Bringing angels and demons down to earth: Real-life generality and mechanisms of the link between personality and ethical behavior

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Benjamin E. Hilbig, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2011 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 209892318

This proposed follow-up project aims at continuation of the central findings from the previous Project. The original project investigated the validity of the personality dimension Honesty-Humility as defined in the recently proposed HEXACO Model of Personality. As a central test, we investigated whether - corresponding to the underlying theory - self-reported Honesty-Humility scores can actually predict ethical or honest behavior, respectively. In a series of experiments, the previous project showed that Honesty-Humility (but no other basic trait dimension) yielded a consistent, substantial, and robust positive relation to honest behavior in established behavioral paradigms. The proposed project follows-up on this finding, aiming to provide broader knowledge on ethical behavior in general and a more thorough understanding of the relation between such behavior and personality in particular. Correspondingly, the project targets both the generality (when) and the underlying psychological processes (why) of the observed effect of Honesty-Humility - with the primary aim of uncovering the psychological (that is, social, cognitive, and motivational) processes involved. To this end, the project puts forward and builds upon a theoretical framework that specifies the central components of ethical behavior based on the current state-of-knowledge in this research area. By means of specific experimental manipulations of the theoretically derived components - and tests of corresponding person-situation interactions - the project critically scrutinizes a series of specific hypotheses on how personality traits (specifically Honesty-Humility) influence ethical behavior and under which conditions (in the sense of real-life situations) this is the case. Through diverse paradigmatic extensions and new manipulations, the results will additionally extend prior knowledge on (dis)honest behavior in general.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Denmark
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Morten Moshagen; Professor Dr. Ingo Zettler