Chances are, many of the people you like least in your life have a unifying trait in common— they are “low H.”

In the last few years I’ve conducted some research on personality and political behavior, which required me to come up to speed on the vast literature on personality traits developed by social psychologists over decades. Ashton and Lee have developed the “HEXACO Model” of personality, which holds that personality can be broken down into six core traits: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience.

If you needed to understand the political winds of China at any moment over the past 25 years, you could simply look to see how Xu Zhiyong was being treated at the time, and you could have a sense. Right now, he is on hunger strike, in response to his poor treatment while in prison. His contact with family and friends is minimal, but he began his strike over a month ago now, so there is serious concern about his health. His friends and colleagues in the overseas democracy community have joined in the fast in solidarity.