Perceiving opportunities for legal and illegal profit: Machiavellianism and the Dark Triad

Abstract

Fraud poses a serious problem. Research has demonstrated that both situational and individual factors contribute to this problem. Although those high in manipulation are likely to commit fraud, a strategic orientation may increase one's perceptions of fraud opportunities. We examined whether individuals high in Machiavellianism perceived more opportunities to commit fraud above and beyond the other Dark Triad traits. We provided participants (n = 734) with a procurement scenario and asked them to list how many legal and illegal opportunities they saw for additional profit. At the correlational level, individuals high in Machiavellianism listed more illegal opportunities for profit. Further, when controlling for the overlap among Dark Triad traits, Machiavellianism was associated with listing more legal and illegal opportunities for profit. These findings have implications for differentiating the Dark Triad, with an emphasis on the strategic thinking associated with Machiavellianism. These findings also have implications for the dispositional tendencies towards committing fraud and the patterns that may emerge.