Personality
Six-trait personality
60 questions · 15 min
This questionnaire describes personality with six broad traits: honesty and humility, how strongly you feel emotions, how outgoing you are, how forgiving and patient, how organised, and how open to new ideas and experiences. It’s similar to the well-known “Big Five”, with an extra trait about sincerity, fairness and modesty.
Each trait gets its own score, and they can’t be added up into one number. None of the traits is simply good or bad. Your scores show where you sit on each one, not how you compare with any particular group.
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What it shows
Where you sit on six broad personality traits, each scored on its own.
What it doesn’t
A diagnosis, a single overall score, or a judgement of you as a person.
Who it’s for
This is for you if you’ve tried a Big Five test and want a slightly different, fuller view. The HEXACO model adds a sixth trait about sincerity, fairness and modesty, which gives you an extra lens on how you deal with other people.
It takes around 15 minutes, so it suits a quiet moment when you can answer thoughtfully rather than quickly. It can also be interesting to talk your results through with someone who knows you well, and see whether they match how that person sees you.
Questions people ask
What does the HEXACO measure?
Six broad traits: honesty and humility, how strongly you feel emotions, how outgoing you are, how forgiving and patient you are, how organised you are, and how open you are to new ideas. The name comes from the first letters of the six traits in English.
How is HEXACO different from the Big Five?
The traits overlap a lot, but HEXACO adds honesty and humility as a trait of its own. Some of the shared traits are also drawn a little differently; for example, its version of agreeableness focuses on being forgiving, gentle and patient.
How long does it take?
About 15 minutes. There are 60 statements, and you choose how much you agree with each one on a five-point scale.
How is it scored?
Each trait is the average of its ten answers, giving a score from 1 to 5, with some statements counted in reverse. There’s no total score, because the six traits describe different things and can’t be added up.
Is there a good or bad result?
No. High and low scores on any trait simply describe different ways of being, each with its own strengths. The result isn’t a diagnosis or a judgement of you as a person.
How often can I retake it?
Personality changes slowly, so every six months or so is plenty. Comparing results over longer stretches, or after a big life change, is more interesting than retaking it often.
Where it comes from
Developed by psychologists Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton; this short 60-question version was published in 2009.
HEXACO Personality Inventory
On iPhone or iPad?
Sprout is an app there too, and this link opens the test straight away if you have it.
Coming soon to the App Store