Male and female face of Machiavellianism: Opportunism or anxiety?

- The relationship between Machiavellianism and emotion-management features is debated.
- We found gender differences in the connection among Machiavellianism and emotion-management-related personality traits.
- Women's Machiavellianism scores were correlated with anxious personality features.
- Machiavellianism among men was associated with an opportunistic worldview.

The relationship between Machiavellianism and emotion management features is highly debated. In our study we try to clarify the controversial findings by highlighting the role of gender differences. Three studies with different (undergraduate and employed) participants were conducted to investigate gender differences in Machiavellianism-related personality characteristics. We used different measures of Machiavellianism and explored their connection with temperament and character traits (Study 1), with scales of six-factor (HEXACO) model of personality (Study 2), and with different types of psychopathy and narcissism (Study 3). Our results show that there are gender differences in the connection of Machiavellianism and other personality traits, and that most of the differences were found in the field of emotion management. We found that women's Machiavellianism scores were correlated with harm avoidant, anxious, vulnerable, hypersensitive features, while Machiavellianism among men was associated with risk taking, self-confidence, and an opportunistic worldview.