Niccolò Machiavelli became a term describing someone or something that is "marked by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith". "Machiavellianism" also remains a popular term used in speeches and journalism; while in psychology, it denotes a personality type. While Machiavellianism is notable in the works of Machiavelli, Machiavelli's works are complex and he is generally agreed to have been more than just "Machiavellian" himself. For example, J.G.A. saw him as a major source of the republicanism that spread throughout England and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries and Leo , whose view of Machiavelli is quite different in many ways, agreed
Machiavellianism motivation to merge with others and to support group interests. Machiavellianism lies in the quadrant of the circumplex defined by high agency and low communion. Machiavellianism has been found to lie diagonally opposite from a circumplex construct called "self-construal", a tendency to prefer communion over agency. This suggests that people high in Machiavellianism do not simply wish to achieve, they wish to do so at the expense of (or at least without regard to) others. In 2002, the Machiavellianism scale of Christie and Geis was applied by behavioral game theorists Anna Gunnthorsdottir, Kevin McCabe and Vernon L. Smith in their