Five Factor Machiavellianism: Validation of a New Measure

Abstract

Numerous scholars have criticized the traditional assessment of Machiavellianism due to insufficient construct coverage, some going so far as to question its distinctness from psychopathy. Tackling these issues, Collison, Vize, Miller, and Lynam developed the Five Factor Machiavellianism Inventory (FFMI), comprising antagonism, agency, and planfulness. We aimed to replicate the MACH-IV psychopathy relations, demonstrate the validity of the FFMI by assessing its relations with the NEO-PI-R and the HEXACO facets, and link the FFMI to a broad range of work-related criteria. We replicated the MACH-IV psychopathy relations and found a very high ($r_{\mathrm{ICC}}\mathrm{S}$ = .91) absolute profile similarity between the FFMI’s correlations with the NEO-PI-R in our sample (N = 572) and the correlation profile for the same variables reported by Collison and colleagues. Both the NEO-PI-R and HEXACO-PI-R profiles for the FFMI found in the current study supported its distinctiveness from traditional measures of Machiavellianism, which converged greatly with the correlation profiles for the FFMI-antagonism dimension. A cluster analysis also showed a substantial proportion of Five Factor Machiavellian individuals. In addition, the FFMI displayed positive relations with a broad range of criteria for vocational and work-related success and was clearly distinct from psychopathy.

Keywords:

• Trait Machiavellianism
• scale validation
• social effectiveness
• career success

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Joshua D. Miller, Donald R. Lynam, and Katherine L. Collison for their thorough and insightful comments on our item translations of the FFMI and a previous draft of this paper.

Notes

1 This study was not preregistered. The data from the study and the codes for all analyses are available for researchers upon request from the first author.