Part 2/? in an ongoing(?) series of posts attempting to establish basic ideas of sex differences. Part 1 here: Sex Differences in Libido

Basic overview of Machiavellianism

[Niccolo Machiavelli] Although historians continue to debate how best to characterize this sixteenth century Florentine writer (Jensen 1960), few dispute the impact of his two most famous works: The Prince (Machiavelli 1513) and Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius (Machiavelli 1531). Indeed, interpretations of these works have resulted in the label Machiavellian becoming a negative epithet, indicating at least an amoral (if not immoral) way of manipulating others to accomplish one's objectives. Although Machiavelli wrote for political leaders in sixteenth century Italy, many analysts believe that his ideas are applicable to modem business managers.

Some writers openly advocate Machiavellian tactics for the top executive who wishes to stay in power. For example. McMurry (1973) recommends that "an executive-politician must: use caution in taking counsel . . . avoid too close superior-subordinate relationships. . . not hesitate to be ruthless when expedient ... limit what is to be communicated. . . learn never to place too much dependence on a subordinate unless it is clearly in the latter's personal advantage to be loyal. . .and give outward evidence of status, power, and material success w (pp. 144-145). Entire treatises apply Machiavellian tactics to management (Jay 1969) and some (controversial) MBA courses specifically teach Machiavellian techniques (Business Week 1975).

This particular trait seems to be harder to study and make definite claims about. Sex drive is relatively straightforward compared to it (wanna fuck?). Machiavellianism and psychological manipulation are much more complex behaviors with confounding variables all over the place. Studies in this area are often in the context of ethics in business practices, which may or may not translate directly to non-commercial interpersonal relationships, and might confound results even further as it seems likely women in any type of high level position are more likely to exhibit Mach behavior (ahem... HRC).

Further, many/most studies on this particular trait have particularly small sample sizes and non-random sampling processes. This is worth keeping in mind before drawing any conclusions.

Ethical Reasoning, Machiavellian Behavior, and Gender: The Impact on Accounting Students' Ethical Decision Making

This research is designed to gain an understanding of how accounting students respond to realistic, business ethical dilemmas. Prior research suggests that accounting students exhibit lower levels of ethical reasoning compared to other business and non-business majors. This study uses the Defining Issues Test, Version 2 (Rest, et al., 1999) to measure accounting students ethical reasoning processes. The Mach IV scale (Christie and Geis, 1970) is used to measure moral behavior. Eight ethical vignettes adapted from prior ethics studies represent realistic, business ethical scenarios. A total of sixty-eight undergraduate accounting students are used to examine three hypotheses. Literature suggests that individuals with lower ethical reasoning levels are more likely to agree with unethical behavior. Therefore, hypothesis one investigates the relationship between ethical reasoning and ethical decision making. Literature also suggests that individuals agreeing with Machiavellian statements are more likely to agree with questionable activities. Hypothesis two investigates the relationship between Machiavellian behavior and ethical decision making. Prior gender literature suggests that gender influences ethical decision making, with females being more ethical than males. Therefore, hypothesis three examines whether female accounting students agree less with questionable activities compared to males. Results indicate that ethical reasoning is significantly correlated with students ethical ratings on the business vignettes. Similarly, Machiavellian behavior is significantly correlated with students ethical ratings. Consistent with prior gender literature, females agree less with questionable activities compared to male accounting students.

Achievement and Machiavellianism among Men and Women Managers

Mehrabian's achievement scale and the Mach IV were administered to 51 male and 51 female managers. No significant differences were obtained for the Mach scores between groups, but the women scored significantly higher than the men on achievement. Moreover, those respondents who scored very high on Mach tended significantly to score low on achievement. (!) The reverse relationship was not found.

Machiavellianism and Job Satisfaction of Retailing Executives in a Specialty Store Chain

The Mach IV scale and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to 60 managers of specialty stores. Female store managers scored significantly higher on the Mach IV scale, and no significant differences were observed between men and women on the five subscales of the Job Descriptive Index. A significant relation for women was observed between Machiavellianism and satisfaction with opportunities for promotion. This was the only significant finding of 15 regression analyses examining the relations between Machiavellianism and job satisfaction for the entire sample, for men and for women.

Job Satisfaction and Machiavellian Orientation among Department Store Executives

The Mach IV scale and the Index of Job Satisfaction were administered to 218 department store executives. Female executives scored significantly higher on the Mach IV scale and significantly lower on the Index of Job Satisfaction than male executives. A significant negative correlation was observed between Machiavellianism and Job Satisfaction for the entire sample, for men and for women.

Contrary finding to the previous study wherein there was no significant difference between men and women managers in Mach score.

Machiavellianism and sexuality: on the moderating role of biological sex

We examined via self-report relations between Machiavellianism (MACH), sexual attitudes and a variety of sexual behaviors, including a willingness to force sexual acts on another in the absence of culpability. As predicted, MACH is associated with an open, promiscuous and hostile set of sexual attitudes. In addition, MACH is associated with a variety of self-serving and deceptive sexual tactics such as cheating, divulging intimate sexual secrets to third parties, and both feigning love and inducing intoxication to secure sex. MACH is also positively associated with an expressed willingness to force others into sexual acts in the absence of culpability. However, many of these relationships are moderated by participant sex. As would be predicted by either biological or socialization based accounts of sexuality, these relationships are attenuated or absent for the female participants. The discussion focuses on the nature of MACH sexuality, and how this differs in men and women.

Social Perception as a Function of Machiavellianism

Using a hypothetical situation describing a stimulus person who succeeds or fails to win a desired promotion through merit or influence, we tested the hypotheses that greater ethical sensitivity in their evaluation of the stimulus person would be displayed by low compared with high Machiavellians and by female compared with male subjects. The experiment employed a 2 × 2 × 2× 2 (Subject's Machiavellanism × Subject's Sex × Stimulus Person's Merit vs. Influence × Stimulus Person's Success vs. Failure) factorial design, with 10 subjects per cell. The dependent measures were ratings of the stimulus person on intelligence, morality, and likability. The stimulus person with merit was rated more favorably on all three dimensions than the person with influence. Female subjects showed a greater ethical sensitivity in their evaluations compared with male subjects. The expectation that low would show greater ethical sensitivity than high Machiavellians was supported only in the case of female subjects; a somewhat opposite finding was obtained in the case of male subjects.

On Different Relationships between Dogmatism and Machiavellianism among Male and Female College Students

A brief dogmatism scale and the Kiddie Machiavellianism Scale were answered by 112 male and 83 female students. The men's Mach scores were higher than the women's. The correlation between dogmatism and Mach— was not significant in either sex; in contrast, the correlation between dogmatism and Mach+ was significant for both sexes, r being significantly greater for the women than for the men. Agreement response set therefore seemed to be involved in the correlations between these scales for both sexes, though more for the women than the men. Factor by factor correlations indicated that for the men, the main other overlap between these two scales was an unflattering view of people, as hypothesized by Christie and Geis; for the women, however, the overlap between the scales was more extensive. The interpretation of this sex difference suggested the possibility that women may be more Machiavellian than their scores suggest and may even be more Machiavellian than men, though their scores typically suggest the opposite.

Marketing and Machiavellianism

Younger marketers are more Machiavellian than older marketers, and singles are more Machiavellian than marrieds. Nevertheless, several of our findings directly contradict either the research findings of previous writers or their speculations. Sex was a significant predictor of Machiavellianism: women were more Machiavellian than men. This finding is inconsistent with most studies. which generally show women to score lower in Machiavellianism than men. The regression results also show, contrary to the findings of Wenhiem, Widom, and Wortzel (1978), that marketers who majored as undergraduates in business administration are not more Machiavellian than marketers who majored in other areas. Similarly, contrary to previous research and speculation, neither education nor size of firm was a significant predictor of Machiavellianism. That is, marketers who are more highly educated are not more Machiavellian and neither are those who work for smaller companies. Finally, there were no significant differences relating to the kinds of jobs that marketers hold. Marketers in sales and advertising positions were not more Machiavellian than marketers in marketing research or staff positions. Taken in total, the results suggest that marketers who are high in Machiavellianism have a tendency to be younger, single, and female.

This paper in particular is pretty accessible in terms of readability, so if you're looking to actually read through a full paper, I'd go for this one.

Identifying the Prevalence of the “Dark Triad” Personality Traits in Law Students: Eradicating an Unwarranted Stereotype

The personalities of lawyers are often categorized to be immoral, at least more so than those of other professionals. An abundance of literature parallels this generalization and depicts lawyers’ personalities as narcissistic, psychopathic and high in Machiavellian attitudes. Together, these three traits form the “Dark Triad” of personality. 53 law students from 3 law schools in Ontario completed a survey measuring their levels on the “Dark Triad” traits. Furthermore, each participant revealed their gender, year of study, and the field of law they aspired to enter. Results show that the law students from the present sample do not display any “Dark Triad” trait significantly greater than the general population. Furthermore, it found that male law students were not significantly “darker” than female law students, on average. However, 1st year law students were found to score significantly higher on the narcissism trait than both second and third-year students. There were no other significant differences between the students in different years of schooling. Lastly, those wishing to enter criminal law scored significantly higher on the Machiavellianism trait than those wishing to enter tax law. No other fields of law differed significantly on any of the three traits. These findings suggest that law students, and perhaps lawyers themselves, are not deserving of the pejorative stereotype assigned to them. Furthermore, it suggests that male law students are no more responsible for the assigned stereotype than females. Next, the present research implies that law school, or perhaps the aging process, may actually serve to reduce the narcissism trait suggested to be present in law students. Finally, the research proposes that those aspiring to enter criminal law may be more responsible for the assigned stereotype whereas those aspiring to enter tax law experience the most apparent wrongful stereotyping.

Multivariate analysis of male and female professional career choice correlates.

Personality, aptitude, achievement, and social-demographic characteristics of graduate students in 4 professional degree programs were investigated in a comparative multivariate analysis of the correlates of professional career choice. 173 male and 175 female 1st-yr graduate students in 2 traditionally male fields (law and management) and 2 traditionally female fields (education and social work) completed an extensive questionnaire. Results confirmed the central hypothesis of the study: Differences across careers for each variable were greater than differences between the sexes within careers. In contrast to previous findings, no significant sex differences were found in assertiveness, locus of control, or Machiavellianism. Sex differences were primarily confined to the variables relating to psychological masculinity–femininity and sex role attitudes. The limitations of the current design are noted, and it is stressed that these findings are correlational in nature. Preexisting dispositions and attitudes may be the best predictors of professional career choice, although it is equally possible that these attitudes and attributes are adopted after people have made their career choices (i.e., during graduate school).

Deception in disclosing one's sexual history: Safe‐sex avoidance or ignorance?

As previously mentioned, there are two types of lies relevant to this research (a) a lie of omission, where the liar chooses not to disclose information, and (b) a lie of commission, where the liar chooses to alter information. In this sample, both types of lies occurred. Lie of omission. As Table 2 illustrates, over 32% percent of the students who were sexually active (« = 99) said that they omitted telling at least one of their previous sexual partners about their sexual history. In addition, over 17% of the sexually active students omitted telling all of their partners about their sexual history (n = 53). There were no gender differences for these findings. Lie of commission. Overall, 24% of the sexually active students had misrepresented their sexual history to a sexual partner (« = 75). As might be expected from previous research (Stebleton & Rothenberger, 1993), men were significantly more likely to lie about their numbers of previous sexual partners than were women.

Not related directly to Machiavellianism, but I found it in the course of my searching and thought it was interesting and relevant to our interests.

MACHIAVELLIANISM AND DATING: DECEPTION AND INTIMACY

We explored the relationship between Machiavellian personality, mate attraction strategies, and intimacy. Participants filled out the Mach IV and self-report questionnaires about the use of deceptive tactics in attracting potential dating partners, level of intimacy, and previous dating history. Higher scores on Machiavellianism were associated with greater likelihood of using deceptive tactics and lower levels of relationship intimacy. However, for women the relationship between Machiavellianism and deceptive strategies was moderated by the history of intimate behaviors. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Consistent with our prediction, and regardless of gender, we found a strong association between Machiavellian tendencies, and the use of deceptive mating strategies. Individuals scoring high on the Machiavellian scale were willing to engage more freely in deceptive behaviors than individuals scoring lower on the scale as predicted by Wilson et al. (1996). Whether or not these manipulative behaviors may promote the attributes that are perceived as attractive or desirable, and/or whether or not the use of deceptive tactics indirectly (e.g., particularly, in how they are perceived by others) leads to more effective mating outcomes has yet to be demonstrated.

Further, an interesting pattern of results emerged regarding gender differences in the way in which Machiavellianism relates to mating behavior. Overall, there was no difference between men and women for the use of DMS, but higher order interactions suggested a more complex relationship. For men, there was a consistent relationship between Mach and DMS. Furthermore, there was an independent effect for HIB on DMS, so that the higher the score on the Machiavellian scale and the greater the number of past relationships, the more deceptive strategies were likely to be reported. In contrast, for women, the relationship between Mach and deceptive strategies was moderated by history of intimate behaviors. Among women, lower levels of HIB (fewer past relationships) yielded a stronger association between Mach and deceptive strategies. However, at higher levels of HIB (more past relationships), there was less of an association between Mach and DMS. In other words, among women who scored high on the Machiavellian scale, those with fewer past relationships were more likely to use deceptive strategies than were those with more past relationships. It appears as though for women, prior relationship experience dampened the tendency of a woman with a Machiavellian personality to use deception in mating behaviors. (!!!)

All I have to say is !!

Emotional intelligence, Machiavellianism and emotional manipulation: Does EI have a dark side?

Associations of Machiavellianism (Mach) with self-report and performance emotional intelligence (EI) and with personality were examined. The possible existence of an emotional manipulation capability, not covered within current EI measures, was also examined by constructing an emotional manipulation scale. Mach was found to be negatively correlated with self-report and performance EI, and also with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Emotional manipulation was positively correlated with Mach but unrelated to EI. Thus high Machs endorse emotionally-manipulative behaviour, although the extent to which they are successful in this behaviour, given the negative Mach/EI association, remains to be established.

And we know that women are higher in EI, and higher in Agreeableness, although only higher in certain aspects of Conscientiousness (ibid), which would seem to suggest that they would have lower Mach scores on average.

Age-Related Differences in Machiavellianism in an Adult Sample

Researchers who administer Machiavellianism scales to respondents frequently report on the presence or absence of sex differences in Mach scores, and findings are clearly mixed. Some studies support the position that women are less Machiavellian than men are (11), while others detect the opposite pattern (6). Still others find no evidence of sex differences in Mach scores (18).

The reference above (11) is to the study below. Reference (6) refers to the study up a ways, titled "Job Satisfaction and Machiavellian Orientation among Department Store Executives." I cannot for the life of me find reference (18) despite seeing it referred to multiple times during my search, but I feel comfortable accepting this author's assertion that it found no evidence of difference.

On the relationship between Machiavellianism and anxiety among Italian undergraduates.

Mach scores from all subjects gave a mean of 84.36 (SD = 13.59). As expected, men had significantly higher Mach scores than women.

MACHIAVELLIANISM AND LOCUS OF CONTROL AMONG INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM GAME PLAYERS

The purpose of the study was to compare the Machiavellianism and locus of control among intercollegiate level individual and team game players. The present study was conducted on 120 players, playing at intercollegiate level (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad-Maharashtra) by purposive sampling method. 60 players were individual game players (30 male players and 30 female players), and 60 players were team game players (30 male players and 30 female players). The data were collected through Machiavellianism scale (Rai & Gupta, 1982) and locus of control scale (Hasnain & Joshi, 1982). The Mean, SD and univariate two way ANOVA was applied to assess the differences between individual and team game players. Results revealed that team game players and male players are more Machiavellian oriented than individual game players and female players respectively. No significant difference is found between individual and team game players in terms of their locus of control. But, it has been found that male players are internally oriented than female players.

The Construct of Machiavellianism: Twenty years Later

This is a review of the literature from 1971-1987. It is also highly accessible as far as research papers go; 10/10 would recommend

A stereotyped view of the high Mach suggests that he or she would prefer a business career. Consistent with the stereotype, subjects faking Machiavellianism prefer business-related occupations whereas helping professions are least preferred (Skinner et al., 1976). Research on actual career choices points to the same conclusion. For example, Wertheim, Widom, and Wortzel (1978) found that law and management students had the highest Mach scores, followed by education students. Social work students had the lowest scores. Steininger and Eisenberg (1976) found that business students scored higher on Machiavellianism than did English and Sociology students. Chonko (1982) also reported that purchasing managers were more Machiavellian than other groups in the literature.

Are Machiavellians successful in their chosen professions? Christie (1970c) was surprised when a national survey revealed that high Machs did not have more prestigious jobs or higher incomes than low Machs. Similarly, Turnbull (1976) found no relation between Machiavellianism and success measured by sales productivity. Touhey (1973) also failed to find an overall relation between Machiavellianism and social mobility (assessed as the discrepancy between one's father's and one's own socioeconomic status) in a sample of men from a variety of occupational settings. However, when subjects' IQ scores were taken into account, greatest social mobility was found for the high Mach-high IQ group; lowest mobility was found in the high Mach-low IQ group. Based on this finding, Turner and Martinez (1977) reexamined Christie's survey data and found that education had a similar moderating effect. For men with above-average education, there was a significant positive relation between Machiavellianism and occupational attainment (salary, job prestige); for men with below-average education, a significant negative relation was found. For women, Machiavellianism and occupational status were positively correlated. (Note, however, that only 26% of the female subjects held positions that were classifiable in terms of occupational status.)

One of the earliest papers on Machiavellianism examined the relation between Mach scores and academic success. Singer (1964) conducted a number of studies and found low to moderate correlations between Mach V scores and GPA. The correlations were lower for women than for men, leading Singer to speculate that it may be not be socially acceptable for women to use direct manipulation to obtain good grades; instead, women might use "strategies of attractiveness and appearance rather than deceit and management" (p. 140). Ames and Kidd (1979) suggested that the weak relation between women's GPA and Mach V scores in Singer's studies might best be accounted for in terms of gender-role orientation rather than gender per se. Based on the fear of success literature, they suggested that feminine-typed women might "manipulate to prevent themselves from appearing overly successful academically" (p. 224). They expected and found no overall relation between Mach scores and GPA. For feminine-typed women (as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory), the correlation was - .64; for masculine-typed women, the correlation was .61. The authors acknowledge that there are many possible interpretations for these findings. For example, it is unclear whether feminine Machiavellian women are using manipulation to reduce their grades or are simply rejecting the use of manipulative tactics. The data do suggest that masculine-typed Machiavellian women may be willing to use manipulation to get good grades.

Okay, that's a lot of text. My (unscientific) interpretations are that the literature is not conclusive by any stretch on the question of whether men or women are, on the whole, more Machiavellian. Multiple studies suggest men are higher, multiple suggest women are higher, multiple find little to no difference, and many of these studies are highly limited in nature. An evo psych perspective would assume that women would be higher Mach as they do not have access to physical violence as a form of social control, but this appears to be unfounded, although we can't be sure that the Mach IV test is a completely reliable indicator of psychological manipulation in terms of social control.

This leads me to reject the RP belief that women are more Machiavellian than men, as the evidence is at best inconclusive, combined with the fact that multiple studies found the opposite.

In less academic terms, I have suspected this was false for some time due to the discrepancy between RP stating that women stop maturing earlier than men, that women are less intelligent, that women are like children, etc. but also that they are more Machiavellian in nature, a trait which is highly complex and requires significant mental effort and ability to harness usefully.

Edit: Sleeping willow beat me to the punch by about 3 months :) Gender differences in Machiavellianism and manipulative tactics in relationships.

Edit 2: Surprising lack of circlejerk when the literature doesn't support the RP view huh ;P