Close replication of Paul, Lee, and Ashton (2022): Who tells prosocial lies?

Within the present research, we conducted a close replication of Paul et al. (2022), who reported the HEXACO Honesty-Humility trait to be positively correlated with prosocial lies by applying a procedure in which participants should rate a poorly written essay. Consistent with the original study, participants (N = 324) higher in Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness showed more prosocial lying. Because the associations disappeared within a shared regression model, we assume the correlation between Honesty-Humility and prosocial lies to be weaker than postulated within the original study and to be at least as equivalently strong as the association between Agreeableness and prosocial lies. The validity and generalizability of the findings and the limitations of the original and the replication study are discussed.