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Assessing Machiavellianism and Morality-Conscience Guilt

D S Drake1

  • 1Fairleigh Dickinson University at Florham-Madison, Department of Psychology, New Jersey 07940, USA.

Psychological Reports
|December 1, 1995
PubMed
Summary

Machiavellianism, a personality trait, may not always correlate with immorality. Some individuals high in Machiavellianism also exhibit high levels of morality and conscience guilt, challenging prior assumptions.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Personality Psychology

Background:

  • Traditional views often associate Machiavellianism with unethical behavior.
  • Leary et al. (1986) proposed that Machiavellians might behave relatively morally.
  • This challenges existing hypotheses concerning the inherent immorality of Machiavellian individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To reexamine hypotheses regarding the immorality of Machiavellians.
  • To investigate the relationship between Machiavellianism and morality/guilt.
  • To test if individuals high in Machiavellianism also report high levels of conscience guilt.

Main Methods:

  • Survey administered to 84 MBA students.
  • Utilized the Mach IV scale (Christie & Geis, 1970) to measure Machiavellianism.
  • Employed the Guilty-Conscience subscale of the Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory (Mosher, 1988).

Main Results:

  • Findings indicated that some participants scored high on both Machiavellianism and Morality-Conscience Guilt.
  • This suggests a potential overlap between high Machiavellian traits and a strong sense of guilt.

Conclusions:

  • The study challenges the assumption of inherent immorality in all Machiavellian individuals.
  • Results support the idea that Machiavellianism may coexist with moral considerations and guilt.
  • Further research is warranted to explore the nuances of Machiavellianism and ethical behavior.

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