Machiavellianism and emotional intelligence in higher education students

Abstract

Machiavellianism as a social phenomenon reveals certain person's tendencies that are evident in communication with others in both personal and working life. Especially in the helping professions, empathy, helpfulness as well as low motivation for personal benefit is an important part of their work. The aim of this study is to determine to what extent Machiavellianism is manifested among university students with a focus on managerial professions and social professions along with to what extent emotional intelligence is involved in Machiavellianism in these students. The research, which involved 1109 university students, revealed that students of managerial professions achieve statistically significantly higher Machiavellianism scores than students of social professions. The results also show a negative connection between the degree of Machiavellianism and emotional intelligence. In managerial students, a lower degree of psychological well-being and emotionality along with a higher degree of sociability contribute to a higher degree of Machiavellianism. For students in social professions, a lower degree of selfcontrol, emotionality and psychological well-being along with higher sociability contribute to a higher degree of Machiavellianism. The research results point to specific features that students of different professions utilise in communicating and which they can develop further during their professional training.