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What does a HEXACO score mean?

If somebody has given you a HEXACO score and not explained it, put it in below. This reads it against the instrument's own published table. You do not have to take anything.

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The full published table

These ranges come from the instrument's own scoring documentation rather than from us. They describe groups of people, not individuals.

Score ranges and interpretations for the HEXACO
ScoreInterpretationWhat it suggests
4 – 8Lower rangeThe individual heavily favors the opposite pole of the trait. (Note: Low Honesty-Humility is a massive red flag for organizational risk, correlating strongly with the Dark Triad).
9 – 15Middle rangeThe individual exhibits situational flexibility.
16 – 20Upper rangeThe trait is a defining hallmark of the individual's personality.

Why a number on its own is not much use

A total tells you where a set of answers landed on a scale. It does not say which questions produced it, and two people reaching the same total can be having quite different weeks. A score driven by sleep and appetite is not the same as an identical score driven by hopelessness, and the difference changes what tends to help.

A score near the edge of a range is also less meaningful than the label makes it sound. Thresholds are drawn to be useful across a population, not to mark a real line between two states, so a point either way can change the word without changing the person.

If you would rather answer the questions

The HEXACO is available here in full, free and without an account, and answering it gives you the breakdown a bare total cannot: take the HEXACO.

Who wrote this page

Psychometrics Today Team, Editorial team. Last reviewed 30 May 2026.

The assessments on this site were developed and validated by the researchers named in each page’s sources. Psychometrics Today administers them and explains what results mean, in plain language, with every factual claim traced to the study it comes from.

Reviewed for accuracy against the primary research it cites. Not reviewed by a clinician, and not a substitute for assessment by one.