Neural correlates of Machiavellian strategies in a social dilemma task

The Insightful Manipulator: Machiavellians’ Interpersonal Tactics May Be Linked to Their Superior Information Processing Skills

“…The findings of a recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study (Bereczkei et al, 2013) are consistent with the hypothesis that working memory plays a central role in Machiavellians' decision making. Machiavellians showed increased neural activation in areas involved in inference making, anticipation of success and reward-related decision making in a risky environment (social dilemma situation), such as the inferior and middle frontal gyrus, thalamus and anterior cingulate cortex The middle frontal gyrus was found to be important for abstract reasoning about social situations and manipulation of information for high level planning; it is also known to play an important role in executive control and mental flexibility and is related to the anticipation of positive decisions (Reverberi, Shallice, D'Agostini, Skrap, & Bonatti, 2009).…”

“…Recently it has been argued that Machiavellians' success is due to the flexibility of their behavioral responses, which may depend on their outstanding ability to use cognitive heuristics and adaptive problem-solving devices (Bereczkei, Deak, Papp, Perlaki, & Orsi, 2013). Machiavellians' success in exploiting others may be due to their skill in drawing inferences from others' behavior, anticipating rewards and threats to their self-interest, and exploiting this information to obtain a relatively large final payoff (Gunnhorsdottir, McCabe, & Smith, 2002;Spitzer et al, 2007;Bereczkei & Czibor, 2014).…”

“…Inference making plays a crucial role in determining behavior in complex interpersonal situations, so from this it was argued that the inferior frontal gyrus may be involved in selection among competing behvaioral alternatives in a social dilemma situation. If these arguments are accepted is not surprising that in the role of second player in Ultimate Game, high Machs show greater activity in the overlapping brain areas of the dorsal anterior insula and right inferior frontal gyrus than low Machs (Bereczkei et al, 2013). In a social dilemma situation these brain areas may play a crucial role in adjusting decisions to take account of others' actions.…”

Using Psycho-physiological Interaction Analysis with fMRI Data in IS Research: A Guideline

“…In line with neuroscientific research on trust processes (see Table A1) and existing procedures of meuroIS that analyze fMRI data by using different contrasts (Dimoka, 2012), we found similar activation patterns in regions associated with limbic structures (i.e., the anterior cingulate cortex (Baumgartner et al, 2008;Bereczkei et al, 2013;Bos et al, 2009;King-Casas et al, 2005), prefrontal brain areas (i.e., orbitofrontal cortex (oFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)) (Aimone et al, 2014;Baumgartner et al, 2008;Bos et al, 2009;Delgado et al, 2005;King-Casas et al, 2005;Krueger et al, 2007;Winston et al, 2002), and major structures of the striatum, such as the putamen and caudate (Baumgartner et al 2008;Delgado et al, 2006;Fareri et al, 2012;Phan et al 2010). …”

Relationships between the Dark Triad and Delayed Gratification: An Evolutionary Perspective

“…Recent work has demonstrated that individuals who score high on Machiavellianism are highly sensitive to rewards and less sensitive to punishment (Birkás, Csathó, Gács, & Bereczkei, 2015). This is further supported by fMRI studies that have reported individuals who score high on Machiavellianism show increased neural activity in brain areas involved in reward sensitivity, emotional control, and reward-related decision making (Bereczkei, Deak, Papp, Perlaki, & Orsi, 2013;Verbeke et al, 2011). The trait composite score was related to an inability to delay gratification in the social domain.…”