Getting along And/Or Getting Ahead: Differential Hexaco Personality Correlates of Likeability and Popularity among Adolescents

Abstract

Getting along (i.e. to be liked) and getting ahead (i.e. to be popular) are two fundamental psychological motives that have important consequences for adolescents' well-being. Especially antisocial behavioural tendencies, which are less well covered by the Big Five than by the HEXACO model, have been shown to differentially predict likeability and popularity. In this study, possible differential relations between personality and likeability and popularity were investigated using the HEXACO Simplified Personality Inventory and sociometric measures of likeability and popularity among 552 (12 to 14 years old) adolescents. Results showed that agreeableness was the most important likeability predictor, whereas extraversion (positive), openness to experience, honesty-humility, and agreeableness (all three negative) were the most important popularity predictors. Facet-level analyses revealed that selected HEXACO facets (greed avoidance, fearfulness, social boldness, gentleness, prudence, perfectionism, aesthetic appreciation, and altruism) most strongly-and in opposite directions-differentiated in the prediction of likeability and popularity. Furthermore, none of the expected interactions but several masking and cancellation effects were observed. The results, which are also discussed in light of interpersonal circumplex, resource control strategies, hierarchical differentiation, and socioanalytic frameworks, suggest that-among early adolescents-differential personality predictors may make it difficult to both get along and get ahead.

HEXACO personality correlates of adolescents' involvement in bullying situations

“…Almost all participants were born in the Netherlands ( n = 534; 96.7%) and the majority had two Dutch parents ( n = 333; 60.3%). The sample was previously included in a study predicting adolescents' sociometric peer‐group status with the HEXACO (De Vries et al, 2020).…”

“…The six HEXACO domains are measured with 16 items each, answered on a 5‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ): (1) Honesty‐Humility, with four items each for the facets sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty; (2) Emotionality, with four items each for the facets fearfulness, anxiety, sentimentality, and dependence; (3) eXtraversion, with four items each for the facets social self‐esteem, social boldness, sociability, and liveliness; (4) Agreeableness, with four items each for the facets patience, forgiveness, gentleness, and flexibility; (5) Conscientiousness, with four items each for the facets organization, diligence, perfectionism, and prudence; and (6) Openness (to Experience), with four items each for the facets aesthetic appreciation, inquisitiveness, unconventionality, and creativity. The full questionnaire and validity information can be found elsewhere (De Vries & Born, 2013; De Vries & Van Prooijen, 2019; De Vries et al, 2020). Final variables were calculated as the average sum score for all domain items.…”

HEXACO Personality and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Domain- and Facet-Level Meta-Analysis

“…A weak cancellation effect exists if the domain does not correlate significantly with the outcome, two facet-level correlations with the criterion differ significantly from each other (i.e., r f1-C > r f2-C ), and at least one facet-level correlation differs significantly from the domain-level correlation (i.e., r f1-C > r d-C or r f2-C < r d-C ). A strong cancellation effect occurs if all of the above is true and both facet-level correlations differ significantly from the domain-level correlation with the criterion (i.e., r f1-C > r d-C and r f2-C < r d-C ) (see also De Vries, Pronk, Olthof, & Goossens, 2020;Pletzer et al, 2020). 2 Pletzer et al ( 2020) examined such cancellation and masking effects among the HEXACO facets for their relations with workplace deviance and found evidence for a strong masking effect among the facets of Honesty-Humility and for a weak cancellation effect among the facets of Openness to Experience.…”

“…We used dummy coded variables to compare the corrected correlations between domains and facets or between the facets within each domain (e.g., 0 = Extraversion, 1 = Social Boldness or 0 = Social Boldness, 1 = Liveliness). In testing for cancellation and masking effects, we rely on the definitions provided in the introduction (see also De Vries et al, 2020;Pletzer et al, 2020).…”

Using communicative patterns to predict Twitter users' social capital, likability, and popularity gains with natural language processing

“…These numbers indicate users' visibility in public spaces and thereby are crucial indices in the attention economy. Having a large number of followers can make one an information hub or opinion leader and boost their selfesteem (Burrow & Rainone, 2017) or their well-being (de Vries et al, 2020). Moreover, people with a large number of followers can become internet celebrities or social media influencers and thus monetize their fame (Lee, 2007), just like celebrities in the traditional entertainment industry.…”