C. Brief Measures
This section includes a variety of brief measures of narcissism and Machiavellianism. Because they are brief,
they can be used in various combinations depending on (a) the researcher’s preferences and (b) space and time
limitations. Beyond those included in the Dark Triad inventories (DD & SD3), no brief measures of psychopathy
are yet available.
Brief Measures of Machiavellianism Since the era of the standard Mach IV (reviewed by Christie in the 1991 ver-
sion of this handbook), several newer measures have been developed. Although the Mach IV, is not particularly
long (20 Likert-type items), the newer measures are even shorter. In addition, each newer version has sought to
redress some limitation of the original scale.
1. Trimmed Machiavellianism Scale (MACH*)
(Rauthmann, 2013 ).
Variable
In abbreviating the Mach IV scale, Rauthmann (2013) sought to resolve two criticisms of the original measure.
One was the issue of multidimensionality (e.g., Panitz, 1989; Rauthmann & Will, 2011 ). Second was an attempt to
reduce the length of the measure. To this end, he applied item response theory (IRT) to shorten and sharpen the
item focus. The theme now emphasizes cynicism and misanthropy.
Description
The resulting measure, labeled the trimmed Mach or MACH*, comprises five items that IRT indicated were
the most informative and precise of the original 20. Responses are collected on 5-point Likert-type scales. The full
set of items is provided below.
Sample
The primary data source was a sample of 528 German speakers collected from an online site called PSYTESTS
(Rauthmann, 2013 ). The mean age was 33.1 years (the proportion of female respondents was .79).
Reliability
Internal Consistency
Rauthmann (2013) reported that the Cronbach alpha coefficient of the MACH* was .77, comparable to that of
the full Mach IV (.81).
Test/C0Retest
No test /C0retest reliability coefficients have been reported to-date.
Validity
Convergent/Concurrent
The MACH* correlated .63 with the 15 remaining Mach IV items. Moreover, the MACH* correlates were simi-
lar to those of the original Mach IV scale (with the MACH* items removed). Despite the reduction to five items,
the criterion correlations were only slightly weaker. MACH* also correlated with a full range of self-reported
manipulation tactics including betrayal (.40) and revenge (.39) ( Rauthmann, 2013 ).
Divergent/Discriminant
Compared with the full Mach IV, MACH* showed lower correlations with narcissism and Machiavellianism.
These reductions were evident even after disattenuation was used to control the differential reliabilities of the
full Mach IV and the trimmed version.
Construct/Factor Analytic
A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a clear fit to a unidimensional model ( Rauthmann, 2013 ).570 20. MEASURES OF DARK PERSONALITIES
V. VICES AND VIRTUES