Filling in the missing pieces: Personality traits (un)related to dishonest behavior.

This article investigates the associations between dishonesty and various personality traits, focusing on six operationalizations of Big Five Agreeableness, the dark tetrad traits (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy, Sadism), impression management and lie scales, and self-control versus impulsivity. Using a large sample (N = 1,916) and two incentivized behavioral measures of dishonesty, the study confirms that Honesty-Humility (HH), a HEXACO personality dimension, is the strongest and most consistent negative predictor of dishonesty, outperforming all Big Five Agreeableness scales, which showed inconsistent and generally weaker associations. The dark tetrad traits were positively related to dishonesty, but this was largely explained by their shared aversive core, the dark factor of personality (D), except for Narcissism, which showed a small incremental effect beyond D, possibly due to competitiveness-related aspects. Impression management/lie scales and measures of self-control versus impulsivity were not related to dishonest behavior. These findings suggest that HH is distinct from Big Five Agreeableness in predicting dishonesty and that the dark factor better accounts for aversive traits linked to dishonest behavior than individual dark tetrad traits.