MACHIAVELLIAN FRIENDS? THE ROLE OF MACHIAVELLIANISM IN FRIENDSHIP FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE

Previous studies have found robust sex differences in forming and maintaining same-sex friendships (Vigil, 2007; Benenson et al., 2009). Personality has also been found to contribute to friendships- e.g. extraversion was found by Berry, Willingham and Thayer (2000) to predict friendship quality. Although the findings are unequivocal, in general studies havenʹt applied an evolutionary perspective when discussing the findings. Therefore this study aimed to apply evolutionary principles to friendship, by looking at the relationship between trait Machiavellianism and friendship quality, using the Mach IV (Christie & Geis, 1970) and the Friendship and Relationship Quotient scales (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2003). Participants (N=292, 217 females) filled in an on-line survey. Irrespective of age and gender of the participant, Machiavellianism was negatively related to rated self-reported importance of friendship. This suggests that the cool and emotionally detached social style characteristic of high Mach individuals translates to distant low quality personal relationships. The findings are discussed in relation to ontogeny and the evolution of pro-social behaviour.