Perceived authenticity, Machiavellianism, and psychological functioning: An inter-domain and cross-cultural investigation

Aversive personality has been found to suppress the positive relationship between authenticity and psychological functioning. While psychopathy has been consistently implicated, the role of other dark tetrad traits such as Machiavellianism, and the extent to which these relationships generalize across domains and cultures, remain unclear. The present research sought to investigate this across several cultures and two life domains: study and work. We tested our hypotheses in a diverse sample of undergraduates and working adults across three continents (N = 1052). Undergraduates from Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as working adults from the United States, completed measures of general and domain-specific authenticity, Machiavellianism, and general and domain-specific psychological functioning. Across six bootstrapping moderation analyses, Machiavellianism was found to negatively moderate the relationships between perceived authenticity and both general and domain-specific satisfaction, as well as domain-specific engagement and commitment. Machiavellianism was also found to significantly positively moderate the relationship between perceived authenticity and burnout among students. Our results provide strong and consistent evidence that Machiavellianism suppresses the positive relationship between perceived authenticity and healthy psychological functioning across cultures and life domains.