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insider look at mental health topics if
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my channel hello this is dr. grande
today's question is can I explain
Machiavellianism and differentiate it
from psychopathy and narcissism so when
we think about these three constructs
this is referred to as the dark triad so
we have psychopathy narcissism and
Machiavellianism and they're
conceptualized as subclinical so I think
of the dark triad we're not talking
about mental disorders like antisocial
person I saw two or narcissistic person
I sorta now specifically with
Machiavellianism this comes from a
political philosopher that lived about
500 years ago named Machiavelli and he
wrote a book named the prince and the
prince outlined these different
constructs like being ruthless and doing
anything to gain power and a lot of
different types of characteristics that
we now see in this construct of
machiavellianism so Machiavelli ISM
contains characteristics like being
cynical having a disregard for
conventional morality and being
manipulative and I'll explain these a
little more detail as I compare them to
psychopathy and narcissism so we talked
about Machiavellianism and we relate it
to the other dark triad traits
psychopathy and narcissism we know that
this trait and the research doesn't
appear to be completely separate now of
course psychopathy and narcissism are
completely separate from one another
either but they're relatively distinct
and Machiavellianism really doesn't
enjoy that status it kind of has
characteristics from both psychopathy
and narcissism and it can be really
conceptualized as a set of traits from
each of those as opposed to a separate
construct so the dark triad really may
be just a dark diet but either way it's
an interesting construct and we do see
it sometimes just by itself again it's
subclinical so it's not studied often in
the mental health realm but it may be a
separate construct it may be separate
enough to be of interest and to be
studied
should it really be part of the dark
triad it's kind of a separate question
here I'm going to treat it as a
construct that's distinct enough so what
we really see here with Machiavellianism
again as it has certain characteristics
from psychopathy and narcissism and
specifically from factor-1 psychopathy
and grandiose narcissism so just real
quickly with psychopathy psychopathy has
factor 1 and factor 2 so with factor 1
psychopathy again callous unemotional
manipulative lack of empathy would
factor to psychopathy we see
characteristics like being impulsive
irresponsible and committing crime so it
lines up more closely with antisocial
personality suitor factor 1 psychopathy
really doesn't line up too well with
antisocial personality
now with narcissism we see both
grandiose and vulnerable narcissism
so with grandiose narcissism we have
that again sense of entitlement and
arrogance and jealousy and manipulation
with vulnerable narcissism we see some
of the same characteristics but we also
see hypersensitivity shame high
neuroticism so a tendency to be anxious
and depressed so grandiose narcissism is
a bit different than vulnerable
narcissism that's fairly established in
the research and vulnerable narcissism
really doesn't have its own personality
sorter correlate the closest Korell it
would be borderline personality they
don't line up perfectly but there's some
alignment between those constructs we do
see research on this construct of the
vulnerable dark triad which would be
factor 2 psychopathy vulnerable
narcissism and borderline personality
features so again that's not what we're
talking about here we're talking about
the dark triad which would have
subclinical features from factor 1
psychopathy grandiose narcissism and of
course Machiavellianism so now in terms
of describing machiavellianism and
differentiating it from psychopathy
narcissism I'll start with the first
characteristic of machiavellianism kind
of move through these characteristics so
first I'll talk about fantasy and desire
so we see this with Machiavellianism
where somebody desires power
money and status but usually not faint
so this idea of fantasy and desire is a
little different than what we see with
psychopathy but it's actually fairly
similar to what we see with narcissism
except someone who's narcissistic would
also desire Fame so the next
characteristic of Machiavellianism would
be being cynical having a cold outlook
on life on humanity somebody that has
low trust so there's a little bit of
paranoia with Machiavellianism we also
see a lack of empathy a lot of times all
these characteristics are kind of put
together so what we see here with
machiavellianism is someone who's
referred to as being pessimistic but I
don't think this is always the case
I think someone with this characteristic
is pessimistic about other people and
about the world but not necessarily
pessimistic about what will happen to
them usually their personal outlook is
pretty good again they're manipulating
people and they're disregarding morality
for their own gain so they must believe
that gain has value for themselves
personally
so really with Machiavelli ISM we see
that the world will harm people so the
idea here is why not join it that's the
idea behind Machiavellianism if the
world is a dark place with a cold
outlook then a little bit of extra harm
created by one individual isn't a big
deal we also see with machiavellianism
there's low neuroticism so this is in
common with both psychopathy and
narcissism now in terms of responding to
threats to personal safety or threats to
ego somebody who's Machiavelli mystic
may not worry too much about responding
with anger they may not be assertive in
that way someone who's psychopathic
generally would be oriented toward
revenge and someone who's narcissistic
may be oriented toward revenge so
there's some differences there and how
lack of empathy and responsiveness kind
of come together or are disjointed
with the responding the reactions of
someone who's Machiavelli mystic as
compared to psychopathic or narcissistic
now just to relate the lack of empathy
with Machiavelli ISM to psychopathy and
narcissism I generally think of someone
who's Machiavelli mystic as having a
little bit more empathy than someone
who's psychopathic and about the same
amount of empathy as somebody who's
narcissistic so I mentioned before that
Machiavellianism is associated being
ruthless what we see here is the
individuals with this characteristic
enjoy work that is ambiguous in terms of
morals ethics and rules so I've noticed
that they tend to be attracted to new
unregulated businesses kind of
businesses that are the Wild West in
terms of laws and rules so they tend to
be in that sense pioneers in the
business world but they're not always
attracted to those ventures for the
right reasons we also see a real
willingness here to commit crimes and to
break rules so they have this in common
with someone who's psychopathic or
narcissistic but they carefully weigh
the consequences so there's less
criminality with Machiavellianism than
there would be with psychopathy but
there'd be probably a little more
criminality with Machiavellianism as
compared to narcissism narcissism has
some connection to criminality but it's
really not as distinct as what we see
with psychopathy and Machiavelli ISM so
one of the kind of ways of thinking for
someone who's Machiavelli mystic would
be that all people are criminals but we
only call people criminals when they are
unwise and get caught so this really
speaks kind of to the moral attitude of
someone who's Machiavelli mystic and
also speaks to a kind of negative
outlook of the human condition now one
of the strong areas of interest around
machiavellianism is the manipulation
component and it shares this component
with both psychopathy and narcissism but
the manipulation with Machiavellianism
is expressed a little differently the
way I think of it is with
machiavellianism the manipulation is
based more on emotions
like there's more emotions and feelings
that can be used in that individual's
toolbox than what we would see with
psychopathy so someone who's
psychopathic is fairly straightforward
in a manipulation they have a
superficial charm but there's no depth
they really don't have the same
relationship with emotions and feelings
in terms of expressing them to be highly
manipulative at the same level as
someone who is Machiavelli mystic
someone with Machiavellianism can use
guilt they can pay compliments they can
use deep emotional and feeling
components much more efficiently than
someone who's psychopathic now someone
who's narcissistic I think really has a
similar ability as what we see in
Machiavellianism so they again can use
emotions and feelings as part of that
manipulation we call that interpersonal
manipulation so again when we talk about
the manipulation component
machiavellianism is different than
psychopathy but similar to narcissism
now someone who's Machiavelli mystic
tends to be socially dominant we see
this both with psychopathy and
narcissism they tend to have good
long-term strategic planning skills so
kind of high in conscientiousness in a
sense this is not a feature of
psychopathy it's also not a feature of
narcissism
they tend to be goal-oriented a lot of
times we think of these as negative
goals some people would refer to these
as evil goals kind of inserting some
philosophy in there this is not a
feature of psychopathy and it's not a
feature of narcissism so long-term
planning and goal orientation are in a
sense unique to machiavellianism at
least in terms of the dark triad
now with impulse control this is a
willingness to delay gratification we
see that someone who's Machiavelli
distich is strong in this area they are
willing to put all three wards this is
not a feature of psychopathy and it's
not a feature of narcissism I would say
someone who's psychopathic has more of
an ability to control impulses than
someone who's narcissistic but someone
who's Machiavellian is sick this is a
strength over
both of those other characteristics I
mentioned before superficial charm this
is a feature of psychopathy and
narcissism it is a feature of
Machiavellianism but again they can
bring in more emotional components so
they can appear friendly and gregarious
and have a little bit more depth in that
deceitfulness than what we see with
psychopathy and narcissism
so speaking of deceitfulness this is
also a characteristic of
Machiavellianism and it's shared here at
psychopathy and narcissism but here's
really the difference The Lying with
Machiavellianism is a lot like what we
see with psychopathy but not what we see
with narcissism and narcissism in a
sense a lot of the lying the
pathological lying is the reward someone
lies without a clear purpose it's not
necessarily obvious to someone on the
outside so they might exaggerate
accomplishments or say how great they
are but there's no clear gain there's no
monetary gain for example or material
gain so again a narcissism lying is the
reward and Machiavellianism lying is for
the reward and it shares that with
psychopathy so there's a clear material
gain purpose to the line with
machiavellianism another characteristic
we see with Machiavellianism is this
idea of hiding one's intentions solo
communications about why actions were
taken even if those actions don't really
seem to have a downside in terms of
revealing why they occurred so this is
different than both psychopathy and
narcissism generally if somebody's
psychopathic they will hide their
intentions a little bit but there's not
a large deliberate effort to do so and
when someone's narcissistic they're
usually fairly clear about their
intentions they have difficulty hiding
their attentions so somebody with
Machiavellianism they really have an
expressed interest in this this is
market in Machiavelli ISM somebody
really wants to lay low and not reveal
reasons behind actions another thing we
see with Machiavellianism is taking a
pleasure and the misfortune of others it
shares this with someone who's
narcissistic but if we look over at
psychopathy someone who's psychopathic
wouldn't necessarily take pleasure in
the misfortune of others they may but
it's not necessarily a core part of
psychopathy when it is a part of
psychopathy that's a particularly unsafe
presentation of psychopathy when someone
is in a sense sadistic and psychopathic
that's an unfortunate combination that
can lead to a lot of problems so those
are some ways to differentiate the
characteristics of Machiavellianism from
the other characteristics of the dark
triad psychopathy and narcissism now a
lot of times with Machiavellianism here
this argument that that's really the
future Machiavellianism is really the
future of business that their superior
business leaders but i don't really
agree with this i think that ultimately
this strategy of disregarding morality
and rules and doing whatever has to be
done to be successful is really
inefficient obviously it violates the
norms of society and that's a problem
there is a criminality component
associated with it but beyond that
individuals who are Machiavellian a
stick don't appreciate the advantages of
relationships they tend to be
uncooperative inconsiderate of others
who are in leadership positions and more
likely to withdraw from groups even when
staying in the group would help them to
advance their goals so really in terms
of individuals who are Machiavelli
mystic and successful it's those
individuals who can switch between being
cooperative and competitive it's not
just an uncooperative component that
leads to success it's really the ability
to maneuver to be flexible flexible and
thinking and flexible in essentially
agreeableness so machiavellianism I
think is we're studying there's some
interesting aspects there that can lead
to understanding business leaders and
business success a little better but I
think that
calling it superior that doesn't make a
lot of sense to me in terms of how we
think about relationships and success I
think it actually has too much in common
with psychopathy and narcissism to be
labeled essentially positive or good for
lack of better words another
consideration with Machiavellianism is
of course it may really just be
characteristics from psychopathy and
narcissism which are usually viewed
negatively in terms of how individuals
with those conditions function in
society so I think we do have to be
careful about machiavellianism and
putting it on a pedestal I think it
makes more sense to keep it as part of
the dark triad even if it doesn't really
line up in terms of the symptoms or
signs clustering together I still think
it makes more sense to think of it as
associated with psychopathy and
narcissism rather than a separate
construct which may be again positive so
Machiavellianism is certainly an
interesting construct again it's not one
used in mental health a lot but it is
one that people see pretty regularly in
different settings so if you have any
thoughts on Machiavellianism and certain
characteristics that maybe I didn't
mention that are really associated with
that construct please put those in the
comments I'd be interested to take a
look at those and as always I hope you
found this discussion of
Machiavellianism and the dark triad to
be interesting thanks for watching