Intelligence, Machiavellianism and Social Mobility

Previous studies have shown that machiavellianism is unrelated to upward social mobility, but the possibility of a non‐linear relationship between machiavellianism and mobility has not been considered. The present study utilized intelligence as a second variable in order to reexamine earlier findings. Greatest intergenerational mobility in occupational status was reported by subjects who obtained higher scores on both the IQ measure and the Machiavellianism Scale, but least upward mobility was reported by subjects who scored in the Low IQ—High Machiavellianism quadrant ( P <0.001). The relationship between IQ and mobility was attenuated for non‐machiavellian subjects. The findings suggest that higher intelligence may enable machiavellians to identify situations in which deceitful tactics are successfully deployed, and that future studies in machiavellianism should examine the responses of those who confront machiavellian tactics.