Identification of the manageable human source profile: an analysis based on the experience of Spanish professionals
Abstract
In a global context characterized by information overload and disinformation, human sources remain essential for accessing critical information unavailable through other means. In this regard, this study analyses which specific configuration of personality traits defines the most susceptible and suitable human source to be managed and favourable for the objectives of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) operations, as well as its viability for longterm continuous management. Based on Eysenck's PEN model and employing the Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) technique as a structured methodology, the study was configured by analyzing semi-structured interviews with 17 Spanish professionals with experience in HUMINT. The analysis revealed that the most favorable profile for management corresponds to individuals characterized by their sociability, emotional stability, altruism, and empathy. These traits significantly enhance the establishment of trust-based relationships and the sustained acquisition of reliable information, with relevant operational implications for the identification, recruitment, and ongoing management of human sources in the intelligence domain.
Downloads
References
Abal, F. J. P., Ursino, D. J. y Attorresi, H. F. (2022). Cuestionario revisado de personalidad de Eysenck (versión reducida): análisis con la teoría de respuesta al ítem. Revista CES Psicología, 15(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.21615/cesp.5830
Abella, V. y Bárcena, C. (2014). PEN, modelo de los cinco factores y problemas de conducta en la adolescencia. Revista Acción psicológica, 11(1), 55-68. https://doi.org/10.5944/ap.11.1.13867
Alkış, N. y Taskaya-Temizel, T. (2015). The impact of individual differences on influence strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 147-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.037
Arnold, M., Goldschmitt, M. y Rigotti, T. (2023). Dealing with information overload: a comprehensive review. Frontiers in psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1122200 PMid:37416535 PMCid:PMC10322198
Buckingham, R. M. (2008). Extraversion and neuroticism: investigation of resting electrodermal activity. Australian Journal of Psychology, 60(3), 152-159. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530701656265
Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa de España. (1995). Manual de Inteligencia: guía de actuación. Las órdenes secretas de Manglano a los agentes del CESID (Primera parte). Tiempo de Ediciones.
Costa, P. T., Jr. y McCrae, R. R. (2008). The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). En G. J. Boyle, G. Matthews y D. H. Saklofske (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of personality theory and assessment, Vol. 2. Personality measurement and testing (pp. 179-198). Sage Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200479.n9
Evans, A. M. y Revelle, W. (2008). Survey and behavioral measurements of interpersonal trust. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(6), 1585-1593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2008.07.011
Eysenck, S. B. G., Eysenck, H. J. y Barrett, P. (1985). A revised version of the psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 6(1), 21-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(85)90026-1
Garcés-De Los Fayos López, E., Garcés-De Los Fayos Ruiz, E. J. y Ortín-Montero, F. J. (2023). Ira y personalidad como dos factores relacionados en el deporte: una revisión sistemática. Cuadernos de Psicología del Deporte, 23(1), 21-37. https://doi.org/10.6018/cpd.533361
Halty, L., González, J. L. y Sotoca, A. (2017). Modelo ENCUIST: aplicación al perfilado criminal. Anuario de Psicología Jurídica, 27(1), 21-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apj.2017.03.001
Heym, N., Ferguson, E. y Lawrence, C. (2013). The P-psychopathy continuum: Facets of Psychoticism and their associations with psychopathic tendencies. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(6), 773-778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.001
Jiménez-Villalonga, R. (26 de noviembre de 2018). Tipos de Inteligencia. GlobalStrategy: Análisis y estrategia. https://global-strategy.org/tipos-de-inteligencia/
Jones, N. (2017). Critical epistemology for analysis of competing hypotheses. Intelligence and National Security, 33(2), 273-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2017.1395948
Judge, T. A., Rodell, J. B., Klinger, R. L., Simon, L. S. yy Crawford, E. R. (2013). Hierarchical representations of the five-factor model of personality in predicting job performance: integrating three organizing frameworks with two theoretical perspectives. Journal of applied psychology, 98(6), 875-925. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033901 PMid:24016206
Kennedy-Shaffer, L., Qiu, X. y Hanage, W. P. (2021). Snowball sampling study design for serosurveys early in disease outbreaks. American Journal of Epidemiology, 190(9), 1918-1927. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwab098 PMid:33831177 PMCid:PMC8083564
Küssner, M. B. (2017). Eysenck's theory of personality and the role of background music in cognitive task performance: a mini-review of conflicting findings and a new perspective. Frontiers in psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01991 PMid:29184523 PMCid:PMC5694457
Maegherman, E., Ask, K., Horselenberg, R. y Van Koppen, P. J. (2021). Test of the analysis of competing hypotheses in legal decision‐making. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(1), 62-70. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3738
Martínez, J. A. (2018). Mirror-imaging. Un sesgo cognitivo en el análisis de inteligencia. Revista UNISCI, (47), 223-246. https://doi.org/10.31439/UNISCI-10
Mitchell, R. L. C. y Kumari, V. (2016). Hans Eysenck's interface between the brain and personality: modern evidence on the cognitive neuroscience of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 103, 74-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.009
Oyibo, K. y Vassileva, J. (2019). The relationship between personality traits and susceptibility to social influence. Computers in Human Behavior, 98, 174-188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.032
Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 57(3), 210-221. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.57.3.210
Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A. y Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The power of personality: the comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. Perspectives on psychological science, 2(4), 313-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00047.x PMid:26151971 PMCid:PMC4499872
Romo, M., Sánchez-Ruiz, M. J. y Alfonso-Benlliure, V. (2017). Creatividad y personalidad a través de dominios: una revisión crítica. Anuario de Psicología, 47(2), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anpsic.2017.04.003
Sánchez-Gallego, N. J., Gómez-Macías, C. y Zambrano-Cruz, R. (2011). Revisión sistemática del Cuestionario Factorial de Personalidad (16PF). Pensando Psicología, 7(12), 1-23. https://revistas.ucc.edu.co/index.php/pe/article/view/379
Sánchez-Muñoz, I., Calcerrada-Alcazar, M. L., González-Álvarez, J. L. y De Juan-Espinosa, M. (2018). Persuasión y Personalidad. El receptor en la comunicación persuasiva. Behavior & Law Journal, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.47442/blj.v4.i1.48
Santos-Albardía, M., Agirreazkuenaga-Onaindia, I. y Peña-Fernández, S. (2023). Educomunicación en la era de la hiperconectividad: educación libertadora para fomentar la ciudadanía crítica. CMC Comunicação Mídia E Consumo, 20(58). https://doi.org/10.18568/cmc.v20i58.2820
Servaas, M. N., Van Der-Velde, J., Costafreda, S. G., Horton, P., Ormel, J., Riese, H. y Aleman, A. (2013). Neuroticism and the brain: a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies investigating emotion processing. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 37(8), 1518-1529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.05.005 PMid:23685122
Stachl, C., Au, Q., Schoedel, R., Gosling, S. D., Harari, G. M., Buschek, D., Völkel, S. T., Schuwerk, T., Oldemeier, M., Ullmann, T., Hussmann, H., Bischl, B. y Bühner, M. (2020). Predicting personality from patterns of behavior collected with smartphones. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(30), 17680-17687. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920484117 PMid:32665436 PMCid:PMC7395458
Ueda, I., Kakeda, S., Watanabe, K., Sugimoto, K., Igata, N., Moriya, J., Takemoto, K., Katsuki, A., Yoshimura, R., Abe, O. y Korogi, Y. (2018). Brain structural connectivity and neuroticism in healthy adults. Scientific Reports, 8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-34846-1 PMid:30405187 PMCid:PMC6220248
Wall, H. J., Campbell, C. C., Kaye, L. K., Levy, A. y Bhullar, N. (2019). Personality profiles and persuasion: an exploratory study investigating the role of the Big-5, type D personality and the Dark Triad on susceptibility to persuasion. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 69-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.11.003
Weger, H., Castle-Bell, G., Minei, E. M. y Robinson, M. C. (2014). The Relative Effectiveness of Active Listening in Initial Interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28(1), 13-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2013.813234
Weller, S. C., Vickers, B., Russell-Bernard, H., Blackburn, A. M., Borgatti, S., Gravlee, C. C. y Johnson, J. C. (2018). Open-ended interview questions and saturation. PloS one, 13(6), e0198606. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198606 PMid:29924873 PMCid:PMC6010234
Copyright (c) 2026 Perspectives in Intelligence Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
