This study was conducted to validate the Five Factor Machiavellianism Inventory (FFMI) in Korea. Machiavellianism, one of the dark triad personality traits, is characterized by a goal-oriented personality that justifies the means for the end. In Study 1, the FFMI was translated to suit the Korean context, and exploratory factor analysis, along with partial constraint target rotation, was conducted on a sample of 210 adults aged 19 and above. The results revealed the same three higher-order factor structure as the original scale, identifying Agency, Planfulness, and Antagonism as the factors, with some shifts in sub-factors observed. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analysis was performed on a different sample of 300 adults aged 19 and above, confirming that the FFMI is a generalizable tool. Additionally, a Rasch analysis indicated that the FFMI's 5-point Likert scale is appropriate. Upon examining the appropriateness of the items, three out of the 52 items were found to have a minimal impact on the quality of measurement and were excluded, leaving the remaining items at an appropriate level. Finally, convergent validity and correlation analyses with criterion measures demonstrated that the FFMI could serve as a substitute for existing Machiavellianism assessment tools and effectively captures the theoretical characteristics of Machiavellianism.
