Lead Us (Not) into Temptation: Testing the Motivational Mechanisms Linking Honesty–Humility to Cooperation

Abstract

Over the past decades, there has been considerable interest in individual differences in cooperative behaviour and how these can be explained. Whereas the Honesty–Humility dimension from the HEXACO model of personality has been identified as a consistent predictor of cooperation, the underlying motivational mechanisms of this association have remained unclear—especially given the confound between the temptation to exploit others and the fear of being exploited as motivational drivers of defection in social dilemmas. In a reanalysis and a new experiment, we tease apart these mechanisms by manipulating the rank order of pay‐offs in a symmetric two‐person game paradigm, essentially implementing the classic prisoner's dilemma, stag hunt, and chicken games. Results revealed that Honesty–Humility predicted cooperation specifically in the games in which temptation was a potential motivator of defection, whereas it did not account for cooperation in those games in which only fear implied defection. Our findings thereby shed light on the underlying motivational mechanisms of the Honesty–Humility–cooperation link and, more generally, demonstrate how economic games can be used to disentangle such mechanisms. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

Personality and Integrative Negotiations: A Hexaco Investigation of Actor, Partner, and Actor–Partner Interaction Effects on Objective and Subjective Outcomes

“…For example, drawing on the interpersonal circumplex model (Wiggins, ), Wiltermuth, Tiedens, and Neale () found that complementary dominance (body posture, gesturing, reduced interpersonal distances, and speaking in a loud voice) and submissiveness between actors and partners facilitated information exchange during negotiations, which then led to more successful negotiation outcomes. Similarly, we agree with Hilbig et al () that it is important to learn more about the precise motives that tie personality to specific behaviours in negotiations and motives that underpin the reactions these behaviours trigger in turn. Research of this nature would provide a more thorough test of the hypothesized trait‐activation‐response mechanisms in social interactions.…”

Playing a Different Game: Situation Perception Mediates Framing Effects on Cooperative Behaviour

“…It can be shown formally that a lower degree of conflict of interests provides a greater area of cooperation-the area defined by the combination of social preferences and first-order beliefs for which cooperation is justifiable (Murphy & Ackermann, 2015). Consistent with this, empirical results show that cooperation rates are strongly positively correlated with indices of conflict of interests (Hilbig, Kieslich, Henninger, Thielmann, & Zettler, 2018;Rapoport & Chammah, 1965;Vlaev & Chater, 2006). In other words, games with different indices result in different behaviour.…”

Predicting Trait Emotional Intelligence from HEXACO Personality: Domains, Facets, and The General Factor of Personality

“…This model most notably adds an honestyhumility factor and reconfigures variance associated with Big 5 agreeableness and neuroticism. The honestyhumility factor has been shown to be important for understanding a range of criteria especially those within the domains of antisocial/unethical behavior and cooperation (Hilbig, Kieslich, Henninger, Thielmann, & Zettler, 2018;Lee, Ashton, Morrison, Cordery, & Dunlop, 2008).…”