Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Faculty of Education, Leipzig University.
Dev Psychol. 2024 Jul;60(7):1175-1186. doi: 10.1037/dev0001755. Epub 2024 Apr 22.
Machiavellianism is an antisocial interpersonal style involving the use of manipulative, deceptive, and coercive behaviors in the pursuit of self-interest. Although widely studied as a "dark" personality trait in adults, relatively little is known about the developmental correlates of Machiavellian tendencies earlier in life. The present study addressed this knowledge gap by examining associations between Machiavellian behavior and three theoretically relevant social-emotional domains-prosocial emotions, emotion recognition skills, and self-control-in a community sample of 7- and 11-year-old Canadian children ( = 300, 50% female). Of particular interest was the extent to which individual differences in social-emotional capacities were uniquely associated with Machiavellian behavior after controlling for aggression, a relatively well-studied antisocial behavior in childhood. Parents reported on children's Machiavellian behavior and aggression. Social-emotional correlates were assessed via parent and child reports, behavioral tasks, and physiological assessments. Machiavellian behavior and aggression were similarly associated with lower parent-reported prosocial emotions and self-control. Machiavellian (but not aggressive) behavior was associated with lower child-reported guilt (a prosocial emotion), higher resting skin conductance levels (reflecting a general tendency for higher arousal), and better anger recognition. Semipartial correlational analyses indicated that these patterns of association with Machiavellian behaviors held independent of aggression. These findings indicate that, by middle childhood, Machiavellian behavior constitutes a distinct form of antisocial conduct that is associated with a unique social-emotional risk profile. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
马基雅维利主义是一种反社会的人际风格，涉及在追求自身利益时使用操纵、欺骗和强制行为。尽管作为一种“黑暗”的人格特质在成年人中得到了广泛研究，但对于生命早期马基雅维利倾向的发展相关性知之甚少。本研究通过在加拿大 7 岁和 11 岁的社区样本中（=300，50%为女性），考察马基雅维利行为与三个理论上相关的社会情感领域——亲社会情绪、情绪识别技能和自我控制之间的关系，填补了这一知识空白。特别感兴趣的是，在控制了攻击性（儿童期相对研究较多的反社会行为）之后，社会情感能力的个体差异与马基雅维利行为的关联程度。父母报告了孩子的马基雅维利行为和攻击性。通过父母和孩子的报告、行为任务和生理评估来评估社会情感相关性。马基雅维利行为和攻击性与父母报告的亲社会情绪和自我控制较低有关。马基雅维利（但不是攻击性）行为与孩子报告的内疚感（一种亲社会情绪）较低、静息皮肤电导率水平较高（反映出较高的一般唤醒倾向）和愤怒识别能力较好有关。偏相关分析表明，这些与马基雅维利行为的关联模式独立于攻击性。这些发现表明，到了童年中期，马基雅维利行为构成了一种独特的反社会行为形式，与独特的社会情感风险特征相关。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2024 APA，保留所有权利）。
