The HEXACO correlates of authoritarianism's facets in the U.S. and Denmark

•First study about the relations between HEXACO traits and authoritarianism facets•Samples from the US and Denmark•Consistent relations concerning Openness and Conscientiousness•Honesty-Humility was most positively linked to Conventionalism in US.•Findings substantiate importance of considering both facets and cultural backgrounds.

Research on authoritarianism is increasingly focusing on distinctions among its three facets: authoritarian aggression, authoritarian submission, and conventionalism. We use convenience samples from the U.S. (N = 187) and Denmark (N = 226) to explore the HEXACO personality correlates of the authoritarian facets. As expected, Openness was the most pronounced (negative) predictor of the full-scale authoritarianism and its three facets, and results with Conscientiousness were not significant but were consistent with the modest (positive) associations typically reported. Most important was the predictable differences in the relations the facets had with Honesty-Humility, which was more positively related to conventionalism than authoritarian aggression in the U.S. sample, but not in the Danish sample. Interestingly, the U.S. sample scored significantly higher in authoritarianism and its facets than the Danish sample. We offer a tentative account concerning the desirability of authoritarian beliefs in the two national contexts.