Generic HONEST rejecters
“I believe that honesty is the basis for trust.
I would not lie; even to get myself out of trouble.”
HONEST REJECTERS are those who score in the lowest (approximate) tertile
of agreement with these statements.
Figure 1. HONEST rejecters
Here’s how HONEST REJECTERS break out amongst the Maslow groups.
| Maslow Group | Population (base) % | Attribute % | Index |
| Pioneers | 37.7 | 33.9 | 90 |
| Prospectors | 36.8 | 42.5 | 115 |
| Settlers | 25.5 | 23.8 | 94 |
Demographically, this group rejects the basis of HONEST and is over-indexed amongst males; and amongst the under 35s.
They are correspondingly under-indexed by the over 55’s and amongst females. This is not to suggest that it’s purely a male
thing; the split is actually about 57/43 male/female.
The dark side.
Deviating from our normal pattern here, we are taking a look at the negative end of the espousal spectrum.
To get inside the values system and mind of those who reject the defining pair statement we can look at the top seven over-indexed Attributes espoused by the HONEST rejecters.
These are:
SIMMER (index 160) – The thought of social disorder excites me. I would enjoy being involved in a street riot.
SPECULATE (index 147) – I am a gambler at heart. I am prepared to take a risk in order to make a lot of money.
CATHARSIS (index 147) – I believe that violence is just a part of life. I think that, when you can’t take it anymore and feel like you’re about to explode, a little violent behaviour can relieve the tension.
MATERIAL WEALTH (index 141) – It is important to him to be rich. He wants to have lots of money and expensive things.
PATRIARCHY (index 141) – For me, a man’s place is at work and a woman’s place is in the home. I believe that men are naturally superior to women.
BENDER (index 136) – I believe it’s perfectly OK to bend the rules to get what you want – just don’t get caught. I think that every system has its weak points – you just have to find them.
The zinger amongst their top 7 Attributes associated with their rejection is their espousal of the Attribute we call SIMMER (index 160 – 60% above the population norm).
This doesn’t bode well for society at large. Perhaps it’s a fluke, an aberration, a one-off thing?
No.
When it’s looked at in the context of the other associated Attributes, the picture is much darker; one that suggests a solid ground for the promulgation of unrest, untruth, conspiracy theory, and so on.
To any HONEST espouser, whatever their values orientation, simply reading through this list is almost guaranteed to send shivers down the spine. But there is a wider message in here – one that needs to be heard by the body politic. Espousers of HONEST believe that personal truthfulness is the foundation stone of a stable, democratic society. Every little breach of truth of this personal orientation fuels the bonfire of the vanities seen in many political and social movements, as well as commercial organizations in today’s world.
Rejecters of HONEST are like cancer cells in the body politic. Like cancer cells the only life they care about are their own, denying the preciousness of truth they expose the fragility of trust-based society.
Welcoming the chance to enjoy being in a street riot? Being excited by the idea of social disorder? Really? The prospect of excitement and enjoyment in these very anti-social behaviours and thoughts is over-indexed among the HONEST rejecters.
Being happy to be involved in antisocial occasions, they are also likely to be among those who take the joy and excitement to another level of violence.
They are 45% more likely than the population to believe that the use of physical force is OK if it is a way of getting what they want. They are also 47% more likely than the rest of the population to believe this isn’t even something for debate. To them violence is just a part of life. They believe that sometimes a little bit of aggro can relieve tensions that are building up – to paraphrase Winston Churchill, “a little less jaw, jaw, jaw and a little more war, war, war!”.
The Italian Futurists gave this orientation a veneer of ‘rebel respectability’ in pre-WWI Italy, lending an artistic credibility to an essentially patriarchal radicalism. The intellectual embrace of street violence erupted in violent entertainments and demonstration that urged the Italian society of the day to destroy ‘the old ways’ and replace it with a more ‘masculine and virile’ society. Benito Mussolini was an early, non-artistic, acolyte before he transformed the anti-intellectual radicalism into a political movement.
Today the podcasts and blogs of the far right around the world are fulfilling the needs of those rejecting HONESTY and espousing SIMMER, FORCE, CATHARSIS and PATRIARCHY.
Social movements among young men casting themselves as Incels are attracted to the same types of messages appealing to two other self-identified groups.
The first are those who will exhibit erratic and spontaneous violence in social settings (street riots, social disorder). Feeling that violence is just a part of life, they will feel few qualms about jumping into violent situations – and be largely unrepentant once it is over. These are primarily younger men (under 35) who will have high levels of distrust of those in authority. Telling the truth if it gets you in trouble seems like ‘doing something stupid’, when a lie will get them out of trouble. Rejecting telling the truth can even make them feel good. Connecting these Attributes creates the conditions to display their own visceral version a masculine virility.
The opening lines of the old Rolling Stones song “Street Fighting Man” is a good summation of this subgroup within HONEST:
Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy.
'Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting
in the street, boy.
A good case could be made that, for a lot of the men (and women) who joined in the storming of the Senate Building in the United States on Dec 6 2021, they would ascribe themselves as supporting this orientation. Believing themselves to be part of a movement, they felt no qualms about the use of ‘masculine virility’ to storm the bastion of the old, to use violence in the pursuit of the excitement of a street riot and the enjoyment of civil disturbance.
The other subgroup within the HONEST rejecters is a group that is united in their embrace of material and financial success at almost any cost. They index at 147 in terms of SPECULATE, 141 on MATERIAL WEALTH, and 136 on BENDER. All three of these Attributes are more or less evenly spread throughout the population in terms of class but are skewed towards younger and male.
These people are comfortable with bending the rules to achieve material success and accumulating wealth. It is likely that espousers of HONEST have a vision of better future in which people trust each other and that lying is just not an option if all of us are work together towards a common goal.
Life isn’t like that to HONEST rejecters.
Life isn’t lived within a vision; it is lived within a dream – a dream that easily turn to a nightmare. Highly pragmatic – win some, lose some – they are willing to take a gamble to achieve the material wealth they use as a measure of their success.
Combining the Attributes into a whole, it is a good first cut to get a picture of a prime driver of political, social and economic corruption that is rife in many countries around the world. Many populist leaders and successful business leaders will be rejectors of HONEST. The truth is not as important as the ability to project power and display wealth. A public morality generated through non-truths covers up private pragmatic amoralities.
Good examples in the political sphere are the tens of thousands of documented lies by the former President of the United States; and the continual lies of the recently resigned British Prime Minister recorded in newspapers and mainstream media outlets in the UK.
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For lower-level political lying and corruption – as well as high-level corporate examples of decision makers likely to be rejecting HONEST - look no further than any issue of Private Eye or the more specialist Financial Times! |