So, you would like to become powerful. Perhaps, your colleagues are treating you poorly. Or maybe you’re tired of experiencing setback after setback. And maybe you’ve been reading on Machiavellianism. Perhaps, gaining power is the only solution you see.

It isn’t though! Well, it isn’t the only solution. Maintaining power is equally important. Luckily, we’ve got just the right tools to help you.

You can gain and maintain power based on the insights of Machiavellianism and behavioral psychology.

How? Well, read on!

Disclaimer alert – do not be unethical. This article is supposed to guide you within the context of a human relations approach. Manipulation for the sake of gaining power is a poor behavior. Moreover, it is unhelpful in the long-term.

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is a philosophy that was brought into existence by Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli wrote a book “The Prince”, a manual that he suggested the rulers of Italy to read as a guide to gain power. In recent years, the concept has been of interest to many people.

It is also considered a dark personality trait, along with narcissism, psychopathy and sadism.

The central proposition of Machiavellianism is this:

Gaining power can help people deal with everything. Power over the employer would mean that you get more favors in the office. Power over your friends would mean you can get more help when you want it.

Power over anyone would give you access to their resources.

This is what motivates certain individuals to use manipulation to gain power.

Machiavellianism is a tendency to strategically manipulate others to gain and keep power.

In this article, I will explain how Machiavellianism uses some of the most established principles of psychology to help you become powerful.

I will also present to you a case which outlines how one can use these principles of psychology to gain power within an organization. But remember, it is always advisable to think of yourself as a source of good to people.

As Uncle Ben says, “With great power comes great responsibility!”

So, next stop – behavioral psychology.

Operant Conditioning

Law of Effect: Responding to Actions of Others

Law of effect is one of the oldest and widely principles of behavioral psychology.

According to this principle, when a behavior receives a positive response, it is likely to be repeated. Conversely, when a behavior receives a negative response, it is less likely to be repeated (Thorndike, 1927).

So, for example, if someone behaves nicely to you and you give that person an appropriate reward, they’re more like to behave nice to you again.

On the other hand, if you respond with no reward or react negatively, they’re less likely to repeat that behavior.

Machiavellianism and the Application of the Law of Effect

The key to gaining power, as per Machiavellianism, is to make sure that the consequences are in your control.

In other words, you can rise up the ranks if you can control your subordinate’s and superiors’ behaviors by providing consequences for their actions.

But Machiavellianism is not just about providing consequences.

It is also about setting up antecedents.

Antecedent: Setting the Stage for Actions

American psychologist B. F. Skinner was one of the most influential psychologists in history. He proposed a second side to the Law of Effect. After experimenting with birds and animals, Skinner (1963) proposed that a behavior is more likely to occur if the circumstances are more favorable for it.

So, a behavior occurs not just because of reinforcement of a certain action – but also because the circumstances also increase the probability of a behavior. Hence, reinforcement works also because it sets up an antecedent for a behavior.

For instance, if you want a person to behave nicely to you (desirable behavior), and you attempt to respond politely (consequence), they will be more likely to behave nicely to you in the future as the consequence you gave put you in a favorable light for them (antecedent). This is called reinforcement.

On the contrary, if someone does something undesirable with or to you, you might be rude or condescending to them. This will increase the probability that they will not repeat this behavior. This is called punishment.

(This is an overly simplified version of operant conditioning).

Thus, you are controlling the probability of a certain behavior occurring by setting up an antecedent.

However, in real life there are many factors that you cannot directly or even indirectly control. I have discussed some of these problems and a few solutions below.

In any case, let us dive into how you can gain power through behavioral psychology, within the context of an organization. A small thing to note here is that Machiavellians do better in unstructured environments than in structured ones (Gable et al., 2012).

And also, as mentioned above, the case below should not be used for nefarious reasons.

My purpose here is to educate – not incriminate!

Case: Rising up the ranks of your company.

To show how one can use Machiavellianism to their advantage, I have written a general guide of sorts to help you gain power within an organization. The principles that are being used here are of operant conditioning and the law of effect. These are behavioral principles. Machiavellianism also relies on some cognitive principles too.

Nevertheless, as will be shown below, understanding behavioral tools can add a lot to Machiavellianism as a practical philosophy that can actually be of benefit in modern times.

Let’s begin!

Antecedent-setting: Get as many people on your side as possible

The antecedents of getting people to view you as dominant are:

• Appear confident,
• Be mindful,
• Appear to have corporate expertise,
• Be socially connected

How to Appear Confident

Confidence can help you build trust in organizations, as per research. This can be different for genders. The research quoted above indicates that women also have to be prosocially oriented (eager to engage in proactive social interactions) to gain trust (Guillén et al., 2018). A few ways to appear self-confident are given below.

• Improve your posture
• Maintain appropriate eye contact
• Have a deliberate tone of voice
• Complete your sentences

Reason for the antecedent?

For someone who is considering strategic manipulation as a strategy, it might be important for them to at least give off the air that they have some power.

How to Be Mindful

To navigate through the organization it is important to be aware of as many aspects around you as possible. Mindful leaders are seen as more reliable (Mellor et al., 2015). Moreover, you will be able to prepare for usually unseen circumstances better if you are aware of the existing patterns.

Here are some things you can be mindful of:

• The structure of the hierarchy
• Sentiment of the management
• Reinforcers and pain points of the various individuals in higher offices
• Pressing problems for the organization

How to Appear to Have Corporate Expertise

It is nice to have answers to people’s problems. If you are mindful of the organization and your colleagues, subordinates and higher-ups, you will understand what their problems are.

Learn the language that can communicate solutions to higher-ups.

According to the Charismatic Leadership Theory (Conger et al., 1998), adopting a vision-driven speech and being politically savvy can help you make better impressions on higher-ups.

Be Socially Connected to Higher-Ups

Being socially connected to higher-ups can increase chances of upward mobility (Laud et al., 2012). This is because they can offer opportunities for higher positions or roles. You can build connections by being generous, and offering help, especially in roles or projects which are important or central to the organization.

You can build connections with employees and higher-ups in other organizations as well.

Often, when following Machiavellianism, many people make the mistake of thinking it’s only about using others. Well, you have to be willing to offer some expertise.

Even if it is only just to connect people!

Consequences: Responding to Negative and Positive Behaviors

Machiavellianism advocates for giving certain consequences in response to behaviors. There are a lot of behaviors that can be addressed.

However, the ones we’ll be focusing on are the ones that can impact your relations to the power corridors. Based on whether they increase your power in the organization in themselves, we’ll divide these behaviors into

• Desirable behaviors,
• Undesirable behaviors.

Reinforcement: Rewarding Desirable Behaviors

Using the principles of operant conditioning you can reward desirable behaviors by

• Positive reinforcement: providing a reinforcer
• Negative reinforcement: withdrawing a negative situation or factor

As Machiavellianism focuses on gaining power, these reinforcements have to be structured in a way that they are the most effective they can possibly be.

Positive Reinforcement: Providing a Reinforcer to a Desirable Behavior

A positive reinforcer is any factor which you can add to a situation that could motivate the other individual to keep performing a behavior. This can be as simple as a compliment. Examples of good reinforcers are:

• Inviting people out for dinner or drinks.
• Bringing donuts to the office.
• Compliments

Machiavellianism advocates for not being too generous. The point is to make sure that your generosity does not end up hurting your resources.

Negative Reinforcement: Removing A Negative Element from a Situation

You can also reinforce a person’s positive attitude to you by removing a problem they have. Here are some examples of negative reinforcement:

• Vouch for subordinates in a bind, who are ambitious.
• Provide deep solutions or attention to problems that your higher-ups are facing.
• Appear to take proactive action to deal with problems and do take action frequently, but not at a significant cost to your person.

As I mentioned above, Machiavellianism does advocate for preserving your personal interests and resources.

Do not go overboard with it, as there are certain problems that can arise.

Problems with Reinforcement and Solutions

While Machiavellianism does have good recommendations, this manipulation can be very superficial. Thus, their tactics often fail spectacularly.

Why?

Well, because they do not understand the problems with providing reinforcement to individuals. Here is something to keep in mind when you’ll try to reinforce people in your organization:

Problems:

1. Reinforcer Satiation. Use a reinforcer for too long and you’ll run the risk of diminishing its perceived value. This would mean that the reinforcer is no longer motivating the individual (McSweeney, 2004), to keep performing the behavior more frequently.
2. A reinforcer for one individual does not have the same value as it can for others. In fact, for another individual it might actually be perceived as negative.
3. Predictable reinforcers tend to lose their effect easily. If you are giving reinforcers too regularly and follow the same line of action, it can become predictable. As soon as you withdraw the reinforcer, there is a chance that the positive behavior of others will stop as well.

Solutions. You can list down multiple reinforcers of people who are either directly important to you or hold some power in your organization. Use them sparingly but deliberately. Vary the times before you deliver a certain reinforcer. This will make the reinforcer retain its value.

Machiavellianism is not just about reinforcements. In fact, Machiavellianism actually views only using reinforcement as a negative.

So, let’s solve the case using punishments and extinction next!

Punishment and Extinction: Responding to Undesirable Behaviors

Machiavelli mentions that it is better to be feared than loved as a ruler.

Why?

Well, according to Machiavellianism, people will only obey a ruler who is willing to go to lengths in responding to overly bad behavior. A forgiving ruler will be exploited.

But a ruler who stands his ground and is not afraid of employing extreme measures to deal with disobedience will not be exploited as easily.

However, to be feared one has to have power. Few would fear an individual whose consequences are predictable and very limited in influence. Here, perhaps the void left by Machiavellianism can be filled by behavioral psychology.

Appropriate negative consequences can help reduce an undesirable behavior. This can be possible through

• Punishment
• Extinction

In the context of an organization, however, physical punishments will not necessarily be possible. So, let’s look at how you can use punishment to increase your influence in this context.

Punishment

Punishment is an unfavorable consequence of a behavior. Because of this, it reduces the frequency of the behavior. Psychologists in general do not consider punishment to be a very good consequence in shaping behavior.

However, punishment can deter bad behavior. Moreover, it can also help you set boundaries for how they interact, not only with you but with others as well.

In particular effective punishments have a few characteristics (Parke, 1969). They are:

• Used sparingly
• Legally permissible
• Swift and short (depending upon the behavior)
• Less socially and economically costly for the individual who is administering them
• Confidently meted out

Punishments can be on a/an

• Personal level
• Organizational level

Punishments on a personal level can be reacting unfavorably to an undesirable behavior without using legal or organizational power.

So, if, for example, your colleague says something to undermine your authority, you can respond to them (using confidence) to “let you finish.” This is in itself a punishment. It is swift and short and incurs very less social and economic cost.

You could also insult the colleague. But that has more potential to be costly for you, especially if this colleague has more power in the organization.

On an organizational level, punishments are based on rules and legalities. They usually have a higher social and economic cost (Adams et al., 2012). You can use these punishments to gain influence as they set the antecedent that you are confident enough to pursue such actions.

However, due to the resources they involve, if you currently have lower power in the organization, you cannot often access it for your higher ups.

In general, because of the costs surrounding organizational level punishments, they are better to be used a possible threat.

Extinction

Extinction simply involves reducing a behavior by withholding any sort of reward to it. It does not require you to give out unfavorable consequences.

Thus, comparatively, it has a lower social cost.

Often behavior can be reinforced by even your attention to it. Think back to how disruptive students in class often celebrate punishments given by the teacher.

So, when practicing extinction, if someone says something undesirable, you simply do not respond to it.

However, in some situations, one cannot afford to ignore a behavior.

In these situations, you can instead behave in a neutral manner. Withhold an emotional reaction.

The less severe of a confrontation you have with higher-ups, the higher the chance you will have to remain in good books.

Problems with Punishment and Extinction

Unfavorable consequences are a good way to reinforce boundaries and a power dynamic.

However, they can lose effectiveness if they are not incorporated practically. Worse, they can demoralize your colleagues – and while that might be a goal if you are a sadist, it’s not helpful to remain in power.

Here are just a few problems that can arise:

• Excessive reliance on punishments can lose effectiveness and even promote disobedience to one’s authority.
• When using extinction, an extinction burst can happen, meaning that the behavior sharply increases in frequency and intensity.
• Inconsistent punishments can erode one’s authority and relational value.

Solutions.

Combine reinforcement with punishments – following the characteristics of effective punishments outlined above. If the bad behavior increases in frequency, wait it out, but keep on following the extinction schedule. Be consistent in punishments but remember to also be mindful of the environment. Sometimes, your intensity and frequency need to be altered according to the situation.

Remember, Machiavellianism, with all its flaws and inconsistencies, does advocate for balancing negative consequences. Here, Machiavellianism can be seen to be marginally correct!

So, that’s it!

Following these behavioral principles can help you gain power within your team while also moving forward when the opportunity arises. Being in contact with your higher-ups favorably will also open up more opportunities to progress further.

One of the gravest mistakes Machiavellians can make is to consider actions in the short-term. Instead, it is important to remain mindful and do some research on the people around you. Attaining power is important. But many individuals when following Machiavellianism make the mistake of not considering how they can keep power in modern times.

Thank you!

References

• Adams, G. S., Mullen, E., & Guala, F. (2012). The social and psychological costs of punishing. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35(1), 15.
• Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1998). Charismatic leadership in organizations. Sage Publications.
• Gable, M., Hollon, C., & Dangello, F. (1992). Managerial Structuring of Work as a Moderator of the Machiavellianism and Job Performance Relationship. The Journal of Psychology, 126(3), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1992.10543366
• Guillén, L., Mayo, M., & Karelaia, N. (2018). Appearing self‐confident and getting credit for it: Why it may be easier for men than women to gain influence at work. Human Resource Management, 57(4), 839-854.
• Laud, R. L., & Johnson, M. (2012). Upward mobility: A typology of tactics and strategies for career advancement. Career Development International, 17(3), 231-254.
• McSweeney, F. K. (2004). Dynamic changes in reinforcer effectiveness: Satiation and habituation have different implications for theory and practice. The Behavior Analyst, 27, 171-188.
• Mellor, N., Wilday, J., Lunt, J., & Holroyd, J. (2015). High reliability organisations and mindful leadership. In Hazard 25, Symposium Series (Vol. 160, pp. 1-6).
• Parke, R. D. (1969). Effectiveness of punishment as an interaction of intensity, timing, agent nurturance, and cognitive structuring. Child development, 213-235.
• Skinner, B. F. (1963). Operant behavior. American Psychologist, 18(8), 503–515. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045185
• Thorndike, E. L. (1927). The law of effect. The American journal of psychology, 39(1/4), 212-222.