Narcissism Versus Machiavellianism and the Role of Self Control Towards Social Desirability

Due to increasing attention given to negative personality traits and their impact on various marketing outcomes, we aim to focus on two constructs: Narcissism and Machiavellianism. A presentation of key works in both narcissism and Machiavellianism are shown, alongside analyses of their effects with regard to social desirability with the moderating impact of self-control. We found that although both, narcissism and Machiavellianism, positively impact social desirability, the presence of self-control in these personalities weakens their social desirability to a significant extent. Through better understanding the behaviors of consumers with the two similar, but knowingly different, personality traits in the presence of self-control, marketers are able to target consumers more effectively. Further theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed.