The Meaning and Measurement of Machiavellianism in Chinese and American College Students

Summary Although there has been considerable cross-cultural research on Machiavellianism in recent years, researchers have failed to examine the conceptual equivalence of the concept across cultural boundaries. Researchers have used measures of Machiavellianism (Mach IV) which were derived from Western concepts and which may not have similar meanings when applied to non-Western groups. The purpose of the present study was to examine the factorial structure of the Mach IV scale in matched samples (age, sex, education, social desirability) of 128 male and female Chinese and American college students. It was hypothesized that the groups would differ with respect to the factorial structure of the Mach IV because of ethnocultural differences in meaning of the factorial terms and in their behavioral referents, correlates, and functional implications. The results supported the hypothesis. It was concluded that researchers must exercise considerable care in cross-cultural personality research, since constructs may lack conceptual and behavioral equivalency.