Mr. Personality

A personality expert talks character and destiny.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He studies personality and intelligence. See full bio

April 15, 2009, Personality

Machiavellian Love

The seductive power of psychopaths

Mach Love

If your partner is a psychopath (you don't really have to be a psychologist to know this, but if you are, you can make a living from saying it) run, run away as fast and far as you can.

Psychopaths are known for their unstable and aggressive approach to relationships; they are unable to commit and as they rarely experience empathy (feeling what others are feeling) they can hardly be expected to love anyone but themselves.

But watch out: psychopathy is a lot more common than you may think. Indeed, the trait is frequently manifested in the normal population and often mutates into its more socially acceptable version of Machiavellianism, a personality trait that assesses people's willingness to manipulate others in order to achieve selfish personal goals.

Machiavellians are known for being charismatic and attractive, particularly in short-term social interactions. Given Machiavellians' natural tendency to manipulative others for their own advantage and the fact that they rarely experience any guilt from it, Machiavellians are both dangerously charming and charmingly dangerous.

In line, research has shown that, for men (effects are much weaker for women), Machiavellianism is linked to more open, promiscuous and hostile sexual attitudes, as well as a variety of self-serving deceptive tactics such as cheating, divulgating intimate secrets to third parties, and even inducing intoxication to secure sex.

If you'd like to find out how Machiavellian you are and what your relationship style is, just take my test.