House of Cards or West Wing? Self-reported HEXACO Traits of Danish Politicians

This paper is the first to explore variation in self-reported Honesty-Humility trait levels among politicians. In a relatively representative sample of Danish candidates (n = 239) for the national parliament, we find that more experienced, female, and more right-wing politicians self-report higher levels of Honesty-Humility. Comparing the self-reports of politicians to these of a community sample, we find that politicians self-report much higher levels of Honesty-Humility than ordinary citizens do. In addition to this, politicians self-report systematically higher on the HEXACO factors Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, and lower on Emotionality. By and large, the latter findings replicate existing work relying on Big Five/Five Factor personality models. We end with a discussion on the relevance of self-reported personality traits of politicians.