“People with a Machiavellian personality tend to manipulate, lie, act callously, and disregard morality,” she says. “This is all in an effort to achieve goals or gain power.” They tend to exhibit three main characteristics: they lack empathy, they're deliberate, and they're self-confident.
Psychologists believe that people develop Machiavellian personality traits due to their upbringing, life experiences, and in some cases, genetic factors. It's thought that Machiavellianism is complex and most likely to develop under circumstances that involve early childhood trauma, although this isn't always the case.
“Machiavellians are sly, deceptive, distrusting, and manipulative. They are characterized by cynical and misanthropic beliefs, callousness, a striving for … money, power, and status, and the use of cunning influence tactics.
Machiavellian personality traits are often associated with low levels of empathy and lack of interpersonal closeness. However, some individuals high on Machiavellian traits have been shown to be skilled at affective-perspective taking and thereby may appear to exhibit an empathic response.
Ever the cynic, Machiavellians believe that everyone is acting in their own self-interest, so they do not form close relationships and do not trust easily. Money and power mean more to them than relationships with people.
Unlike narcissists, Machiavellians do not have to be the center of attention and are satisfied as being puppeteers, who pull the strings. They try to minimize the influence of others and withhold knowledge with colleagues. They use manipulation to reach their goals while scheming for personal benefit.
Machiavellianism is not a mental health diagnosis; rather, it's a personality trait describing a manipulative individual who deceives and tricks others to achieve goals. It is based on the political philosophy of the 16th-century writer Niccolò Machiavelli.
This longitudinal component is especially important because Machiavellianism is a secretive trait. Thus, the perceptions of individuals high in Machiavellianism that are derived from their peers will change over time.
The Machiavellian is more strategic in long-term planning in order to meet his/her self-serving goals. Consistent with this long-term view, the Machiavellian has good impulse control, typically better than that of the Narcissist. Overall, the Machiavellian appears less emotional than the Narcissist.
Individuals high in Machiavellianism and narcissism both manipulate to improve their reputations, and how they appear to others. Individuals high in the two traits do this as a form of self aggrandizement to help their chances of success in a given situation.
The theory of the dark triad recognizes specific characteristics associated with each personality trait. Thus, Machiavellianism is marked by a tendency toward manipulative behaviour, narcissism by excessive self-importance and grandiosity, and psychopathy by callousness, impulsiveness, and thrill seeking.
Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, pride, egotism, and a lack of empathy. Machiavellianism is characterized by manipulation and exploitation of others, an absence of morality, lack of emotion, and a higher level of self-interest.
Fortune and Virtù
Finally, leaders must not rely on luck, Machiavelli wrote, but should shape their own fortune, through charisma, cunning and force. As Machiavelli saw it, there were two main variables in life: fortune and virtù. Virtù (not virtue) meant bravery, power and the ability to impose one's own will.
There is also evidence that Machiavellian individuals project their own insecure personality to people, preventing them from seeing the best in others.
Borderline Personality Disorder.
Characterized by a fragile, fluctuating self-image and a profound fear of abandonment, borderlines can be master manipulators. Their controlling behaviors may range from subtle and ingratiating to threatening and violent.
Andrew et al. (2007) characterized Machiavellians by lower emotional intelligence and empathy. Machiavellians are also less able to understand emotions of others. To summarize, it can be said that Machiavellians lack emotions in them.
While, Skinner (1982) showed that both male and female Machiavellians exhibited higher degrees of depression and anxiety than the general population with moderate personality traits (Ali and Chamorro-Premuzic, 2010).
Recent studies have revealed that Machiavellians are emotionally detached and that this “affective blunting” is associated with intense feelings, emotional instability, negative emotions, and difficulty in enduring distress.
Machiavellians were also more likely to become angry when they are slow-played. The team found that certain Machiavellian traits were linked specifically to different aspects of bluffing.
They have little trust in people and in turn, tend not to be trusted by others”. Moreover, scholars argued that high Machs “disregard standards of morality and see value in behaviors that benefit the self at the expense of others” (Dahling et al., 2009, p. 228).
The antagonistic personality trait Machiavellianism (Mach) should be characterized by duplicity, proclivity to manipulation, cynical disregard of others, long-term planning, and low aggression. Opposed to theoretical descriptions, recent studies revealed links between Mach and neuroticism, impulsivity, and aggression.
Machiavelli outlines three ways that you can cause not just anger but hatred in another: you take away another person's property, their honor, or their women, you force them to endure a setback in lifestyle, or. you force them to become better people when they do not wish to be (The Prince, 76–77).