A separate published SD4 subscale
Read the seven-item Machiavellianism mean with its actual wording, source and limits. No diagnosis, type or population rank.
Seven numeric ratings required; raw sum / 7. Any unscored response means no personal mean for this subscale.
What these seven statements cover
This SD4 subscale brings together beliefs about secrecy, gaining influential support, avoiding immediate conflict for future advantage, keeping a low profile, planning, flattery and satisfaction when a tricky plan succeeds. A higher mean records stronger agreement with this particular mixture. It does not show that you carried out a manipulation, reveal what happened in a specific relationship or establish that every strategic choice has the same purpose. Read the actual statements before deciding what the name means to you.
Planning and influence are not a single act
Imagine agreeing that planning matters while disagreeing that flattery is a good way to win people over. Another person could give the opposite pair of answers and reach a similar overall mean. The seven-item average does not preserve that difference on its own. Planning an ordinary project, maintaining appropriate privacy or avoiding an unnecessary argument does not by itself demonstrate harmful intent. The statements include broad beliefs and preferences; the website cannot infer the motive behind a real action from their average.
The label belongs to a research scale
Machiavellianism is the authors’ subscale name, not a character awarded to you by this page. There is no cutoff here that turns a person into a manipulator, a political category or a relationship role. A low mean also supplies no certificate of honesty or harmlessness. These limits matter when a memorable label seems more certain than the individual answers. The report keeps the number beside the wording and leaves the other three SD4 readings separate.
What a difference cannot establish
An answer can depend on how you understand an important person, a secret or a tricky plan. The form does not collect the examples you had in mind. A difference between attempts therefore cannot distinguish changed circumstances, a different interpretation, deliberate impression management or a lasting personal change. No reliable-change threshold or population percentile is supplied. Comparing your score with a friend or judging someone through guessed answers would add claims that this self-report version cannot support.
Read the four subscales independently
This mean does not determine the SD4 narcissism, psychopathy or sadism means. A common total would hide the distinct seven-item sets, and selecting the largest mean would not produce a validated main personality type. The existing FermatMind Mini 18-item thematic reflection is a different item bank with different anchors and missing-answer rules. Its three themes cannot be converted into this published subscale. You can read every guide without treating either version as a replacement for the other.
An optional question about one belief
If reflection is useful, choose one statement and privately consider what ordinary situation you had in mind. Distinguish the belief you endorsed from any action you actually took and from what another person may have intended. There is no need to disclose an example, test a strategy, contact someone or change a relationship. You may decide that the wording does not fit your experience and leave the subscale unscored. Reading the explanation can be the end of the activity.
Source, language and the limits of the version
This page follows the 28 English statements and five agreement anchors published on coauthor Erin Buckels’ SD4 project page, crosschecked against the instrument distributed by Delroy Paulhus. Paulhus lists SD4 among measures in the public domain available without permission. The cited article is Paulhus, Buckels, Trapnell and Jones, published in 2021. Our Chinese wording is a working translation, not a validated Chinese form. Publication of the original instrument does not establish validity, norms or accuracy for this website’s users or this translation.
Seven direct ratings and an unrounded mean
Use 1 Strongly Disagree, 2 Disagree, 3 Neutral, 4 Agree and 5 Strongly Agree. Three is the numeric neutral response, not missing information. All 28 items are direct, with no reverse scoring. For each subscale, seven numeric ratings produce their sum divided by seven, displayed to two decimals from the unrounded sum. One, two, three, four, five, three and three sum to 21 and give 3.00. Any unscored response withholds that subscale’s mean; nothing is imputed. No total, dominant type, percentile or cutoff is calculated.