title: "Claw your way"--Machiavellianism among the medical community.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by emotional detachment and tendency to manipulate others to achieve one's own goal. It is presumed that people high in Machiavellianism would more likely choose business-related occupations, whereas low Machiavellians would prefer helping professions, therefore medical professionals are expected to be low-Machs.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a questionnaire study on 509 respondents: medical school candidates (16.1%), medical students (65%), medical trainees (9.8%), residents (6.3%) and specialists (2.8%) aimed at assessing the level of Machiavellianism, as measured with Mach-IV score, a self-report questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall mean Mach-IV score was 59.24±6.07. The highest mean Mach-IV score, 61.80±6.94, was found in the group of medical school candidates. The lowest mean Mach-IV score, 57.61±7.88, was reported in the group of registered specialists. Male gender was found to be positively correlated with the mean Mach-IV score, which in women was 58.97±6.08 and in men it was 60.16±6.01. There was a negative correlation between the mean Mach-IV score and the age of post-graduate participants. When we divided all participants into subgroups of "low Machs" (<60 points) and " high Machs" (≥60 points), we found that both subgroups were similarly numerous--49.5% and 50.5%, accordingly. The highest representation of "high Machs" was found in the subgroup of medical studies candidates (65.85%), then in the students (47.73%) and in the group of post-graduates (45.16%). Gender differences remained statistically significant--47.33% of women and 60.18% of men were "high Machs".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Machiavellianism level among medical candidates, students and doctors is relatively high, however is gradually decreasing with the progress of career.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 7 of Silesian Medical University, Ziołowa 45-47, Katowice, Poland, agn.bratek@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bratek
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonk
authors.forename: Weronika
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bulska
authors.forename: Kinga
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tyrała
authors.forename: Mariusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seweryn
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krysta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008257:Machiavellianism; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010820:Physicians; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*