Full Text

Manipulative strategies of social conduct (Machiavellianism) have been studied by both psychologists and evolutionary biologists. The authors use the psychological literature as a database to test evolutionary hypotheses about the adaptive advantages of manipulative social behavior. Machiavellianism does not correlate with general intelligence and does not consistently lead to real-world success. It is best regarded as 1 of several social strategies, broadly similar to the “defect” strategy of evolutionary game theory, which is successful in some situations but not others. In general, human evolutionary psychology and evolutionary game theory provide useful frameworks for thinking about behavioral strategies, such as Machiavellianism, and identify a large number of specific hypotheses that have not yet been tested by personality and social psychologists.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) was a Florentine diplomat who visited the courts of Europe and observed firsthand the rise and fall of their leaders. His own fall came with the overthrow of the regime that he served. He wrote The Prince(Machiavelli, 1513/1966) to ingratiate himself with the new ruler. The Princeis a book of advice on how to acquire and stay in power. It is based entirely on expediency and is devoid of the traditional virtues of trust, honor, and decency. A typical passage is, “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions” (p. 63). Machiavelli failed to gain favor with the new prince, but his name has come to represent a strategy of social conduct...