What is the HEXACO personality model?
HEXACO is a model of personality built around six broad traits:
honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness and openness to experience. The first letter of each
spells HEXACO, which is where the model gets its name.
Rather than sorting people into fixed types, HEXACO describes where you
sit on a spectrum for each trait. Most people land somewhere in the
middle of most traits, with a handful of stronger leanings that make up
their overall profile. That profile is not a label. It is a snapshot of
tendencies that can shift a little over time and across situations.
How is HEXACO different from the Big Five?
HEXACO grew out of the same line of research as the Big Five, but adds a
sixth trait the five-factor model does not measure on its own:
honesty-humility. This trait captures how sincere, fair, modest and
unassuming you tend to be, versus how much you are drawn to status,
wealth and getting ahead.
Because honesty-humility is measured separately, HEXACO also reshuffles a
little of what sits inside agreeableness and emotionality compared with
the Big Five. For everyday purposes the two models tell a very similar
story about you. HEXACO simply gives a clearer, separate read on the
honesty-humility dimension, which is one reason researchers have adopted
it widely over the last two decades.
What does each of the six traits measure?
Each trait is a spectrum, and there is no better or worse end. Where you
sit simply describes a tendency.
- Honesty-humility is about how sincere, fair and modest you tend to
be, versus how much you value status, wealth and getting ahead.
- Emotionality is about how strongly you feel and respond to worry,
stress and emotional ties, versus how composed and self-reliant you
stay.
- Extraversion is about whether you gain energy from people and
activity, versus from quieter, more independent focus.
- Agreeableness is about how patient, forgiving and easy-going you
tend to be, versus how direct and tough-minded.
- Conscientiousness is about how organised, dependable and planful
you are, versus how flexible and spontaneous.
- Openness is about how much you enjoy new ideas, creativity and the
unconventional, versus preferring the practical and familiar.
Your results below explain what a higher or lower score on each trait
tends to mean in practice.
How do you read your HEXACO results?
Your results place you somewhere on a spectrum for each of the six
traits, not a single score to beat. A result near the middle simply
means your answers were fairly balanced on that trait, not that you did
anything wrong. There is no total score, no overall grade and nothing to
pass.
It helps to read each trait on its own rather than looking for an
overall “type”. Most real profiles are a mix, for example someone quite
high in conscientiousness and quite average in extraversion, and that
combination is exactly as normal as any other. The value is in what each
individual trait tells you about how you tend to work and relate to
others, which you can read alongside the explanation for each trait
further down this page.
Is there a right or wrong answer, and do you need to prepare?
No. Unlike a numerical, verbal or logical reasoning test, a personality
questionnaire has no correct answers and nothing to calculate. It simply
reflects how you described yourself, so there is no benefit to revising,
timing yourself or looking up “correct” responses beforehand.
The one thing worth doing is answering honestly and consistently.
Personality questionnaires used by employers often include similar
statements phrased in different ways to check that your answers hold
together, so trying to guess the “ideal” profile for a role tends to
produce a less coherent, less useful result than simply answering as
yourself.
How do employers use personality results like these?
Employers use personality results to understand fit and working style,
not to sift candidates the way they do with scored aptitude tests. A
hiring team might use your profile to see how you are likely to approach
a role, work in a team or handle a fast-changing environment, then
explore that further at interview.
It is also common for employers to pair a personality questionnaire with
one or more scored aptitude tests, since the two measure different
things: personality describes your natural style, while aptitude tests
measure how accurately and quickly you can reason under time pressure. If
you have an assessment coming up, it is worth knowing what those aptitude
tests look like too.
