Machiavellianism

False or misleading signals appear to be infrequent. The case of female-mimics among garter snakes (so-called She-Males ) who broadcast compounds atypical of males, but not of females, is also dealt with in Chap. 7 on Behaviour . This type of deception cannot be considered the reptilian equivalent of the Machiavellian ploys of complex primate societies. 

It, she had said, not "Farben." "Farben" was four years of old-fashioned convictions mat had led to failure. Even to many people who saw some of the facts as we saw them, Farben was only "the German question." To us, as to only a few others, it was a world question. Though Farben had been the industrial czar of Germany for half a century, its empire included more than 880 firms throughout Europe, Africa, North and South America, east and west Asia. I had good reason to know that Farben was the Machiavellian planner for all institutions in the world that had allied themselves with military aggression. 

A.Whiten (eds) Machiavellian Intelligence, Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

Byrne, R. Whiten, A. (eds) (1988). Machiavellian Intelligence. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 

This scene introduces Tribulation Wholesome. Tribulation is drawn with a bitterness that reveals Jonson s special hatred for the Puritans. The doctrine that the end justifies the means is Machiavellian, and the argument that Subtle is to be forgiven his bad manners and, presumably, evil ways because working with fire would make him devilish is, of course, entirely specious. In the next scene, Tribulation reveals his venal opportunism even more clearly. 

To do science properly one has to be willing to be politically incorrect. This building of mine is politically incorrect (apolitical in fact), but it is esthetic and elevating to the free spirit, and some day evolutionists will look into it and suffer an attack of deja vu and then our theoretical excursions will acquire a different glow and likely a new owner to boot. Chemistry is Machiavellian. 

Latif DA. 2000. Relationship between pharmacy students locus of control, Machiavellianism, and moral reasoning. Am J Pbarm EducGA M>. 

So, is the MI hypothesis right The diverse papers that made up Machiavellian intelligence (Byrne Whiten 1988) were not really concerned to test the hypothesis as such. Rather, when assembled together they suggested that the... 

TABLE 3 Some components of Machiavellian intelligence in primates... 

Social sensitivity The Machiavellian monkey is competing in a world of other Machiavellian monkeys, and success may depend upon an astute and sensitive reading of others behaviour. For example, our corpus of tactical deception indicated that primates are often sensitive to the attentional focus of others, which they both monitor and manipulate, sometimes to the extent of temporarily inhibiting attention to a critical locus so that others will not become aware of this interest (Whiten Byrne 1988a). This capacity has recently been experimentally confirmed (Tomasello et al 1998). 

The idea of social or Machiavellian intelligence is still quite new, and although already influential, the essential complexity of its subject matter means that we are probably just scratching the surface in our attempts to understand it. However, the first proper tests of the MI hypothesis have supported it, giving encouragement to deeper attempts to dissect both the cognitive capacities involved and the dimensions of social complexity to which they are adapted. It... 

Barton RA, Dunbar RIM 1997 Evolution of the social brain. In Whiten A, Byrne RW (eds) Machiavellian intelligence II evaluations and extensions. Cambridge University Press,... 

Byrne RW, Whiten A 1988 Machiavellian intelligence social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Oxford University Press, Oxford Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM 1990 How monkeys see the world inside the mind of another species. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL... 

Whiten A 1999a The Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis. In Wilson RA, Keil F (eds) MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, p 495-497... 

Whiten A, Byrne RW 1988b Taking (Machiavellian) intelligence apart. In Byrne RW, Whiten A (eds) Machiavellian intelligence. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 50—65... 

Wilson DS, Near D, Miller RR 1996 Machiavellianism a synthesis of the evolutionary and psychological literatures. Psych Bull 119 285-99... 

Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis and its proposed increasing social complexity fits perfectly with my surmise. Increased social complexity and the evolution of a large, expensive to support nervous system go hand in hand with extreme reliance on habit routine generation as the primary cognitive mechanism. One major consideration is that a large brain requires an excellent and copious diet, a requirement that would be fulfilled best in... 

Machiavellian intelligence, Richard w. Byrne and Andrew whiten, editors, clarendon Press, Oxford university Press, 1988. (back)... 

Katherine Milton, "Foraging behavior and the evolution of primate intelligence", in Machiavellian Intelligence, ibid., pp285-3O5. (back)... 

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