Impressions of high and low Machiavellian men¹

Abstract

Abstract Naive judges viewed brief, silent videotape excerpts or photographs of 18 men who had been classified as high or low in Machiavellianism. They were asked either to identify each stimulus person as high or low, or to choose from a list of trait adjectives those which best described each. Stimulus persons were identified accurately. The traits which were chosen to describe them were consistent with the characterizations of high and low Machiavellians in the research literature. Neither judgment appears to have been based on a single, observable aspect of the stimulus persons' appearance or behavior. It is concluded that practitioners of interpersonal strategies like Machiavellianism can communicate elaborate, self‐serving impressions to others.