Adult theory of mind, cooperation, Machiavellianism: The effect of mindreading on social relations

By Tunde Paal, T. Bereczkei. 2007

258 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Theory of mind – the ability to attribute independent mental states and processes to others – plays an important role in our social lives. For one, it facilitates social cooperation, for two, it enables us to manipulate others in order to reach our own goals. In our study, we intend to analyze some basic aspects of the complex relationship between adult theory of mind and social behavior that had not been researched in depth so far. Our results show (1) a strong negative correlation between Machiavellianism and social cooperative skills; (2) a connection between the extent of cooperative tendency and the level of mindreading; and (3) a lack of significant correlation between theory of mind and Machiavellianism. For the interpretation of the results – especially for our third finding – we used the concepts of “hot” and “cold” empathy, the lack of representation of moral emotions, as well as other cognitive explanatory models.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Safety Research, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f3d528bd69dbb59b844f503315a71e801561bdfe

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Citations in the corpus

The presence of others, prosocial traits, Machiavellianism: A personality × situation approach (2010, background): “They do not typically engage in helping activities, except when their interest immediately motivates them to do so (Paal & Bereczkei, 2007).”
Psychological Contracts as a Mediator Between Machiavellianism and Employee Citizenship and Deviant Behaviors (2014, background): “…exhibit higher levels of performance at work because they tend to manipulate (Christie & Geis, 1970; Wilson, Near, & Miller, 1996), lack empathy (Paal & Bereczkei, 2007), prefer opportunism to cooperation (Sakalaki, Richardson, & Thepaut, 2007), engage in revenge-seeking behavior (Meyer,…”
Machiavellian people’s success results from monitoring their partners (2012, background): “This assumption coincides with previous results showing that there is a strong negative correlation between Mach-IV and cooperation (TCI) scores (Paal & Bereczkei, 2007).”
The neuropsychology of consumer behavior and marketing (2018, result): “Previous self- report research on the relationship between theory of mind and Machiavellianism has been inconclusive, with studies showing both null and positive relationships (e.g., Paal & Bereczkei, 2007; Repacholi & Slaughter, 2003; Stellwagen & Kerig, 2013).”
Prosocial Citizens Without a Moral Compass? Examining the Relationship Between Machiavellianism and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior (2018, background): “Indeed, research suggests that there are several signature characteristics of Machiavellians that managers may look for, including a coldness or lack of empathy in interpersonal dealings (Paal and Bereczkei 2007; Wiggins and Broughton 1985), the indiscriminate use of impression management tactics (B”
Theory of Mind and Empathic Explanations of Machiavellianism (2013, background): “Paal and Bereczkei (2007) hypothesized that Machiavellianism should be positively associated with ToM skills: Our argument is . . . that people who can place themselves into others’ thoughts and understand their intentions, views and knowledge more easily, can use this knowledge more effectively to…”
Entrepreneurial Imaginativeness in New Venture Ideation (2018, unknown): “…1983; Davis, 1966; Davis, 1980; Dietvorst, Verbeke, Bagozzi, Yoon, Smits, & van der Lugt, 2009; Gough, 1979; Heppner & Petersen, 1982; Kirton, 1976; Paal & Bereczkei, 2007; Spiro & Weitz, 1990; Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974; Zhou & George, 2001) to aid in the generation of items for creative, social,…”
Agreeableness is related to social‐cognitive, but not social‐perceptual, theory of mind (2008, methodology): “Third, Stiller and Dunbar (2007) find that a measure of ToM predicts the size of people’s social networks, Paal and Bereczkei (2007) find ToM performance to be closely correlated with social cooperation, and Mohr, Howells, Gerace, Day, & Wharton (2007) find that ToM is associated with angry…”