DOI: 10.1177/27000710261487578 ISSN: 2700-0710

BFAS Politeness is Mainly a Blend of HEXACO Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility

Kibeom Lee, Michael C. Ashton
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Davies Noulton and Smillie (2025)

recently suggested that the BFAS Politeness “aspect” and HEXACO Honesty-Humility might represent “different operationalisations of the same trait”. To evaluate this possibility, we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using two large samples (combined N ≈ 3000). Results indicate that Politeness is best understood as roughly an even blend of Honesty-Humility and HEXACO Agreeableness. In predicting observed cheating behaviours—an outcome theoretically relevant to Honesty-Humility—Politeness showed validity intermediate to that of Honesty-Humility and that of Agreeableness. An ad hoc facet scale comprising three BFAS Politeness items specifically chosen to represent Honesty-Humility demonstrated higher validity (and closer alignment with HEXACO Honesty-Humility) than did the full Politeness scale. We note that some other Big Five measures include facet scales approximating Honesty-Humility more closely than the Politeness scale does. However, unless Honesty-Humility content is separated from the rest of Big Five Agreeableness, even those measures will have limited utility for understanding important personality phenomena associated with Honesty-Humility.

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