Do All Roads Lead to Rome? The Moderating Role of Culture and Age in Predicting Construal Level on Machiavellianism

Öz

Christie and Geis (1970) define Machiavellianism as a personality trait that results in extensive manipulative behavior, insincerity and callousness. Previous research focused on how culture and several demographic variables relate to Machiavellianism. However, no research has yet to examine how culture and demographics (age) moderate the relation between Machiavellian tendencies and the mind-set of an action. This study examines the moderating effect of culture and age on individuals’ Machiavellian thoughts by the chronic aspect of Construal Level Theory (Liberman and Trope, 1998; Trope and Liberman, 2010) across people from different cultures and from different age groups. In the first part of the study, culture is used as a moderator. The results indicated that American participants showed more (versus less) Machiavellian thoughts then Turkish participants when a concrete construal is adapted (versus an abstract construal). Second part of the study focused on the age as the moderator. The results showed that younger participants (versus older) are more Machiavellian when they have a concrete construal (versus an abstract construal). Consequently; the results indicate a strong distinction when a detailed mindset is adapted where the events are perceived as subcategorized and concrete. On the other hand, when an abstract mind-set is adapted, events are perceived as more vague therefore differences between cultures and age began to diminish. Implications of the findings to the literature are discussed

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Construal Level Theory
• Psychological Distance
• Machiavellianism
• Culture
• Age

Bütün Yollar Roma’ya Mı Çıkar? Makyavelizmde Yorumlama Seviyesinin Belirlenmesinde Kültür ve Çağın Aracı Rolü

Öz

Christie ve Geis (1970), Makyavelizm’i samimiyetsizlik, vurdumduymazlık ve aşırı manipulatif davranış içeren bir kişilik durumu olarak tanımlamaktadır. Literatürde kültür ve pek çok demografik özelliğin Makyavelizm üzerindeki etkisi vurgulanmıştır. Ancak literatürde, kültür ve demografik özelliklerin (yaş) bireylerin Makyavel eğilimleri ile eylemsel zihniyetleri arasındaki ilişkiyi analiz etmede moderatör olarak etkisini araştırmamıştır. Bu nedenle bu çalışma kültür ve katılımcıların yaşlarının bireylerin Makyavel algıları ile kronik Kurgu Seviyesi Teorisi1 (Liberman ve Trope, 1998; Trope ve Liberman, 2010) arasındaki ilişkiyi yönlendirmesini esas almaktadır. Çalışma, katılımcıların Makyavel algıları ile “kurgu seviyeleri” arasındaki ilişkinin kültür ve katılımcı yaşı yönünden etkisini incelemektedir. Çalışmanın ilk kısmında kültür moderatör olarak kullanılmıştır. Sonuç olarak Amerikan katılımcıların Türk katılımcılara göre daha çok Makyavel eğilimde oldukları gözlemlenmiştir, ve bu gözlem yalnızca katılımcıların “somut zihniyet”e sahip oldukları zaman anlamlandığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Çalışmanın ikinci kısmında katılımcıların yaşı moderatör olarak kullanılmıştır. Buna göre daha genç olan katılımcıların, yaşları daha geçkin olan katılımcılara kıyasla daha çok Makyavel eğilimde oldukları gözlemlenmiştir, ve bu gözlem çalışmanın ilk kısmında olduğu gibi yine daha “somut zihniyet” sahibi katılımcılarda algılanmıştır. Genel olarak çalışmada “soyut zihniyet”e sahip katılımcıların ne kültür ne de yaş farkı bakımından anlamlı ilişki etkisinin bulunmadığı gözlemlenmiştir. Dolayısıyla detaylı düşünme, genel düşünce yapısına göre katılımcıların kültürel farklılıkları ve yaş farklılıkları bakımından farklı Makyavel eğilimlere sebebiyet vermiştir

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Construal Level Theory
• Kültür
• Yaş
• Makyavelizm
• Psychological Distance

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