I’ve had trouble hearing the term Machiavellian before, which refers to someone who is cunning and cunning and lacks a moral compass. If you are a Machiavellian, you believe that the end fully justifies the means and the bad behavior it takes to achieve it.
In psychology, Machiavelli refers to a manipulative, cold, and selfish personality type, someone who has no problem using dishonesty, betrayal, and treachery to get what he wants. Yes, it is not a compliment to be described as Machiavellian.
This personality test is designed to reveal your score on the Machiavellian scale.
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Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a political philosopher, author of The Prince, and someone who wrote things like: “It is safer to be feared than to be loved” and “If a man must be harmed, it must be done.” “He will be so cruel that there is no need to fear his revenge.”
When Machiavelli’s first works were published, they were thought to be dangerous and immoral; Thus, the word Machiavellianism was born.
We can all be cheaters sometimes for different reasons. If you’ve ever called in sick when you needed a day to recover from your vacation or lied to your spouse, you’ve demonstrated your ability to deceive others. Such moments of suspicious behavior may not reflect the way you normally act, and you may have felt a little guilty about it.
However, if you are someone who could be described as Machiavellian, you will never feel a moment of worry about your manipulative behavior. That’s because Machiavellians have no problem sleeping at night.
Machiavellians fall on a wide spectrum, from low Mach (people who are not self-focused and do not plan) to high Mach, to complete manipulative fools.
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The personality test (which you can take here) comes from the book Studies in Machiavellianism by psychologists Richard Christie and Florence Jess, takes two to five minutes to complete, and consists of 20 statements that you rate based on how accurate they are when they apply to you.
Some statements include: “Most people who get ahead in the world live clean, moral lives” and “Anyone who completely trusts anyone else is asking for trouble.” (I don’t consider myself particularly manipulative, but I took the test and got a 70 out of 100. I’m one of the high Machs.)
The personality test says that people with high Machs are people who do not believe in the goodness of the world, which is why they feel forced to manipulate.
You get a bell-shaped graph with your results. According to the chart, I should be ashamed because I’m an idiot!
The test warns that the chart does not represent an accurate view of the population, as “people searching for Machiavellianism tests online are likely not representative of the average person.”
Machiavellians, psychopaths, and narcissists form the dark triad of personality types, with Machiavellian behavior being typical of both psychopaths and narcissists. So…can I retake the test?
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