Edited by: Sven-Erik Fernaeus, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Reviewed by: Sven-Erik Fernaeus, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; John Zelenski, Carleton University, Canada; Erik E. Noftle, Willamette University, USA
*Correspondence: Syrina Al Aïn, Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste, and Food science, 9E boulevard Jeanne D'Arc, 21000 Dijon, France e-mail:
This article was submitted to Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences, a specialty of Frontiers in Psychology.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by interpersonal manipulation and associated with specific patterns of emotional and social cognition skills. The aim of this study was to investigate its socio-cognitive characteristics by determining its association and predictors on the basis of a multidimensional approach to Machiavellianism. We used Mach IV scale to assess “Machiavellian Intelligence” skill of participants (Christie and Geis,
Machiavellianism is a concept that has been accorded a growing level of interest, especially in the field of personality studies (Rauthmann,
It seems natural to assume that Machiavellian individuals can easily read the minds of others and understand social situations (Davies and Stone,
It has also been suggested that Machiavellian individuals have better “mind-reading skills” or Theory of mind (ToM) (Davies and Stone,
The question of the nature of what it is that lies at the heart of the emotional impairments associated with the presence of Machiavellian behaviors in a healthy population was addressed in the study reported here in an endeavor to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of this multidimensional concept. The debate on determination of emotional characteristics of psychopathology is here applied to the Machiavellianism in a dimensional way. We suggest that the infra-clinical approach could help to take into account the facets of Machiavellian behaviors and differentiated the cognitive and affective components that participate to explain the base of this behavior and its multidimensional expression.
First of all, the empirical data concerning the relation between Machiavellianism and mindreading are subject to some debate (see Paal and Bereczkei,
Secondly, Machiavellian individuals might be characterized by a deficit in feeling and identifying their own emotions, such as alexithymia, or by an inability to experience pleasure, such as anhedonia, i.e., deficits that are relatively common in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Alexithymia is defined as the absence of the words required to express emotions and feelings (Sifneos,
Indeed, the concept of Machiavellian personality is dominated by emotional detachment from others and a lack of interpersonal warmth, a description close to that of alexithymic individuals (Geis,
As far as depression and anxiety are concerned, only a small number of studies have investigated the relationship between clinical and non-clinical depression and Machiavellianism and the results are ambiguous. In a geriatric population, depressed and non-depressed males did not differ in terms of Machiavellianism, whereas depressed females tended to be more Machiavellian than non-depressed females (LaTorre and McLeoad,
Moreover, trait-anxiety could be seen as an awareness of negative contexts and consequences. Indeed, Spitzer et al. (
To date, only a small number of studies have investigated the correlation between Machiavellianism and emotional impairments, and it is possible that this factor could explain the social withdrawal/maladjustment observed in depressed and anxious individuals.
The primary aim of the present study was to examine, in a non-clinical population, the association between Machiavellianism, affective ToM, affective and cognitive empathy, emotional deficits—alexithymia, anhedonia, depression and anxiety—in a young, general, non-clinical population.
We assumed that the Machiavellianism score would correlate negatively with the cognitive and affective empathy scores and affective ToM, but positively with levels of alexithymia, depression, anxiety and anhedonia.
In order to better understand Machiavellianism, we explored the emotional features of each subdimension of the Mach-IV scale.
One hundred and seven native French participants (63 females), recruited from the general population volunteered to take part in the study. Participants were recruited via opportunity sampling from the French general public and students from the University of Reims and Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense (students randomly solicited on the University and personal acquaintances). They were tested in their homes and classrooms in University campus. They were aged between 18 and 30 years, with a mean age of 23.9 years (
The test session was conducted in small groups consisting of two to five participants. The tests were presented in the following order: The “Eyes Test,” BDI-II, BES, SHAPS, Mach-IV, STAI-Y-2, TAS-20. In the “Eyes Test,” the photographs were presented in the same order in all sessions. All the questionnaires were completed on paper. Regarding the Eyes Test, thirty-six photographs of the eye region of the face were shown using a computer but the answers were reported on paper.
Averages are reported as means (with SD) (Table
71.59 (3.3) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
33.13 (6.55) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
31.81 (5.91) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
6.64 (1.7) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
78.48 (7.75) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
36.85 (3.5) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
41.62 (5.78) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
24.31 (2.43) | 0.07 | 0.18 | 1.00 | |||||||||||||
46.91 (2.43) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
15.77 (4.79) | 0.16 | 0.02 | 0.13 | 1.00 | ||||||||||||
13.46 (4.41) | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
17.69 (4) | 0.16 | 0.16 | 1.00 | |||||||||||||
22.6 (4.43) | 0.17 | 0.16 | 0.16 | 0.15 | 1.00 | |||||||||||
3.91 (2.98) | 0.18 | 0.12 | 1.00 | |||||||||||||
43.14 (8.57) | 0.07 | 0.16 | 0.19 | 1.00 |
Descriptive statistics for the emotional and cognitive dimensions for the overall sample are presented in Table
Intercorrelations between Machiavellianism, affective ToM, cognitive and affective empathy, alexithymia, anhedonia, depression and anxiety calculated using Bravais-Pearson correlations are shown in Table
Step-wise multiple regression analyses were performed in order to determine which dimensions of emotional functioning best predict Machiavellianism. In fact, this kind of analysis led to identify for the total score of the Mach-IV and for each of the subscales the differential influence of the socio-emotional factors included in the study. Indeed, a regression analysis permits to highlight the relative importance of each predictor (i.e., SHAPS, TAS-DIF,…) and to determine the specific effect of each one because it takes into account the relations between the various predictors entered in the regression (Howell,
The use of deceit (Mach-IV-I), a cynical view of humanity (Mach-IV-II) and lack of morality (Mach-IV-III) were predicted at different levels by anhedonia, difficulties in describing feelings (DDF) (DIF and DDF), cognitive or affective empathy and ToM (Eyes Test). This point emphasizes the fact that an examination of the dimensional aspects of Machiavellianism has made it possible to show that different combinations of socio-cognitive components are involved in Machiavellian traits.
The results are presented in detail in Table
0.52 | 0.27 | |||||
Constant | 40.16 |
5.37 | 55.98 | |||
TAS-DDF | 0.86 |
0.22 | 15.48 | 0.33 |
||
SHAPS tot. | 0.88 |
0.22 | 16.46 | 0.34 |
||
0.47 | 0.22 | |||||
Constant | 36.93 |
5.18 | 50.83 | |||
STAI-Y-2 | 0.19 |
0.07 | 7.28 | 0.24 |
||
BES-affective | −0.37 |
0.10 | 13.27 | −0.33 |
||
TAS-DDF | 0.28 |
0.14 | 4.25 | 0.19 |
||
0.55 | 0.30 | |||||
Constant | 50.63 |
8.20 | 38.17 | |||
BDI-II | 0.41 |
0193 | 4.61 | 0.19 |
||
BES-cognitive | −0.38 |
0.15 | 6.32 | −0.23 |
||
Eyes Test | −0.51 |
0.21 | 6.23 | −0.21 |
||
SHAPS tot. | 0.28 |
0.12 | 4.90 | 0.21 |
||
0.28 | 0.08 | |||||
Constant | 5.20 |
0.51 | 103.27 | |||
TAS-DDF | 0.11 |
0.04 | 8.76 | 0.28 |
The aim of this study was (1) to explore the emotional characteristics of Machiavellianism and (2) to determine which of these are predictive of the different dimensions of Machiavellianism. First of all, we found that Machiavellianism was negatively correlated with cognitive and affective empathy. A number of studies have demonstrated similar results (Barnett and Thompson,
The correlations between the externally oriented thinking (TAS-EOT) component of alexithymia and the Mach-IV total score or subscales could refer to a concrete and logical mode of thought which does not take account of emotional reactions. Nevertheless, the general Machiavellianism score appeared to be predicted by difficulties in describing feelings. This observation emphasizes the emotional impairments present in Machiavellian persons.
Second, anhedonia was also found to be positively associated with Machiavellianism and negatively associated with empathy: people who find it difficult to feel physical pleasure should therefore be more Machiavellian and less empathic (at the level of both cognitive and affective empathy). To date, no study has addressed and investigated this question. Increased levels of anhedonia were found to be associated with trait-anxiety as well as with difficulties in cognitive empathy, affective ToM and in describing feelings, and also seemed to be related to cynicism. This finding could be seen as proof of the emotional difficulties that lead to Machiavellian behaviors.
In addition, state-depression and trait-anxiety scores were also found to be positively correlated with Machiavellianism scores. In accordance with our hypothesis, the individuals with high scores for depression and/or anxiety symptoms obtained high Machiavellianism scores. Trait-anxiety, which reflects negative affectivity, was a predictor of the Mach-IV-I subscale. This result, which emphasizes the relationship between temperamental anxiety and Machiavellianism, could reflect an awareness of negative consequences. This point could help highlight differences between the “Machiavellian mind” and other personalities and disorders considered to be related to social maladjustment (Spitzer et al.,
However, we have to be cautious about these interpretations as this study has used mainly self-questionnaires. Some participants might communicate, consciously or not, some information which is socially acceptable or consensual, instead of true information about their personality. Thereby, an assessment about the level of socially desirability could be controlled and more test measures could be used in this study (e.g., facial expressions, and physiological responses such as electromyography). In other words, people are prompted to perform Machiavellian actions in response to their unusual patterns of social cognition, and other assessments could be able to underline it in a stronger way. Despite this, they act as a function of the consequences they risk and of which they are aware. Their level of negative affectivity, which is underpinned by their trait anxiety, would lead them to act if the feedback and negative consequences were limited (Spitzer et al.,
To date, no study apart from the one reported here has used this type of tool to investigate the relationship between Machiavellianism and emotional deficits. The results show that there is a negative association between Machiavellianism and (affective/cognitive) empathy and affective ToM, and a positive association between Machiavellianism, levels of alexithymia, anhedonia, depression, and anxiety. The results of the predictions suggest that statistical tools should be used as part of a dimensional approach (i.e., regression) in addition to the category analysis tools.
Moreover, our results emphasize the role of these different emotional components in vulnerability to Machiavellian traits. Future research should investigate clinical and non-clinical populations suffering from depression, schizotypal personality disorders or schizophrenia in order to evaluate the potentially aggravating impact of emotional deficits on Machiavellianism. This type of study could lead to the development of accurate evaluation systems and appropriate therapeutic support and care as a function of the socio-emotional profile of the patient.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.