The Relationship Between Machiavellianism, Self-Monitoring,Emotional Expressivity and Sarcasm ProductionPatricia RockwellDepartment of CommunicationUniversity of Louisiana at LafayetteLafayette, LA 70504 par2323@louisiana.eduSubmitted to the Communication and Social Cognition Division of the NationalCommunication Association for presentation at the annual convention, November, 2006,in San Antonio, TX

AbstractA survey of 150 university students, in addition to 68 non-students recruited by thestudent respondents, was conducted to determine personality traits that influence sarcasm production. Regression analysis indicated that two subscales (Negative Tactics andPositive View of Human Nature) of the Christie-Geis Machiavellianism Scale (Mach V)and one subscale (Performance) of the Lennox and Wolfe Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS)significantly predicted sarcasm usage as determined by the Sarcasm Self-Report Scale(Ivanko, Pexman, & Olineck, 2004)2

The Relationship Between Machiavellianism, Self-Monitoring,Emotional Expressivity and Sarcasm ProductionMost research on sarcasm production considers the linguistic and rhetoricalfeatures of sarcastic utterances (Clark & Gerrig, 1984; Jorgensen, Miller, & Sperber,1984; Kreuz & Glucksberg, 1989; Sperber, 1984). Scant studies have actuallyinvestigated characteristics of communicators who produce sarcasm. Of those studiesthat have examined users of sarcasm, most have explored demographic features such asage, culture, gender, and relationship (Gibbs, 2000; Rockwell, 2001, 2003; Rockwell &Theriot, 2001). Yet to be determined are individual personality traits that facilitate or promote the production of sarcasm. This determination is crucial because althoughrelatively infrequent in conversation, sarcasm is a potent, often destructive behavior thatcan have confusing if not devastating effects on communication (Glaser et al., 2000).Rockwell (2005), for example, found a significant but small positive correlation betweenspeakers’ cognitive complexity and their expression of sarcasm. The present study hopesto expand on this approach and determine individual traits that promote sarcasm production with the ultimate goal of providing a clearer picture of the sarcastic speaker.An extensive number of instruments have been developed to measure sarcasmrecognition (Clark & Gerrig, 1984; Gerrig & Goldvarg, 2000; Jorgensen, Miller &Sperber, 1984; Kaufer, 1981; Kreuz & Glucksberg, 1989; Slugoski & Turnbull, 1988;Sperber, 1984 Williams, 1984), but few to measure sarcasm production. Ivanko,Pexman, and Olineck’s (2004) Sarcasm Self-Report Scale (SSS) is a recent attempt tomeasure individuals’ reports of their own behavior regarding sarcasm use and the types of situations that prompt these behaviors. The researchers report four subscales for the SSS:3