Individual Differences in Machiavellianism as a Mix of Cooperative and Exploitative Strategies

Subjects who score high on Machiavellianism are often charming and attractive in short-term social interactions. It is unclear from their behavior whether they are using a deceptive strategy of exploitation or whether they are merely exceptionally capable social actors. We used a story-telling metho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethology and Sociobiology 1998-05, Vol.19 (3), p.203-212
Main Authors: Wilson, David Sloan, Near, David C., Miller, Ralph R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Co-operation
Cooperation
Deception
Evolution
Exploitation
Individual Differences
Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism (Personality)
Multiple strategies
New York
Personality
Social Behavior
Social behaviour
Social interaction
Sociobiology
Sociopathy
Student Attitudes
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:Subjects who score high on Machiavellianism are often charming and attractive in short-term social interactions. It is unclear from their behavior whether they are using a deceptive strategy of exploitation or whether they are merely exceptionally capable social actors. We used a story-telling method to explore aspects of Machiavellianism that are not obvious from short-term social interactions. Subjects who scored high and low on Machiavellianism wrote stories in the first person, whose main characters (referred to as “I”) were evaluated by another set of subjects. The stories reveal the cooperative nature of low-Machs and the exploitative nature of high-Machs in particularly sharp focus. Judged by their fictional creations, high-Machs were rejected as social partners for most relationships, except when their exploitative skills could be directed against members of other groups.
ISSN:1090-5138
0162-3095
1879-0607
DOI:10.1016/S1090-5138(98)00011-7