Threat perception: How psychopathy and Machiavellianism relate to social perceptions during competition

• Facial affect predicts perceptions of interpersonal threat.
• Psychopathy and Machiavellianism are highly associated.
• Psychopathy negatively predicts interpersonal threat perceptions.
• Machiavellianism was not associated with threat perceptions.

Descriptions of successful psychopathy are synonymous with Machiavellianism: both describe high-functioning individuals who are adept at exploiting and manipulating others. However, previous research has found social-cognitive deficits associated with these traits that should decrease successful manipulation. In the present study, we investigated the presence of biases in interpersonal threat perceptions. Community members participated in a competition task and completed self-report measures of psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Analyses revealed that psychopathy, in particular callous affect, significantly predicted a bias to view individuals as unthreatening, irrespective of the targets’ emotional expression or the perceivers’ Machiavellianism or gender. These findings provide a meaningful distinction between psychopathy and Machiavellianism in the context of socio-cognitive deficits. Future research should further investigate specific attributes that contribute to successful manipulation and how they distinguish psychopathy and Machiavellianism.