Women exhibit less manipulative personality traits in more gender-equal countries

A new study exploring how gender equality relates to Machiavellianism—a personality trait characterized by manipulation, exploitation, and deceit—has revealed a surprising trend: countries with higher gender equality tend to exhibit larger differences between men’s and women’s scores on this trait. While men’s Machiavellian tendencies remained stable regardless of national gender equality, women were less likely to endorse such traits in more egalitarian societies.

The findings have been published in the International Journal of Personality Psychology.

The study sought to address a longstanding question in psychology: why do men consistently score higher on Machiavellianism than women? Previous research has shown this pattern is persistent across cultures, yet the factors contributing to the gap remain unclear.

The researchers behind the new study hypothesized that cultural and societal structures, particularly gender equality, might influence the magnitude of this difference. Building on the concept of the “gender equality paradox,” which posits that greater equality can sometimes amplify psychological and behavioral differences between men and women, the researchers aimed to test whether this phenomenon extended to Machiavellianism.

“As a psychologist specializing in moral psychology and intergroup relations, I was motivated to explore whether gender differences stem from societal factors (e.g., gender equality) or reflect something more fundamental. This question is central to understanding the roles of evolution and culture in shaping personality,” said study author Dan Confino of Geneva University.

The study analyzed data from 56,936 adults across 48 countries. Participants completed the MACH-IV scale, a widely used questionnaire for assessing Machiavellianism, where higher scores indicate a greater endorsement of manipulative and self-serving behaviors. Researchers also collected demographic information, including participants’ sex, age, and country of residence, which was determined via their IP address.

To measure gender equality, the researchers used two indices: the Gender Inequality Index from the United Nations and the Global Gender Gap Index from the World Economic Forum. These indices evaluate a range of factors, including access to education, political representation, economic participation, and healthcare, to quantify the level of gender equality in each country.

The findings confirmed that men consistently scored higher than women on Machiavellianism across all 48 countries. However, the size of the difference varied significantly depending on a country’s level of gender equality. In nations with greater equality, the gap was wider, driven by a decrease in women’s Machiavellianism scores rather than any change in men’s.

In countries with lower levels of gender equality, women tended to score higher on Machiavellianism, potentially reflecting an increased reliance on manipulative strategies to navigate restrictive or resource-scarce environments. By contrast, in more gender-equal societies, women’s scores dropped, suggesting that increased access to resources and opportunities may reduce the perceived need for such tactics. Men’s scores, however, remained largely unaffected by changes in gender equality, highlighting a potential difference in how societal structures influence Machiavellian traits across genders.

“Intuitively, one might expect that increasing gender equality would reduce differences between men and women. However, this study demonstrates just the opposite,” Confino told PsyPost.

These results align with the gender equality paradox, which has previously been observed in other psychological domains, such as personality traits and career preferences. The paradox suggests that as societies become more egalitarian, men and women may feel freer to express their intrinsic tendencies, leading to larger sex differences rather than diminishing them.

However, the study did not directly investigate the mechanisms underlying the observed patterns. While the results suggest that increased gender equality reduces women’s reliance on Machiavellian tactics, the reasons for this shift are not entirely clear. Potential explanations include greater access to resources, reduced societal pressures to conform to manipulative behaviors, or shifts in cultural norms around femininity and masculinity. Future studies could incorporate experimental designs or longitudinal data to clarify these processes.

The study, “National gender equality and sex differences in Machiavellianism across countries,” was authored by Dan Confino, Paolo Ghisletta, Gijsbert Stoet, and Juan M. Falomir-Pichastor.