Measuring honesty-humility with an implicit association test (IAT): Construct and criterion validity

The goal of this research was to develop an implicit association test for honesty-humility (IAT-HH) and assess its validity. Construct validity was established by conducting correlations and confirmatory factor analysis. A model with honesty-humility facets measured by two related but distinct method factors (self-report vs. implicit) showed superior fit, suggesting that our IAT-HH captured important substantive variance, but also IAT-specific variance. We further investigated criterion-related validity in relation to academic behaviour of Belgian university students (N = 161), using both desirable and undesirable criteria. Our results suggest that IATs of honesty-humility may show measurement overlap with self-reports. However, the IAT-HH could neither predict self-report nor behavioural academic criteria. Predicting behaviour with the IAT-HH appears to be complex and is discussed.

Automated summary

The goal of this research was to develop and validate an implicit association test for honesty-humility (IAT-HH). The results showed that the IAT-HH captured important substantive variance and had measurement overlap with self-reports. However, it was unable to predict academic behavior based on self-report or behavioral criteria, indicating that predicting behavior with the IAT-HH is complex.