TY - JOUR

T1 - Testing the equivalence of the aversive core of personality and a blend of agreeableness(-related) items

AU - Horsten, Luisa K.

AU - Thielmann, Isabel

AU - Moshagen, Morten

AU - Zettler, Ingo

AU - Scholz, David

AU - Hilbig, Benjamin E.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Colin Vize for previous discussions and for providing the relevant items of the Agreeableness operationalization studied herein. This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant 2277, Research Training Group, Statistical Modeling in Psychology “(SMiP). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Objective: There is an ongoing debate in personality research whether the common core of aversive (“dark”) traits can be approximated by or even considered equivalent to one of the constructs that have been labeled “Agreeableness”. In particular, it has been suggested that the low pole of (what we term) AG+, a broad blend of Big Five Agreeableness and the HEXACO factors Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Altruism, is essentially equivalent to the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Based on theoretical differences, we herein test empirically whether D and AG+ are isomorphic. Methods: Self-report data on D, AG+, and eight criterion measures reflecting justifying beliefs, inflicting disutility on others, and affiliative tendencies were collected in a pre-registered study (N = 1156) and analyzed via confirmatory factor modeling. Results: Results speak against unity of D and AG+ (35% shared variance) and support the notion that D subsumes a broader range of aversive content (i.e., justifying beliefs and inflicting disutility on others) than AG+, which, in turn, subsumes a slightly broader range of non-aversive, affiliative tendencies. Conclusion: We conclude that AG+ is non-equivalent to the common core of aversive traits, D.

AB - Objective: There is an ongoing debate in personality research whether the common core of aversive (“dark”) traits can be approximated by or even considered equivalent to one of the constructs that have been labeled “Agreeableness”. In particular, it has been suggested that the low pole of (what we term) AG+, a broad blend of Big Five Agreeableness and the HEXACO factors Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Altruism, is essentially equivalent to the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Based on theoretical differences, we herein test empirically whether D and AG+ are isomorphic. Methods: Self-report data on D, AG+, and eight criterion measures reflecting justifying beliefs, inflicting disutility on others, and affiliative tendencies were collected in a pre-registered study (N = 1156) and analyzed via confirmatory factor modeling. Results: Results speak against unity of D and AG+ (35% shared variance) and support the notion that D subsumes a broader range of aversive content (i.e., justifying beliefs and inflicting disutility on others) than AG+, which, in turn, subsumes a slightly broader range of non-aversive, affiliative tendencies. Conclusion: We conclude that AG+ is non-equivalent to the common core of aversive traits, D.

KW - agreeableness

KW - aversive traits

KW - dark core of personality

U2 - 10.1111/jopy.12830

DO - 10.1111/jopy.12830

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36938753

JO - Journal of Personality

JF - Journal of Personality

SN - 0022-3506

ER -