MOTIVES Correlations
How the seven MOTIVES personality dimensions relate to IPIP-NEO-120, BFI-2, Mini-IPIP, HEXACO Honesty-Humility, and Tellegen evaluation measures.
The broad correspondence is clear: Thinking overlaps most with Conscientiousness, Interpersonal with Agreeableness/Accommodation, Vitality with Emotional Stability and low Neuroticism, and Offbeat with Openness. Materialistic, Easygoing, and Sectarian capture additional variance not represented as cleanly by a single Big Five factor.
Thinking ≈ Conscientiousness
Thinking correlates .324 with BFI-2 Conscientiousness and .325 with Mini-IPIP Conscientiousness. The IPIP-NEO Conscientiousness average is .258.
Interpersonal ≈ Agreeableness
Interpersonal correlates .377 with Mini-IPIP Accommodation, .254 with BFI-2 Accommodation, and .425 with IPIP-NEO Altruism.
Vitality ≈ Emotional Stability
Vitality correlates .441 with BFI-2 Emotional Stability and -.358 with the IPIP-NEO Neuroticism average. Its strongest single negative relationship here is Depression at -.555.
Offbeat ≈ Openness
Offbeat correlates .150 with BFI-2 Openness, .153 with Mini-IPIP Openness, and .194 with IPIP-NEO Adventurousness.
Materialistic and Honesty-Humility
Materialistic shows its strongest negative relationships with Mini-IPIP Honesty-Humility (-.371) and HEXACO Modesty (-.376), consistent with its emphasis on status and external value.
Sectarian and Liberalism
Sectarian correlates negatively with IPIP-NEO Liberalism (-.215) and Sympathy (-.195). These are correlations within this sample, not causal claims.
Full Correlation Matrix
| External Personality Trait | M | O | T | I | V | E | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPIP-NEO-120 — Openness | |||||||
| O1: Imagination | 0.107 | 0.152 | -0.053 | 0.070 | -0.170 | 0.067 | 0.002 |
| O2: Artistic Interests | 0.013 | 0.144 | 0.021 | 0.107 | -0.006 | 0.029 | -0.086 |
| O3: Emotionality | 0.019 | -0.005 | 0.023 | 0.205 | -0.008 | -0.038 | -0.090 |
| O4: Adventurousness | -0.030 | 0.194 | -0.153 | -0.057 | 0.168 | 0.028 | -0.053 |
| O5: Intellect | -0.012 | 0.163 | -0.009 | -0.028 | 0.070 | -0.007 | -0.053 |
| O6: Liberalism | 0.003 | 0.037 | -0.054 | 0.026 | -0.067 | 0.004 | -0.215 |
| O Average | 0.017 | 0.114 | -0.037 | 0.054 | -0.002 | 0.014 | -0.082 |
| IPIP-NEO-120 — Conscientiousness | |||||||
| C1: Self-Efficacy | 0.036 | 0.160 | 0.302 | -0.011 | 0.235 | 0.069 | 0.106 |
| C2: Orderliness | -0.050 | -0.014 | 0.302 | -0.022 | 0.199 | -0.013 | 0.046 |
| C3: Dutifulness | -0.150 | -0.051 | 0.195 | 0.171 | 0.176 | 0.045 | -0.026 |
| C4: Achievement-Striving | -0.046 | 0.061 | 0.252 | 0.085 | 0.168 | -0.075 | -0.005 |
| C5: Self-Discipline | -0.037 | 0.066 | 0.302 | -0.022 | 0.267 | -0.027 | 0.054 |
| C6: Cautiousness | -0.164 | -0.117 | 0.197 | -0.071 | 0.265 | -0.014 | -0.015 |
| C Average | -0.069 | 0.018 | 0.258 | 0.022 | 0.218 | -0.002 | 0.026 |
| IPIP-NEO-120 — Extraversion | |||||||
| E1: Friendliness | 0.106 | 0.081 | 0.016 | 0.060 | 0.275 | 0.049 | -0.002 |
| E2: Gregariousness | 0.191 | 0.114 | -0.014 | 0.020 | 0.197 | 0.008 | -0.007 |
| E3: Assertiveness | 0.161 | 0.230 | 0.149 | -0.095 | 0.156 | -0.048 | 0.098 |
| E4: Activity Level | 0.066 | 0.174 | 0.154 | 0.029 | 0.086 | -0.105 | 0.031 |
| E5: Excitement-Seeking | 0.226 | 0.271 | -0.074 | 0.011 | -0.040 | 0.044 | 0.053 |
| E6: Cheerfulness | 0.074 | 0.162 | 0.124 | 0.101 | 0.368 | 0.151 | 0.031 |
| E Average | 0.137 | 0.172 | 0.059 | 0.021 | 0.174 | 0.017 | 0.034 |
| IPIP-NEO-120 — Agreeableness | |||||||
| A1: Trust | -0.023 | 0.000 | 0.048 | 0.232 | 0.243 | 0.123 | -0.066 |
| A2: Morality | -0.257 | -0.128 | 0.037 | 0.199 | 0.151 | 0.024 | -0.138 |
| A3: Altruism | -0.048 | -0.027 | 0.056 | 0.425 | 0.066 | 0.056 | -0.129 |
| A4: Cooperation | -0.217 | -0.114 | 0.020 | 0.125 | 0.159 | 0.069 | -0.132 |
| A5: Modesty | -0.292 | -0.205 | -0.086 | 0.161 | -0.131 | -0.014 | -0.144 |
| A6: Sympathy | -0.082 | -0.009 | 0.031 | 0.338 | 0.033 | 0.029 | -0.195 |
| A Average | -0.153 | -0.080 | 0.018 | 0.247 | 0.087 | 0.048 | -0.134 |
| IPIP-NEO-120 — Neuroticism | |||||||
| N1: Anxiety | 0.112 | -0.068 | 0.006 | 0.164 | -0.422 | -0.104 | -0.037 |
| N2: Anger | 0.157 | -0.007 | -0.046 | -0.060 | -0.323 | -0.182 | 0.042 |
| N3: Depression | 0.079 | -0.073 | -0.111 | 0.097 | -0.555 | -0.095 | -0.051 |
| N4: Self-Consciousness | -0.063 | -0.139 | -0.005 | 0.128 | -0.290 | -0.017 | -0.053 |
| N5: Immoderation | 0.096 | -0.035 | -0.122 | 0.037 | -0.181 | -0.061 | -0.079 |
| N6: Vulnerability | 0.054 | -0.119 | -0.051 | 0.150 | -0.378 | -0.133 | -0.093 |
| N Average | 0.072 | -0.073 | -0.055 | 0.086 | -0.358 | -0.099 | -0.045 |
| BFI-2 | |||||||
| BFI-2 Openness | 0.023 | 0.150 | 0.011 | 0.017 | 0.014 | -0.001 | -0.064 |
| BFI-2 Conscientiousness | -0.061 | 0.014 | 0.324 | 0.033 | 0.223 | -0.032 | 0.039 |
| BFI-2 Extraversion | 0.126 | 0.160 | 0.075 | -0.043 | 0.225 | -0.037 | 0.038 |
| BFI-2 Accommodation | -0.087 | -0.006 | 0.076 | 0.254 | 0.179 | 0.101 | -0.078 |
| BFI-2 Emotional Stability | -0.088 | 0.089 | 0.095 | -0.110 | 0.441 | 0.171 | 0.082 |
| Mini-IPIP | |||||||
| Mini-IPIP Openness | 0.006 | 0.153 | -0.018 | -0.014 | 0.087 | 0.012 | -0.065 |
| Mini-IPIP Conscientiousness | -0.015 | -0.008 | 0.325 | -0.002 | 0.183 | 0.001 | 0.066 |
| Mini-IPIP Extraversion | 0.224 | 0.165 | 0.020 | 0.007 | 0.189 | -0.052 | 0.003 |
| Mini-IPIP Accommodation | 0.001 | 0.024 | 0.028 | 0.377 | 0.066 | 0.019 | -0.142 |
| Mini-IPIP Neuroticism | 0.076 | -0.044 | -0.044 | 0.031 | -0.301 | -0.191 | -0.055 |
| Mini-IPIP Honesty-Humility | -0.371 | -0.146 | -0.013 | 0.117 | 0.038 | 0.011 | -0.177 |
| HEXACO / Tellegen | |||||||
| HEXACO Sincerity | -0.179 | 0.017 | 0.070 | 0.088 | 0.097 | 0.038 | 0.076 |
| HEXACO Fairness | -0.147 | 0.011 | 0.136 | 0.128 | 0.176 | -0.008 | 0.010 |
| HEXACO Greed-Avoidance | -0.221 | -0.007 | -0.004 | 0.108 | 0.061 | 0.005 | -0.055 |
| HEXACO Modesty | -0.376 | -0.145 | -0.038 | 0.154 | 0.058 | 0.003 | -0.123 |
| HEXACO Honesty-Humility Avg | -0.203 | -0.052 | 0.041 | 0.104 | 0.022 | -0.024 | -0.054 |
| Tellegen Negative Evaluation | 0.076 | 0.035 | -0.109 | -0.072 | -0.220 | -0.043 | 0.056 |
| Tellegen Positive Evaluation | 0.177 | 0.184 | 0.035 | -0.106 | 0.169 | 0.013 | 0.076 |
How to read this: a positive coefficient means higher scores on the external trait are associated with higher scores on that MOTIVES dimension; a negative coefficient means the opposite. Correlations under |.150| are left white to make the larger relationships easier to see.
What the Matrix Suggests About the Big Five
The results support several familiar correspondences, but they also show why MOTIVES does not simply rename the Big Five. The strongest one-to-one relationships are Thinking–Conscientiousness, Interpersonal–Agreeableness, Offbeat–Openness, and Vitality–Emotional Stability.
Extroversion is less clean. It loads positively on several MOTIVES dimensions at once, especially Vitality, Offbeat, and Materialistic tendencies. This is one reason SimilarMinds treats broad Introversion/Extroversion scores cautiously: an outgoing person may be socially energetic because they are positive and activated, because they seek attention/status, because they seek stimulation, or some combination of those motives.
Easygoing and Sectarian also do not map neatly onto a standard Big Five axis. That is part of the rationale for retaining them as separate MOTIVES dimensions rather than forcing them into an existing five-factor structure.
Measures Used
- IPIP-NEO-120 — facets of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
- BFI-2 — broad Big Five domain scores.
- Mini-IPIP — shorter Big Five measures plus Honesty-Humility in the version used here.
- HEXACO Honesty-Humility — Sincerity, Fairness, Greed-Avoidance, and Modesty.
- Tellegen evaluation measures — positive and negative evaluation tendencies.