Modesty
A facet of agreeableness. Four items in the IPIP-NEO-120.
The fifth facet of agreeableness is not thinking oneself better than others: declining to boast, and holding a modest opinion of one's own merits. All four items are reversed, so a high score means disagreeing with statements of superiority. It is close to the humility of the six-factor model.
What it does not mean
A low score is not a verdict of arrogance. Thinking well of oneself is also what confidence and sound self-esteem look like from the inside, and a person can hold a high opinion of their abilities while treating everyone around them with respect.
A high score is not low self-esteem. Modest people may think well of themselves privately; they decline to rank themselves above others or to say so.
Four items make a short scale. A facet score moves more between attempts than the 24-item domain score, and it describes a tendency in ordinary life as the person reports it, not a diagnosis of anything.
High and low in daily life
High. People high on this facet say they do not believe they are better than others and do not boast about their virtues. In daily life that shows as deflecting praise, crediting the team, discomfort with self-promotion, and a tendency to be underestimated by people who mistake modesty for a lack of ability.
Low. People low on this facet say they think highly of themselves, have a high opinion of themselves and believe they are better than others. In daily life that shows as confidence in interviews and negotiations, easy talk about their achievements, and a readiness to take the lead on merit, which others find either inspiring or hard to take.
Parent domain
- Agreeableness: the broad trait this facet belongs to, with five sibling facets.
What the research says it predicts
Modesty and straightforwardness are the two Big Five facets that most closely track the honesty-humility factor of the HEXACO model. (Ashton and Lee, 2005)
Modesty belongs to the politeness aspect of agreeableness, with straightforwardness and cooperation. (DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, 2007)
Where people fall
The spread of scores
Curve height shows how common each score is; the darker middle holds half of all people. If you have taken a test on this device, your marker is drawn on.
IPIP-NEO-120, modesty, 4 items
410,376 people
The other facets of agreeableness
Sources and licence
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2005). Honesty-humility, the Big Five, and the Five-Factor Model. Journal of Personality, 73(5), 1321-1354. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00351.x
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880-896. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880
Instrument: IPIP-NEO-120. Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 78-89. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.05.003 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/30FacetNEO-PI-RItems.htm.
Norms: Johnson, J. A. IPIP-NEO-120 public dataset (IPIP120.dat), OSF component wxvth of osf.io/tbmh5, https://osf.io/wxvth/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm
Instrument: IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers. Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/newBigFive5broadKey.htm.
Norms: Open-Source Psychometrics Project, IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers responses (IPIP-FFM-data-8Nov2018.zip), 1,015,342 responses collected 2016 to 2018, https://openpsychometrics.org/_rawdata/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm