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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Bully/victim problems and their association with Machiavellianism and self-efficacy in Greek primary school children.

BACKGROUND: Previous research demonstrated that Machiavellian beliefs are linked with bully/victim problems at school. However, Machiavellianism was treated as a single construct and not as multidimensional. Children's perceptions of self-efficacy in both social and academic domains have been related to conflictual peer interactions but not directly to bully/victim problems. This study extends previous work by examining the association of Machiavellianism and self-efficacy with bully/victim problems. AIMS: The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between bully/victim problems and (a) components of Machiavellian beliefs, (b) Self-efficacy for Assertion, (c) Self-efficacy for Aggression and (d) Self-efficacy for Learning and Performance, among school-age children. It was also examined whether children who bully others and are bullied themselves (bully/victims) are a distinct group in terms of Machiavellian beliefs and the above perceptions of self-efficacy. SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 186 children drawn from the fourth to sixth grade classrooms of four primary schools in central Greece. METHOD: Peer victimization and bullying behaviour were assessed by two 6-item self-report scales (Austin & Joseph, 1996), Machiavellian beliefs with a 20-item scale (Christie & Geis, 1970), Self-efficacy for Assertion and Self-efficacy for Aggression with two 6-item scales (Egan & Perry, 1998) and Self-efficacy for Learning and Performance with an 8-item scale (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991). Higher scores reflected greater victimization, bullying behaviour, Machiavellianism and domain specific self-efficacy. Data were analysed using both correlational and categorical approach. RESULTS: Factor analysis of the Kiddie Mach scale revealed four main factors: Lack of Faith in Human Nature, Manipulation, Dishonesty and Distrust. The results of the correlational approach suggest that both bullying and victimization are associated with most of these factors, overall Machiavellianism and self-efficacy measures. Separate analyses for boys and girls provide a more precise picture of that association. The results of the categorical approach, regarding differences in the Kiddie Mach and Self-efficacy scales between bullies, victims and bully/victims, suggest that bully/victims are a distinct group in terms of Lack of Faith in Human Nature and overall Machiavellianism. Moreover, bully/victims were found to be similar to victims with respect to Self-efficacy for Assertion but similar to bullies with respect to Self-efficacy for Aggression. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-bullying interventions might profit from a greater focus on mastery-oriented motivation and more emphasis on citizenship and interpersonal relationships in order to minimize children's aggression-encouraging cognition and reduce Machiavellian attitudes. Further research is needed to explain satisfactorily the behaviour patterns of bully/victims.

Aggression↗
PubMed1993

Machiavellianism in medical students.

To be more responsive to the nation's health needs, medical educators should identify those personal qualities associated with effective primary medical care. For this research Machiavellianism was chosen as a tracer character trait opposed to the characteristics embodied in an ideal family physician. A survey was conducted of 167 freshmen from one medical school and 823 seniors from four medical schools, with Machiavellianism scores used to predict their professional role characteristics, attributional style toward patients, and choice of a career specialty. Results showed that 15% of all students scored positively on the Machiavellianism scale. Mean Machiavellianism scores for seniors did not differ from those for freshmen. Men had higher Machiavellianism scores than women. Those students with high Machiavellianism scores relied excessively on high-tech medicine and were externally controlled, intolerant of ambiguity, and authoritarian. Seniors' high Machiavellianism scores predicted a negative attributional style toward geriatric and hypochondriac patients, thereby validating the use of Machiavellianism to measure medical students' indifference to patients and their problems.

Career Choice↗
PubMed1976

Machiavellianism in patients and their children.

The role of the family in the development of Machiavellianism was examined in this study. High- and low-Machiavellian sixth graders played a bluffing game. Their parents completed Machiavellian belief measures. The Machiavellianism of fathers and mothers was positively related to their children's success at deceiving others but not at seeing through others' attempts at deception. In addition, fathers' Machiavellianism was positively related to their children's Machiavellian beliefs. These data support a modeling hypothesis for the development of Machiavellianism. Unexpectedly, the children's own behaviors and beliefs were unrelated. This pattern of results suggests that a child's manipulative behaviors and beliefs are learned separately and only become consistent over time.

Attitude↗
PubMed1995

Machiavellianism and medical career choices.

Medical career choices and Machiavellianism of 36 junior and 37 senior medical students at one private midwestern medical school were studied. Machiavellianism was measured by the Mach V Scale. Students choosing psychiatry did not score significantly higher on Machiavellianism than those choosing medicine, surgery, or other clinical medical specialties. This is contrary to previous research which indicated those medical students choosing psychiatry scored higher on Machiavellianism. There were no significant differences in Machiavellianism scores from two different age groups (20-30 yr. and 31-40 yr.). No significant differences were reported in Machiavellianism scores of 45 male and 29 female medical students or between junior and senior medical students.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Students' moral reasoning, Machiavellianism and socially desirable responding: implications for teaching ethics and research integrity.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between psychological constructs related to professional and research integrity and moral reasoning among medical students. METHODS: Medical students, 2nd-year (n = 208, 85.6% of 243 enrolled students), answered the moral reasoning test-defining issues test 2 (DIT2) and the Machiavellianism and Paulhus socially desirable responding (SDR) scales. RESULTS: Students had the highest score on the post-conventional schema of moral reasoning (mean +/- standard deviation, 35.2 +/- 11.6 of a possible 95) compared with personal interest (27.2 +/- 12.3) and maintaining norms schemae (29.2 +/- 11.5; P < 0.001, repeated-measures anova). Female students scored higher than their male collegues on post-conventional moral reasoning (37.6 +/- 11.0 versus 31.2 +/- 22.4, P < 0.001, independent-sample t-test). Of all 4 Machiavellianism subscales students scored highest on deceiving, where female students scored higher than their male colleagues (24.5 +/- 4.2 versus 22.9 +/- 5.1 of a possible 30; P = 0.037, independent-sample t-test). Female students also scored higher on the impression management subscale, whereas their male colleagues scored higher on the self-deception subscale of the Paulhus SDR scale. Moral reasoning scores were associated with cynicism, deceiving and flattering Machiavellianism scores, but not with Paulhus SDR scores. Multiple regression analysis showed the Machiavellianism amorality score as a significant negative predictor (beta = -0.183, P = 0.017) and female sex as a positive predictor (beta = 0.291, P < 0.001) for the post-conventional schema score on the DIT2. The Machiavellianism flattering score was a significant negative predictor for the personal interest schema score (beta = -0.215, P = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Although moral reasoning is generally seen as independent of variables related to personality, our study indicated that Machiavellianism, especially its amorality and flattering subscales, were associated with moral reasoning. These results have important implications for teaching ethics and the responsible conduct of research in different cultural and socio-economic settings.

Education, Medical, Undergraduate↗
PubMed2000

Social competition in school: relationships with bullying, Machiavellianism and personality.

BACKGROUND: Bullying is investigated as part of the individual's general framework of attitudes towards interpersonal relationships, social competition and motivation in school. AIMS: It was hypothesised that bullying behaviour and pro-bullying attitudes would be associated with socially competitive attitudes in the classroom, Machiavellianism, and the personality constructs of Psychoticism and Extraversion. SAMPLES: 198 9- to 12-year-old children from two Glasgow primary schools. METHODS: Children completed several measures: a newly developed questionnaire assessing motivations behind social competition and effort in class, the Kiddie-Mach scale, the Pro-Victim scale, items from the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire, and the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. RESULTS: A 'Desire for social success' factor (incorporating a deliberate lack of effort) was negatively correlated with support for victims of bullying, even after partialling out Machiavellianism, Psychoticism, and social desirability. Pro-victim attitudes were in turn negatively correlated with Machiavellianism and Psychoticism, and positively correlated with Lie score. Finally, children categorised as bullies scored significantly higher than controls on Machiavellianism, and significantly lower in terms of pro-victim attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed in terms of further study and implications for classroom practice and anti-bullying policy.

Aggression↗
PubMed2002

Relations of Machiavellian behavior with sales performance of stockbrokers.

The hypothesis of a relationship between Machiavellian behavior and sales performance of Christie and Geis was tested with a sample of 110 stockbrokers. Scores on a measure called the Machiavellian Behavior scale were positively and significantly correlated with two self-reported measures of sales performance of the stock-brokers. Present results together with those of two earlier studies supported the hypothesis that salespeople with a Machiavellian orientation are likely to be more sucessful. Analysis of the data also indicated predictive validity and acceptable internal consistency of the Machiavellian Behavior scale. Limitations of the present study and a need for further research are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Assessment of Machiavellian intelligence in antisocial disorder with the MACH-IV Scale].

INTRODUCTION: The objective is to evaluate the presence of Machiavellian intelligence with the MACH-IV Scale in antisocial patients versus community controls. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Categorical diagnosis and dimensional evaluation program according to IPDE were obtained from 26 controls from the community and 40 patients from a methadone program. Both groups were evaluated on cooperation with TCI and on Machiavellian intelligence with MACH-IV. RESULTS: Higher figures in MACH-IV Global Score, Tactics subscale (to manipulate others), Visions subscale (interpretations on Machiavellian behavior of others) were found in the 20 antisocial patients compared with the 26 community controls achieving statistical significance. No statistical differences were found for Morality subscale scores (abstract morality) between groups. Dimensional evaluation of antisocial disorder according to IPDE shows statistically significant positive correlations for Tactics subscale, Visions subscale and Global Score of MACH-IV scale, but no statistically significant correlation was found for Morality subscale. There is a statistically significant negative correlation between MACH-IV Tactics subscale and TIC altruism subscale. CONCLUSIONS: Antisocial patients have the same level of abstract moral attitudes as controls but are prone to use Machiavellian intelligence to interpret the actions of others, rationalize their own conduct and manipulate the behavior of others to get a benefit. These data support the hypothesis that many of the features of the antisocial syndrome may be explained by an abnormal development of an innate predisposition to be dominant in social relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The dynamics of Machiavellian intelligence.

The "Machiavellian intelligence" hypothesis (or the "social brain" hypothesis) posits that large brains and distinctive cognitive abilities of humans have evolved via intense social competition in which social competitors developed increasingly sophisticated "Machiavellian" strategies as a means to achieve higher social and reproductive success. Here we build a mathematical model aiming to explore this hypothesis. In the model, genes control brains which invent and learn strategies (memes) which are used by males to gain advantage in competition for mates. We show that the dynamics of intelligence has three distinct phases. During the dormant phase only newly invented memes are present in the population. During the cognitive explosion phase the population's meme count and the learning ability, cerebral capacity (controlling the number of different memes that the brain can learn and use), and Machiavellian fitness of individuals increase in a runaway fashion. During the saturation phase natural selection resulting from the costs of having large brains checks further increases in cognitive abilities. Overall, our results suggest that the mechanisms underlying the "Machiavellian intelligence" hypothesis can indeed result in the evolution of significant cognitive abilities on the time scale of 10 to 20 thousand generations. We show that cerebral capacity evolves faster and to a larger degree than learning ability. Our model suggests that there may be a tendency toward a reduction in cognitive abilities (driven by the costs of having a large brain) as the reproductive advantage of having a large brain decreases and the exposure to memes increases in modern societies.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed2003

Machiavellianism and Theory of Mind in people affected by schizophrenia.

CONTEXT: People affected by schizophrenia show deficits in social interaction (Cramer, Bowen, & O'Neill, 1992); such a deficit may stem from an alteration in the representation of mental states. OBJECT: In this study we have examined 42 people affected by schizophrenia, diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria, by testing them with an instrument (the Mach IV scale, Christie & Geis, 1970) assessing "Machiavellian Intelligence" according to Niccolò Machiavelli's assertions. Schizophrenic subjects were compared to a sample of normal controls, matched for age, sex, and education. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to evaluate if there were correlations between the ability to understand other people's mental states and the capacity for interpreting "Machiavellian expressions." RESULTS: Results show that people affected by schizophrenia are less able to use Machiavellian-style "tactical" abilities than controls. CONCLUSION: Such a disability seems to be correlated to poor mentalising abilities.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Machiavellianism: a synthesis of the evolutionary and psychological literatures.

Manipulative strategies of social conduct (Machiavellianism) have been studied by both psychologists and evolutionary biologists. The authors use the psychological literature as a database to test evolutionary hypotheses about the adaptive advantages of manipulative social behavior. Machiavellianism does not correlate with general intelligence and does not consistently lead to real-world success. It is best regarded as 1 of several social strategies, broadly similar to the "defect" strategy of evolutionary game theory, which is successful in some situations but not others. In general, human evolutionary psychology and evolutionary game theory provide useful frameworks for thinking about behavioral strategies, such as Machiavellianism, and identify a large number of specific hypotheses that have not yet been tested by personality and social psychologists.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Job involvement and Machiavellianism: obsession-compulsion or detachment?

This study addressed a conflicting finding in the Machiavellianism literature--the direction of the relationship between job involvement and Machiavellianism. Although the results did not verify the positive relationship implicit in the view of job involvement as obsession-compulsion, they did confirm the negative relationship implicit in the characterization of Machiavellians as somewhat detached from their surroundings and uninvolved in their jobs.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Machiavellianism and management: a review of single-nation studies exclusive of the USA and cross-national studies.

This is a review of literature on Machiavellianism involving single-nation studies exclusive of the USA and cross-national studies. The articles are empirical studies with a direct or indirect relationship to management. National groups with especially high and low scores on the Mach IV and Mach V are identified. Issues which need to be addressed include a sampling bias which favors students, a lack of field studies, questions raised about factor structure of common scales used to measure Machiavellianism, and inconsistencies in the results of studies involving the relationship of locus of control, achievement motivation, and authoritarianism to Machiavellianism. Research involving organizational context and job performance should be undertaken as should additional cross-national research.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed2003

Relation between Machiavellianism and job satisfaction in a sample of Turkish physicians.

Job satisfaction is affected by many factors. A consistent negative correlation between Machiavellianism and Job satisfaction was shown by many previous studies. To estimate this association in a sample of Turkish people, 361 physicians were selected among the total number of 5,959 working in Ankara City Center. A self-administered questionnaire including the Mach IV scale and Job Satisfaction scale developed by Kasapoğlu was applied to the subjects. Student t test and Pearson correlation were used for analysis. The correlation of -.25 between Job Satisfaction and Machiavellianism scores was significant and consistent with the mean scores on Job Satisfaction between the Machiavellian and Nonmachiavellian groups. Although the present association is small, the inverse value is consistent for Mach IV scale scores with job satisfaction in the literature.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Machiavellianism's association with sources of motivation and downward influence strategies.

Recent studies have examined the relationship between motivation and influence tactics with mixed results. Barbuto and Scholl found several strong relationships between leaders' sources of motivation and the influence tactics used when influencing subordinates, but replication yielded weaker relationships between motivation and influence tactics. Examinations of moderating variables such as leaders' Machiavellian disposition were suggested as possible explanations for this difference. Several interacting effects between leaders' sources of motivation and Machiavellianism have been proposed as predictors of the influence tactic used. This study tested these relationships and found modest association between motivation sources and influence tactics. Some moderating effects of Machiavellianism on this relationship were evident: however, interpretation is cautioned given poor psychometric properties of the measure. These issues are discussed along with suggestions for research.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Exploratory study of Machiavellianism and bases of social power in bankers.

This study focused on relationships between Machiavellianism in subordinates and perceived social power bases of supervisors in a sample of 168 bank officers in the western United States. Regression analyses showed no significant relationships between subordinates' Machiavellianism scores and four supervisory power bases subscales. The association between scores on Machiavellianism and coercive power reached p < .06.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Machiavellian characteristics among nurses.

The study of Machiavellian traits in the research literature represents a significant variable that affects professional career choice and behavior in the work environment. This research examines the following hypotheses: 1. the degree of Machiavellian orientation will be the same for hospital nursing administrators and nurse educators; and 2. head nurses will reveal high Machiavellian scores.

Faculty, Nursing↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Machiavellianism and radiographer job satisfaction.

This article reports the results of a survey conducted to determine the relationship between Machiavellianism and job satisfaction among radiographers. As predicted by the literature, the survey showed a negative correlation between these two constructs-radiographers with higher Machiavellianism had lower job satisfaction, while those with the lowest Machiavellianism had the highest job satisfaction. Education, gender, marital status, race, position and time in position had no significant effect on the two constructs.

Adult↗