similarity-in Friends
Personality, Values, and Relationships
7 Politics
Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)
O and Right-Wing Authoritarianism
H and Social Dominance Orientation
Personality and Political Party Support
8 Religion
Personality and Religious Beliefs
Traditional Religion versus Mystical Spirituality: The Role of O
Reasons for Religious Observance: The Role of H
Do Religions Promote High H?
9 Money, Power, and Sex
Money
Power
Sex
10 How to Identify Low-H People-and How to Live Around Them
Not-So-Valid Signs of High H
Respectability
Anti-Conformity
Religious Piety
Championing the Underdog
Blunt Criticism
Publicly Displayed Generosity
Valid Signs of Low H
Beating the System
Instrumental Ingratiation
Gambling and Financial Speculation
Sexual Infidelity
Conspicuous Consumption (and Name Dropping)
Above the Law Mentality
Contempt of Other Groups
Living Around Low-H People
Epilogue: On Becoming a High-H Person
Appendix: The HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised
HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (Self-Report Form)
HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (Observer Report Form)
HEXACO-PI-R Scoring and Interpretation
Notes
References
LIST OF BOXES
Box 2-1: Correlations and Factor Analysis
Box 3-1: Herding, Farming, and the Optimal Level of A
Box 3-2: Personality and Altruism: H as the Missing Link
Box 3-3: Nature and Nurture
Box 3-4: Does Personality Change?
Box 4-1: Of Conquistadors and Sweetheart Swindlers
Box 4-2: Pride and Prejudice-and Personality
Box 4-3: Personalities of US Presidents of the 1960s and 1970s
Box 4-4: Personality and the Stanford Prison Experiment
Box 4-5: A Tale of Two Art Collectors
Box 5-1: Narcissism at First Sight
Box 5-2: Measuring Personality: Self-Reports (and Observer Reports) Work Better Than You d Think
Box 6-1: Why Are Spouses Similar in Beliefs and Attitudes?
Box 7-1: Political Orientation, Sexual Orientation, and the O Factor
Box 7-2: Personality and Politics: It Depends on the Context
Box 9-1: Cheating in the Psychology Lab
Box 9-2: The H Factor and the Free Rider Problem
Box 9-3: Hutopia?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We re grateful to several of our friends and colleagues who encouraged this project and gave extremely helpful comments on an earlier draft of the book: Derek Chapman, Gordon Hodson, Paul Tremblay, Reinout de Vries, and Narnia Worth. We likewise obtained very positive and constructive input on a recent draft of the book from Robert Mackwood, from Taya Cohen, and from two anonymous reviewers. Our book is much improved for these insightful suggestions.
We thank Lew Goldberg and Gerard Saucier for their generosity in sharing the extraordinarily rich datasets from their Oregon community sample and from their English-language lexical research, and also for their insights on personality structure.
We also thank Steve Rubenzer for sharing the facet-level data from his study of the personalities of US presidents.
We d also like to thank the editorial team at Wilfrid Laurier University Press for all their work on this project: Rob Kohlmeier for his extremely efficient management of the editing process, Leslie Macredie for her great efforts in marketing, and especially Ryan Chynces for his courage in taking on this book and his confidence in working with us. We re also grateful to Matthew Kudelka for his excellent copy editing.
We re grateful to the institutions that have supported our research program. We thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the grants that funded many of our projects. We also thank the University of Calgary and Brock University for their ongoing support. This book in particular was funded by Brock University s Council for Research in the Social Sciences.
Kibeom thanks his wife and two daughters, who have patiently talked about personality structure over the dinner table many times. He also thanks his mother, his brother, and his brother s family for their ongoing support. Finally, he dedicates this book to his late father, who would have loved reading it.
Mike thanks his whole family-his parents, his sister and her family, and his in-laws-for all their encouragement. He especially thanks his wife for her enthusiastic support, and he dedicates this book to her.
1 MEET THE H FACTOR
Mary and Jane have a lot in common. Both are young women in their last year of study at the same law school. Each grew up in a two-parent family in a middle-class neighbourhood. Yet in some crucial ways they could hardly be more different.
To Mary, the law is like a martial art-a way to defeat opponents by mastering many complex manoeuvres. She chose law as a career because she wanted to make a lot of money, and with that aim in mind she has mainly studied the more lucrative legal specialties, such as corporate law and litigation. To achieve her career goals, Mary has made a point of skilfully ingratiating herself to certain influential professors. By applying just the right amount of flattery, she hopes to make the connections she needs for a good position after completing her degree.
Jane s approach to the law is much more idealistic. She views the law as a means of achieving justice, and her goals in studying law are to help people and to make a difference. She s trying to decide whether to work in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor or public defender, or to work for a not-for-profit organization. Jane has had some contact with her professors, chiefly when she has asked them to explain some of the finer points of the law. She tries to be pleasant and polite with her professors, but she would be uncomfortable trying to curry favour with them.
Mary and Jane are both single, but both plan to marry someday. For Mary, any prospective husband must hold some prestigious position in society; besides being wealthy, he should carry the trappings and the appearance of a very important man. Anything less