The relationship between empathy and Machiavellianism: An alternative to empathizing–systemizing theory

The psychometric properties of the suggested short form EQ (Muncer & Ling, 2006) and the Mach IV (Christie & Geis, 1970) are examined. Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the proposed three factor structure for empathy and four factor structure for Machiavellianism fit the data better than other conceptions. From the previous research we expected empathy to be significantly higher in females, and also that the gender difference on the emotional reactivity subfactor would be highest. Males were expected to score higher on Machiavellianism. All of these results were found. From the pattern of results it is suggested that an EQ, Machiavellianism dichotomy makes more sense and has better empirical support than the proposed EQ/SQ distinction of Baron-Cohen. The problems of assuming unidimensionality for the EQ or any scale, based on limited evidence, are discussed.