“High empathic response but low interest”: Machiavellianism and its neurostructural basis relate to perceived risk of social exclusion and workplace deviance

Abstract

The manipulative, exploitative, and indifferent behavior of individuals with high scores on the trait of Machiavellianism attracts research interest in their cognitive and affective emphathic skills; however, the findings are contradictory. We explored the neurostructural substrates of Machiavellianism using voxel-based morphometry analysis with a large sample of 202 full-time employees. Consistent with our expectation, the association of Machiavellianism and its neurostructural basis with the perceived risk of social exclusion were supported whereas that with workplace deviance were not fully supported; the results only showed a significant relationship between Machiavellianism and organizational deviance at the trait level. Our results together provide novel insights into Machiavellianism by highlighting the perspective of “High empathic response but low interest”; namely, individuals with high Machiavellianism possess affective empathic capacity, but they do not care about others.