Manipulators, cynics, liars, they despise morality and do not put the interests of other people in anything. This set of personality traits in psychology is called Machiavellianism. And what is it from the point of view of neuroscience?
Any of us, to be honest, have selfish goals: to earn more money, make a career, win the competition … everyone has their own list. But still, for the most part, we do not forget about decency and from time to time behave like altruists. For example, if someone helps us, we will try to respond in kind, donating, if necessary, both our time and money.
But there are people for whom these rules do not exist, those who consider others only as a tool to achieve their goals. And here all means are good – be it betrayal, betrayal, a stab in the back. Their principle is every man for himself, no one can be trusted.
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In psychology, this personality trait is called Machiavellianism. Its features are manipulative behavior, unscrupulousness, cynicism, concern only for one’s own interests, deceit. Machiavellianism is included (along with narcissism and psychopathy) in the so-called “dark triad”, which combines negative, malicious personality traits. There is also a special text on the level of Machiavellianism, developed back in the 1970s by Columbia University psychologists Richard Christie and Florence L. Geis. It is a set of statements with which the respondent may agree or disagree. People with a high level of Machiavellianism are more likely than others to accept statements like “It’s wise to flatter important people” and “The best way to build relationships with people is to tell them what they want to hear.”
Recently, a group of Hungarian researchers from the University of Pécs conducted an experiment involving people who passed this test.1. The subjects had to play a game of trust, and during the game their brains were scanned. It turned out that the Machiavellian brain began to work with a vengeance when they met a partner who demonstrated a willingness to play fair and cooperate. Why? They immediately began to figure out how to benefit from this situation for themselves.
The game had four stages, students participated in it, some of which had high, and some had low scores on the “Machiavellianism” scale. First, the participants were given an amount of money equal to approximately $5 and were asked to decide how much to “invest” in their partner. And he received three times more than they invested. The partner then had to decide how much money to get back.
The trick was that the partner in the game was not some other student (as the participants thought). This role was played by a computer that was programmed to choose one of two options – “fair” (return about the same amount plus or minus 10%) or clearly “dishonest” (return one third less). For example, if a participant invested $1,6 in a partner, an “honest partner” returned about $1,71, and a “dishonest” partner returned about $1,25.
Then the partners switched roles. Now the computer invested a certain amount, which tripled, and the human participant decided how much to return. Accordingly, he had a chance to punish his partner for dishonest behavior or reciprocate his honest cooperation.
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It is not hard to guess that the “Machiavellians” at the end of the game had more money than the rest of the students. Here’s how it happened. On the one hand, both groups of participants “punished” the partner for dishonest play. But the Machiavellians, unlike the others, did not reciprocate fair play at all.
Brain activity in the two groups also differed significantly. In particular, the “Machiavellians” had a significantly larger burst of brain activity when they discovered that a partner was playing fair. For others, it was the other way around: they had a significantly larger spike in brain activity when they saw that their partner was playing foul. There was no particular reaction to the honesty of the partner – most likely, because they, like most of us, perceived mutual honesty as a position.
How exactly did the areas of the brain react? When a partner played fair, Machiavellians showed unusually high activity in areas associated with repression (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and creativity (middle temporal gyri). According to the authors, the explanation is that they suppressed the natural human instinct to respond with honesty to honesty, forcing out any emotional reactions, and at the same time figured out how best to benefit from the honesty of a partner.
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However, neurophysiologists do not like such “reverse reasoning”, when the observed activity of the brain is interpreted using information about what brain regions are responsible for, obtained in past studies.
On the other hand, the researchers’ observations are consistent with their own past work. For example, although psychologists say that Machiavellians have poor empathy (in particular, they are unable to see the situation through the eyes of another person), there is evidence that they constantly evaluate the behavior of other people in social situations in order to be themselves in a win.
In general, the Machiavellian brain reacts poorly to bad treatment – they do not expect anything else. However, if they notice signs of honesty or a tendency to cooperate, then their brain immediately activates and begins to think of ways to use this to their advantage.
Pass the tests
- How do you build relationships with others?
- Are you a manipulator?
- How do you talk?
1 T. Bereczkei et al. «The neural basis of the Machiavellians’ decision making in fair and unfair situations», Brain and Cognition, Vol. 98, August 2015.