ImplicitifyAI
Clinical instrument

International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism uses 10 International Personality Item Pool statements to assess Machiavellianism.

A public-domain measure of the manipulative, cynical interpersonal style labeled Machiavellianism.

You learn how much you lean on strategy and calculation in dealing with people.

For anyone curious about how strategic or calculating they are with people.

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Report and PDF $6, paid after you finish.

Your answers stay private.

It comes from personality research on manipulative and cynical interpersonal styles.

Example score on the scale rangeChart drawn with invented example scores; not a real result.Example dataLower rangeMiddle rangeHigher rangeMachiavellianism
Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

What this test is

Welcome. Machiavellianism uses 10 International Personality Item Pool statements to assess Machiavellianism.

A public-domain measure of the manipulative, cynical interpersonal style labeled Machiavellianism.

The measure

It has 10 items, each answered on a 5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate) scale.

International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org). Source scale: Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in Machiavellianism. Academic Press.

At a glance

Items
10
Response scale
5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate)
Est. time
~1 min
Access
Free to take · Full report and PDF for $6, or $3 to repeat

What it measures

Ten statements describe a strategic and cynical approach to other people: believing that the best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear, that it is wise to flatter important people, that anyone who completely trusts others is asking for trouble, and that it is hard to get ahead without cutting corners.

Christie and Geis (1970) developed the measurement of Machiavellianism from statements in Machiavelli's writings on power, and found that people high in the trait were detached, strategic and effective at manipulation in experimental games. Paulhus and Williams (2002) later grouped it with narcissism and psychopathy as the dark triad. The statements here come from the public-domain International Personality Item Pool (IPIP).

The ratings are combined into a single score. Higher scores describe a more cynical, strategic and manipulative approach; lower scores describe a more trusting and straightforward one. The scale measures a normal-range trait and is not a clinical diagnosis.

The scale is used in research on leadership, negotiation and relationships. On this site, the IPIP Dark Triad measures all three dark triad traits, the Narcissism and Psychopathy scales describe the other two, and the IPIP-HEXACO measures Honesty-Humility, its opposite.

Nomological network

Convergently, MACH-IV overlapped moderately with NPI and SRP (triad intercorrelations .25–.50) and showed the strongest Agreeableness association of the triad (r = −.47) plus low Conscientiousness (r = −.34). Discriminantly, unlike narcissism and psychopathy it was essentially unrelated to Extraversion (r = −.05) and Openness (r = −.03), showed no IQ or over-claiming self-enhancement, and was described as more reality-based in self-view than narcissism (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Males scored higher (biserial r = .21). Predictive links to antisocial outcomes in that program of work were weaker for Machiavellianism than for psychopathy.

This site’s International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) form

This version uses public-domain items from the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg et al., 2006) keyed to the same dimensions.

Example item

“Enjoy manipulating other people's feelings.”

Very InaccurateModerately InaccurateNeither Accurate nor InaccurateModerately AccurateVery Accurate

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.

Related measures

Common questions

Is this the MACH-IV?

No. It is a public-domain IPIP scale keyed to the MACH-IV construct (Christie & Geis, 1970).

How does it differ from narcissism here?

In Paulhus and Williams (2002), Machiavellianism lacked the Extraversion/Openness and self-enhancement pattern that characterized narcissism.

References

  1. Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in Machiavellianism. Academic Press.
  2. Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556–563.
  3. Goldberg, L. R., Johnson, J. A., Eber, H. W., Hogan, R., Ashton, M. C., Cloninger, C. R., & Gough, H. G. (2006). The International Personality Item Pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(1), 84–96.

Sample report preview

The report shows your total score and where it falls across the range of possible scores, followed by a plain-language explanation of what scores in that region describe. Where the instrument has published interpretive bands, the report names the band and what it means. It closes with notes on how to read the result and on when a conversation with a qualified professional may be useful.

Report contents
SectionWhat it shows
ScoreYour scale score, computed with the published scoring key.
ComparisonsHow your scores compare with a published comparison group.

It is free to take, and the full report with a downloadable copy is $6.

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