Dutifulness

Obligation is a distinct motive from ambition or from affection.

High scorers keep their word as a matter of principle. Low scorers treat commitments more flexibly.

High Dutifulness with low Sympathy describes caretaking driven by principle rather than feeling — two very different reasons for identical behaviour.

Four public-domain statements, answered on a five-point scale. Items marked − are reverse keyed: agreeing with them counts against the trait, which is what stops agreeing with everything from producing a high score.

• +Keep my promises
• +Tell the truth
• -Break rules
• -Break my promises

Four items is not many. A facet measured this way carries real uncertainty, which is why every score on this site is reported as a range rather than a single number.

This is one of the traits asked four times over — once for each level of closeness, from your inner circle out to strangers. Our prediction for it: flat.

CONTROL. Obligation as a rule about oneself rather than a response to a person.

• +I follow through on what I have promised ⟨group⟩.
• -I let obligations to ⟨group⟩ slide.
• +I take my responsibilities toward ⟨group⟩ seriously.

⟨group⟩ is replaced by each of the four closeness anchors in turn.