Conal Monaghan (
[email protected]) & Boris Bizumic (Australian National University) Todd Williams (Grand Valley State University) Martin Sellbom (University of Otago, NZ)
Two-Dimensional Measure of Machiavellianism Developing the Two-Dimensional Machiavellianism Scale (TDMS) Introduction The personality construct of Machiavellianism captures a tendency to exploit, deceive, and distrust
•
•
others For over 45 years, research into Machiavellianism has largely been confined to a unidimensional
•
perspective. Based on the same measure, the Mach-IV (Christie & Geis, 1970)
•
•
Factor analytic studies tend to differentiate Machiavellian views from tactics regardless of the factor
•
solution (Fehr, Samsom, & Paulhus, 1992)
genders, and replications (Monaghan, Bizumic, & Sellbom, 2016; Under Review), with each dimension
Machiavellian Views reflect the extent that individuals possess a cynical and untrusting view of others
relating differently to a host of external variables
Machiavellian Tactics reflects a willingness to employ manipulative interpersonal tactics, often at the
•
Scale Development •
•
Improved measurement will provide a better understanding of Machiavellianism, and allow for more informative studies into antagonistic behaviour and similar constructs such as psychopathy
expense of others, for personal gain
•
Recent investigations demonstrated the two-factor structure is consistent across languages, cultures,
Relationship with External Measures
We developed an initial item pool of 121 items, balancing protrait (positively worded) and contrait (negatively worded) items
•
We established initial evidence of confirmatory / discriminatory validity using structural equation modelling (SEM) elucidate the unique nature of each dimension
Items sufficiently covered the entire Machiavellian construct, varied in expected IRT difficulty parameters, and were self-referent
External scale’s included the HEXACO and Big-Five personality inventories, measures of subjective well-being, socio-political attitudes, misanthropy, psychopathy,
Items were clear and concise, absent of colloquialism, jargon, and ambiguity. Word difficulty was kept in the year five to eight range using the Flesch-Kincaid method and
narcissism, self-esteem, and morality vignettes (categorical (1) vs. consequentialist (-1) morality)
by minimising difficult words
•
•
measurement reviewed the items and their coverage of the latent traits
The final 12 items (two 6-item subscales) performed best over
We kept items that were consistently rated high on fidelity to the construct definitions,
all samples based on item, IRT, and CFA parameters.
and the item’s clarity and conciseness.
These items were evenly split between protrait
A final item pool of 121 items were administered to two samples, with a subset of 20
and contrait to account for
items administered to all samples (see Data section below)
acquiescence.
Neuroticism Hypersensitive Narcissism
The final items performed strongly and consistently in all samples, captured the breadth
Misanthropy
Views Subscale
of the latent trait, and varied in IRT difficulty parameters.
Data
Subscale
Subjective Happiness Standard Error
•
Over two rounds of expert reviews, six independent researchers in attitude Information (θ)
•
External Scale
Tactics
.09
Views
-.55***
Tactics
.00
Views
.28**
Tactics
.13
Views
.55***
Tactics
-.18
Views
1.00***
Tables. SEM parameters for selective views (above) and tactics (below) validity scales. The full TDMS also correlated strongly with the Mach-IV, and negatively with agreeableness and honesty / humility. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001
Figures. Item Response Theory information curves for the views (above) and tactics (below) subscales using Graded Response Models. The TDMS provided the best estimates between the low average and high average (-2.5 < θ > 2.5) ranges on the latent trait continuums.
Machiavellianism
External Scale Conscientiousness
Tactics Subscale Positive Reciprocity The two-dimensional
Morality Vignettes Information (θ)
Machiavellianism scale (TDMS) was
Standard Error
Validation data comprised seven samples collected between 2016 and 2018, NAfter Cleaning = 3054 (36% male). Participants were primarily from Australia, New Zealand and North America, with one multi-national sample of the public using the companion website (see bottom right of poster)
internally consistent across all samples, α = .80 to .89,
Gender
as well as views, α = .74 to .84 , and tactics, α = .81 to .86, subscales
Callousness
Factor Structure
Psychopathy Antisociality
•
Once accounting for method factors (wording direction), the factor structure (right) fitted the data well in all samples based on Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Median fit
The TDMS Produces Robust Factor Estimates of Machiavellian Views and Tactics, over Samples, Genders, and Time
Companion Website
2
estimates across samples: χ (41)= 111.53, CFI = .968, NNFI = .949, SRMR = .034, RMSEA = .055 •
•
Christie, R., & Geis, F. (1970). Studies in Machiavellianism. New York, NY: Academic Press.
The factor structure was equivalent (invariant) across datasets (metric; ΔCFI = .009), genders (scalar; ΔCFI = .001), and a three-month test-retest analysis (scalar; ΔCFI = .001)
•
References
Views and tactics latent traits are stable over time. A longitudinal structural model estimated the latent stability of views at .76 and tactics at .73 using regression estimates over a three month test-retest interval
Fehr, B., Samsom, D., & Paulhus, D. L. (1992). The construct of Machiavellianism: Twenty years later. In C. D. Spielberger & J. N. Butcher (Eds.), Advances in Personality Assessment (Vol. 9, pp. 77–116). UK: Routledge. Monaghan, C., Bizumic, B., & Sellbom, M. (2016). The role of Machiavellian views and tactics in psychopathology. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 72–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.paid.2016.01.002 Monaghan, C., Bizumic, B., & Sellbom, M. (n.d.). Nomological Network of Two-Dimensional Machiavellianism. Under Review. Rauthmann, J. F., & Will, T. (2011). Proposing a multidimensional Machiavellianism conceptualization. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 39, 391–403.
We would like to thank all those who reviewed scale items and participated in this research
•
We built a companion website using rStudio’s Shiny Server Public are participating in the research by completing the scale online,
Machiavellianism, along with the strength of their views and tactics There is also information on Machiavellianism, the project, and
psychometric information and scale items for researchers Code to make YOUR own site is free on Github!
Subscale
Estimate
Tactics
-.35***
Views
-.11
Tactics
-.35***
Views
-.13**
Tactics
-.26*** to -.31***
Views
-.05 to .05
Tactics
-.29***
Views Tactics
-.01 .53***
Views
.22**
Tactics Views
.39*** .26**
https://conalmonaghan.shinyapps.io/two-dimensional_machiavellianism/
contributing their data, and receive instant feedback on their level of
•
Estimate
https://github.com/ ConalMonaghan/ Shiny-Survey-andFeedback-Site
