User:Dawson Thornburgh/Machiavellianism (psychology)

Lead
Niccolò Machiavelli was a 16th century Italian author, politician, and philosopher, best known for writing his novel The Prince. His book contained information on the strategies that can be used by new royalty as an instructional guide for ruling. The Prince suggested that the aims of princes should be that of glory and survival and proposed that one can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends. Because of this many came to associate the name of Machiavelli with traits that can be described as callous, deceitful, and psycopathic. The truth is that the trait is named after the political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, as psychologists Richard Christie and Florence Geis used edited and truncated statements inspired by his works to study variations in human behaviors. Their Mach IV test, a 20-question, Likert-scale personality survey, became the standard self-assessment tool and scale of the Machiavellianism construct. Those who score high on the scale (High Machs) are more likely to have a high level of deceitfulness and a cynical, unempathetic temperament. Much research and debate has been proposed as to whether or not there are age related differences with respect to Machiavellianism.

Age correlation in levels of Machiavellianism
There is a clear trend upwards with respect to Machiavellianism from late childhood to adolescence when levels of Machiavellianism are thought to peak. From adolescence throughout adulthood there is a significant and steady downward trend with regard to levels of Machiavellianism, until the age of 65 where an overall lifetime minimum is reached. There has also been extensive research on Machiavellianism in young children and adolescents, via a measure dubbed the "kiddie Mach" test. Peer reports suggest that children higher in Machiavellianism exhibit behaviors such as using both prosocial and coercive strategies based on how much is to be gained in a situation, and they tend to manipulate indirectly.

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Through my groups input I decided to rewrite the lead of the article as seen above, while also adding some images to the article.