The Neuroscience of Being a Selfish Jerk
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People high in Machiavellianism are more likely to agree with statements such as, “It is wise to flatter important people” and “The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear.” A team of Hungarian researchers has scanned the brains of high scorers on Machiavellianism while the test subjects played a simple game of trust. While all participants punished unfair play, the Machiavellians, unlike the nonMachiavellians, failed to respond in kind to fair returns or investments by their partners. This failure to conform to the social norm of reciprocity was paralleled by a fascinating neural difference between the two groups. The Machiavellians showed a sharper uptick in neural activity compared with non-Machiavellians when their partner played fairly. The non-Machiavellians showed the opposite pattern, exhibiting a sharper increase in neural activity, compared with Machiavellians, when their partners played unfairly. But when partners played fairly, the non-Machiavellians did not show extra brain activity—likely because, for them, like most people, this sort of reciprocity is just second nature and comes automatically.
Hat tip to ABA Behavioral & Neuroscience Law Committee
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