Özet:

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Machiavellism is allowing any means to achieve the goals, which is political. Besides that, it may also refer to evil reasoning, deceit, treachery, and gloating over. (Lefort, Dupouney, 1998). This term is defined as “Don’t tell anything to anyone unless you have some benefit!” (p.94) in a study named Mach Tests for the use of authority on medical students. (Brown & Guy, 1983). In another definition, Machiavellism is explained as “the degree of belief of being pragmatic, keeping the emotional distance, and reaching self-satisfying results.” (p.59) (Robbins, 1999). Machiavellism is the ability of deceiving others and making them behave as desired. (Kanten vd., 2015). This understanding becomes a characteristic over time. People who have this characteristic prefer to experience this in other people rather than being perfect. (Sherry vd., 2006) Besides, covering their weaknesses under looking perfectionist by behaving with this characteristic is also addressed. (Solar & Bruehl, 1971). Religion advices being moral and shows the way for it. Adultery, murder, robbery, for instance, are defined as sins by religion as well as immoral by ethic. Keeping one’s word, not misappropriating, respecting to the elders, showing love to the youngers are ordered by religion and accepted as good deed, and considered good by ethic. It is not possible to separate religious and moral rules from each other. However, as a small nuance, while ethic teaches murder is bad, religion both teaches how bad murder is and how sacred the life is. Thus, religious people believe the wickedness in murder and good in life at the same time. Telling lie is not only bad for a theist but also a sin because person who lies believes he committed sin in the presence of God. (Aydın, 2014). This study is about Machiavellism and religiousness and the relationship between them. Survey is used to collect data from adults in order to explain Machiavellism and religiosity and their relation. The role of sex, age, education level, income level and demographic variables in Machiavellism and religiousness are taken into account. In literature, other studies about this topic are also mentioned. Such questions like; What are the levels of machiavelist personality and religiousness of participants?  How machiavelist personality and religiosity level change according to demographic variables? form the main problems of this study. •    Does Machiavellism differ by age, gender, educational attainment, income, and residential place? •    Does Religiosity differ by age, gender, educational attainment, income, and residential place? •    Is there a relationship between Machiavellism and religiosity? •    Is religiosity a significant predictor of Machiavellism? Based on the main problems of the study, this study tests the following hypotheses: •    There is a statistically negative relationship between Machiavellism and religiosity. •    Machiavellism statistically differs by gender. So, men have a higher level of Machiavellism. •    Machiavellism statistically differs by age groups. •    Machiavellism statistically differs by the level of educational attainment. So, as educational attainment increases, Machiavellism decreases. •    Machiavellism statistically differs by income level. So, as income level increases, Machiavellism decreases. •    Machiavellism statistically differ by residential place. •    Religiosity statistically differs by gender. So, women have a higher level of religiosity. •    Religiosity statistically differs by age groups. •    Religiosity statistically differs by the level of educational attainment. So, as educational attainment increases, religiosity decreases. •    Religiosity statistically differs by income level. •    Religiosity statistically differs by residential place. Method Using a cross-sectional data collected by survey method, this study aims to examine the association between machiavelist personality and religiosity. Also, by utilizing the survey method, it investigates what are Machiavellism and religiosity levels of the participants and whether Machiavellism and religiosity differ by gender, age, educational attainment, income level, and residential place. The levels of two focal concepts and demographic characteristics in this study are determined by personal information sheet, Machiavelist Personality Scale, and OK-Religious Attitude Scale. The sample of the study consists of 823 adult participants aged 18-59. In order to investigate the association between Machiavellism and religiosity, an online survey form was created by Google platform, and the data collected between March 2018 and April 2018 via social media applications and networks like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. 850 participants filled the survey form; however, after the process of cleaning data, the total participants were determined as 823. By SPSS Statistics software program, the data was analyzed by running internal consistency analysis, Independent Sample t-Test, One Way ANOVA, Pearson Correlation, and Regression analyses. Findings and Conclusion The findings showed that the level of Machiavellism differed by age groups, education, income levels, and residential place. Additionally, the level of religiosity varied by gender, age groups, and income levels, except education and residential place. The findings also indicated that there is a negative relationship between Machiavellism and religiosity (p<,05). (r -,075  p ,032). This finding supported the main argument of the study. In order to understand the negative association between Machiavellism and religiosity, regression analysis was run, and religiosity statistically predicted the variance of Machiavellism. For each unit increase in religiosity, Machiavellism decreases by ,075, on average (β=-,075, t=-2,151, p=,032). For future studies, the following avenues should be considered: •    Researchers studying on Social Psychology and Psychology of Religion should examine Machiavellism in terms of dimensions of religiosity and personality. •    Researchers should discuss Machiavellism regarding various demographic characteristics. •    Machiavellism should also be investigated in terms of values and virtues, such as humility, altruism, optimism, gratitude, etc. •    This study utilized a cross-sectional data. So, any causal relationship cannot be made on its findings. Longitudinal studies should be conducted to get a causal relationship between Machiavellism and religiosity.