Machiavellianism Test

Questions: 18Time: ≈ 4 min

This is an independent test of the same trait, not the original Mach-IV questionnaire and not a copy of it. Read each of the 18 everyday situations and choose the answer closest to what you would actually do; there are no right or wrong picks. It takes about 4 minutes, and at the end you get your level of Machiavellian traits with a short explanation.

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A hand moving a black knight on a chess board, with an old book bearing a crown on its cover beside it and a sunlit window behind

When someone announces something generous or public-spirited, how far does your suspicion that they're after something stretch? A billionaire pledges half his fortune to charity, and you start tracing the tax break and the press coverage. A smaller gift gets taken at face value. The bakery that sponsors the youth team's shirts gets a quick mental note about free advertising before you think of anything kind. A relative offers to sort out the family inheritance paperwork for nothing, and with that much money in play you ask yourself what he's after. Even a friend's offer to drive you to the airport sets off a small question about what they'll want back later. On a crowded bus a stranger stands up and gives you their seat. You glance at their face, then at your bag, working out what they're after.

Someone gives you a reason for a favor or an offer. How much do you check it before going along? A caller says he's from building management and needs your door code. You ring the office, ask for a name, and wait for a callback, even though it eats your lunch break. The seller says the used bike was ridden twice. You glance at the tires and the dusty pedals, then take his word for it. Your new neighbor says her petition is about the street lighting, and you sign without reading the fine print, since it's only a signature. Told that the extra pipework is unavoidable, you approve a bill of several hundred dollars without asking for a second quote. A friend of a cousin needs a deposit up front for a flat you haven't seen. You transfer it that night, though a minute's search was all the checking it needed.

Imagine a chance for someone to gain a little at another person's expense. How small does the chance have to be before you expect people to take it? A partner holding the keys to a shared company account could drain it, and you expect some would. Anything smaller, you trust people to leave alone. When a landlord's office refunds a deposit twice by mistake, you assume the tenant keeps quiet and keeps the money. A cafe hands a customer ten dollars too much in change. You'd bet on that customer walking out with it. Someone spots a pen left on a counter and pockets it. From a passer-by, you'd expect nothing else. A tray of free samples sits unattended beside a sign saying one each, and you take it for granted that people leave with two.

Think of people behaving fairly: paying fares, waiting their turn, reporting honest numbers. What do you think keeps them honest? At a roadside farm stand with an honesty box and nobody in sight, you expect the day's takings to match the jars sold. One ticket inspector walking the platform is enough, you figure, to keep a whole train's worth of passengers paying. Expense claims in your office stay clean because finance audits them every quarter; skip an audit and you expect the totals to creep up. You wouldn't run a self-checkout without an attendant at the next till and cameras overhead. Remove either and you expect bags to fill with unscanned items. The invigilator steps out of the exam hall for a minute, and you know answers will start moving the second the door clicks shut.

A group is planning something, and several ways would work equally well. When do you step in and set the terms? Two routes lead to the venue and one is clearly quicker, so you say which. If they were about even, you'd let someone else choose. The team can meet at nine or at half past, and one slot fits the room booking a little better, so you propose it. Three restaurants would suit everyone, and you've named one and booked it before the group chat has finished replying. Two flights cost the same and leave within an hour of each other. You choose, pay, and send the others the confirmation. Asked only where to put the cups at a potluck, you realize you've already settled who brings what, where and when, though nobody gave you the job.

Someone else is leading a shared task. How much of the direction do you hand over without moving in to take it back? A teammate names the files for your joint project; the plan, the schedule and the final call stay with you. Your friend sets the itinerary for the first day of the trip, and you follow along, then rewrite the days you care about. A colleague outlines the joint presentation and you build on it as drawn, apart from one slide you quietly rework at night. Your sister runs the whole family move. You carry boxes where she points and speak up only when something is about to break. When a friend plans your shared birthday trip from first train to last dinner, you turn up at the station with a bag and no questions.

A decision has been made by someone else, and you'd have chosen differently. How far along can it get before you stop looking for a way to change it? Your group picks the museum over the beach, and you open the ticket link along with everyone else. The manager has chosen a supplier; while the contract waits for its signature, you send a note listing why the other one is stronger. With a new launch date set and two tasks already underway, you catch the lead in the corridor and float another date. The kitchen remodel is nearly done when you ask the contractor to move the cabinets your partner chose, since you've found a better layout. Your flatmates painted the hallway green last month. Over dinner you bring out grey swatches and reopen the question.

Other people's ranks, reputations and titles are on display everywhere. For which of them do you stop keeping score of where you stand? You can recite where you stand against your colleagues, cousins and old classmates; only a stranger's polished life online leaves you cold. A parent you meet only at the school fair has a bigger house, and it doesn't cross your mind. Your neighbors' cars are another story. The faces you pass at the gym each week could be stronger, richer or better known, and you haven't wondered which. A university rival gets promoted ahead of you, and your first question is how the new job is going. When the list of top performers lands in your inbox, you scroll past it, shrug, and go back to your work, whoever's name is on it.

You're choosing a relationship, a project or a group to join. How much does what it signals to other people count in your choice? Two volunteer groups match on cause, schedule and distance, so you go with the one whose name carries more weight. Two flats are close in price and light; the one in the fashionable district gets your deposit. On a job offer, the pay and the employer's name on your CV sit on the scale as two equal halves. The project you'd enjoy more loses out to the one that will be presented to the board. You join the club, pick the course and accept the introduction for how they'll look to the people you want to impress, and nothing else gets a say.

Something would give you a visible marker of success or influence, but it would pull effort from another goal of yours. How much of that goal are you willing to give up? You swap a quiet lunch for the awards talk, and nothing of any importance changes hands. Two evenings reserved for your own novel go into polishing the slides your boss will show the director. Skipping your sister's birthday dinner is the price of being photographed at the launch event. Your thesis stays half-written, since an open seat on a high-profile committee won't wait. You walk away from the degree you spent years working toward the day a job with an impressive title is offered.

Once a plan of yours has worked out, how do you judge the way you got there? How big a lapse in fairness or honesty does a good result excuse? You backdated a form by a day so it would be accepted, and it was. That's as far as 'it worked' goes: anything weightier still counts as wrong in your book, however well it paid. A reference letter you padded for a friend landed them the job, and you've filed the padding under kindness. Your proposal reached the client first because you sat on a rival's draft in the shared folder, and the contract that followed has settled the matter. In the review you took credit for a teammate's analysis, got the promotion, and no longer wonder how it happened. Investors were told the pilot had paying customers when it had none; the round closed, and you remember it as the deal that saved the company.

You've committed to a principle, and keeping it is going to cost you something you want. How big can that cost get before you let the principle go? You told yourself you'd boycott a brand that cuts corners, and you hold to it until the alternative costs a dollar more. A client pushes for a discount below the floor you promised yourself, and you decline even though it shrinks your bonus. You refuse to sign off on a report you think is padded. The standoff costs you an evening, a tense boss and a colleague's goodwill. After promising your team you'd see the launch through, you turn down the transfer you've wanted for two years. Having said you wouldn't accept credit you didn't earn, you hand back the award and the promotion attached to it.

You say something untrue and expect nobody will ever find out. How big does the untruth have to be before you feel uncomfortable? Telling a coworker you've already seen the film, when you haven't, leaves a knot in your stomach through the afternoon. A white lie about running late costs you nothing. Telling your boss the client call went well when it didn't makes you squirm. You pad your experience a bit in a job interview, and the flutter arrives only when the hiring manager asks for a reference. When you pin a missed deadline on a teammate who isn't there to answer, the unease starts as you picture their performance review. You tell a client the figures were audited, hang up, and go make a sandwich. Nothing stirs.

You leave out something relevant or bend a procedural rule, and nobody is likely to notice. How much does it have to matter before you feel uncomfortable? Eleven items in the ten-items-or-fewer lane, and you count the extras twice while you wait. Signing the safety briefing sheet without attending, because you know it all, bothers you only when someone picks up the list. You don't mention that the landlord is raising the rent next month, and notice you've started avoiding your flatmate in the hallway. A known fault stays off the hand-over note, and you picture the next person's Monday morning with a twinge. A recall notice stays out of the paperwork when you sell your old car, and you hand over the keys with a smile.

You hold some information back from people because telling them later, or only in part, seems safer or more useful. How close can they be to you? A distant acquaintance at a wedding asks about your plans, and you answer vaguely, keeping the move to yourself. Anyone you know better hears everything. The colleague you chat with at the coffee machine hears nothing about your job interview until the offer is in your hand. Your gym friends learn about the new flat after you've signed, not while you're still viewing. A close friend gets the news of your layoff only once the next job is lined up, so that it arrives with a plan attached. Your partner hears about the offer from another city on the day you've picked to tell them, and not before.

You want something from another person, and the answer is up to them. How much can ride on the request before you reach for charm or flattery? You ask a colleague for the stapler plainly. For a favor with any weight, you open with a compliment and a coffee. Your flatmate gets a straight request to swap bin duty, but a weekend with her car comes with kind words about her driving first. Next term, you tell your manager in two plain sentences why you need a flexible schedule, a request that shapes your whole month. Your landlord hears the figure you want for the renewal and your reasons, with none of the cheerful chat about the building, though your home for the year hangs on the answer. In the interview for the job you want more than any other, you say what you want and what you'll bring, with no flattery for the interviewer's career.

A disagreement or a decision may be coming. How early do you start lining up influential people on your side? Two teammates start arguing over the budget in a meeting, and only then do you text the director to ask where she stands. A colleague's frown at the roadmap slide tells you a fight is brewing, so that afternoon you phone two senior people. Before the reorganization has been announced, you have lunch with the head of finance, because budgets could turn contentious. Each proposal you draft comes with a short list of whom to sound out first, even the ones that may go unquestioned. You keep up friendly check-ins with a board member, a regional director and the CEO's assistant all year, with no vote scheduled and no dispute in sight.

Someone slights or betrays you. How long are you prepared to wait before responding, so that the response lands well? A friend cancels on you at the last minute, and that evening, once you've cooled off, you tell them it hurt. A colleague takes the credit in a meeting. You wait until the week's rush is over, then raise it in private. A cousin tells a half-truth about you at a gathering. You say nothing, aiming to answer in a calmer season, with no particular date in mind. A former business partner cut you out of a deal. You stay quiet and keep the email thread ready until a moment comes when it will cost them most. The person who betrayed you years ago still hasn't heard a word. The reply will come when it can do the most, next month or in a decade.

Your results are no accident

The classic 16-type personality test rooted in Jung's typology has been rebuilt from the ground up: a new CoreTypes methodology, and a far higher level of accuracy. These might be the most useful ten minutes you'll ever spend on yourself: you walk away with the key to your decisions, your relationships and your results — and it's yours for good.

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How this test works

Methodology

This test is based on the personality-psychology approach to traits: habits of thinking and acting that vary smoothly from person to person, with almost nobody at either extreme. We wrote every question ourselves from what the construct covers, as psychology's dictionary entry defines it, so nothing here copies a published questionnaire.

Eighteen everyday situations touch five areas: suspicion of other people's motives, the wish to steer things, interest in status, a loose grip on conventional moral rules, and tactics for coming out ahead. The areas are blended into a single graded reading, not shown as separate scores, since they are tightly entangled and one scale holds up better than a profile.

Self-report has a built-in limit. Everyone likes to look good, including to themselves, and the people who score highest are the likeliest to flatter their own picture, so a low result deserves a measure of skepticism. Take the result as a snapshot of how you described yourself today. It measures a personality trait, not a clinical condition.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Machiavellianism a bad trait, or does everyone have some of it?

Everyone carries some of it. Wary reading of motives, a taste for steering the plan or a bit of strategy are part of ordinary social life, and a modest level is the ordinary case. What the highest level here describes is different: the same pattern showing up across every kind of situation, not one or two.

Can Machiavellianism be changed, or are you stuck with it?

Research describes change as possible, though not easy. Think of your result as a pattern in the situations you were asked about, not a fixed label, and a pattern can shift when circumstances or your own choices do. Retaking the test later is one way to see whether it has.

Am I manipulative without realizing it? What are the signs?

It's plausible. Asking yourself straight out whether you're manipulative tends to get a defensive or flattering answer, while specific scenes, like who you tell what and when, or how you word a request, show the pattern more reliably, particularly for the quieter tactics.

Can manipulative habits be unlearned?

Many such habits run on autopilot, and what is automatic can be noticed and then replaced. Noticing the habit and rehearsing a different move are what the secondary literature points to, and the process is easier when the habit hasn't set deep.

References

Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in Machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press.
Dahling, J. J., Whitaker, B. G., & Levy, P. E. (2009). The development and validation of a new Machiavellianism scale. Journal of Management, 35(2), 219–257. doi:10.1177/0149206308318618
Hunter, J. E., Gerbing, D. W., & Boster, F. J. (1982). Machiavellian beliefs and personality: Construct invalidity of the Machiavellianism dimension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43(6), 1293–1305. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.43.6.1293

Author: Lex Tarrel, personality type expert Reviewed by: Igor Lyadskiy, PhD

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Machiavellianism Test

Your answers point to minimal Machiavellian traits.

Your answers point to mild, situational Machiavellian traits.

Your answers point to a balanced mix of Machiavellian traits, with the situation deciding.

Your answers point to noticeably elevated Machiavellian traits.

Your answers point to consistently pronounced Machiavellian traits.

Your results are no accident

Your result card

How this test works

Methodology

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Machiavellianism a bad trait, or does everyone have some of it?

Can Machiavellianism be changed, or are you stuck with it?

Am I manipulative without realizing it? What are the signs?

Can manipulative habits be unlearned?

References

Machiavellianism Test

Your answers point to minimal Machiavellian traits.

Your answers point to mild, situational Machiavellian traits.

Your answers point to a balanced mix of Machiavellian traits, with the situation deciding.

Your answers point to noticeably elevated Machiavellian traits.

Your answers point to consistently pronounced Machiavellian traits.

Your results are no accident

Your result card

More tests like this

How this test works

Methodology

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Machiavellianism a bad trait, or does everyone have some of it?

Can Machiavellianism be changed, or are you stuck with it?

Am I manipulative without realizing it? What are the signs?

Can manipulative habits be unlearned?

References