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.