The Influence Of Machiavellianism On Fair Decision Making And Its Neural Mechanism

To find the cause of problems from the aspect of personality traits has always been an interesting direction in psychology.Machiavellianism is similar to eastern Thick and Black Theory.It shows the typical characteristics of unscrupulousness,disregard for morality,and manipulation of others.In recent years,Machiavellianism has been discussed by many researchers.Today,fairness is one of the most important social norms and moral standards.Fair related decision-making is an important part of the decisionmaking field in modern society,and has attracted much attention in many fields.Previous studies have found that Machiavellians tend to despise traditional morality,lack interpersonal relationships and focus more on self-interest.Therefore,whether Machiavellians will ignore the fair norms in different situations,using more strategies and exhibiting more self-interested behaviors is worth discussing.Men and women often show different personality traits and social behaviors in social interaction.Previous studies have found gender differences in Machiavellianism personality,but haven’t obtained consistent results.Women often show more fair behavior,which is related to their high empathy.However,high Machiavellians often show a lack of empathy.Therefore,it is worth paying attention to whether the influence of Machiavellianism personality on fair behavior is moderated by gender.Previous studies have used task-state f MRI to explore the neural activation of Machiavellians in specific task situations.Task-state f MRI has a strong dependence on the task context,and the resting-state functional network may reflect the inner and more essential functional state of the brain.So,the exploration of the functional network connections in the resting-state of Machiavellians is helpful to reveal the general state of the non-task-specific brain of Machiavellians.In this study,we reviewed the concepts of Machiavellianism,equity and related theories and research in recent years.At the same time,we introduced the resting-state f MRI and graph theory analysis.On this basis,we propose the objectives and hypotheses of this study.In the first study,the dictator game and the ultimatum game are used as experimental paradigms,adopting the most common Mach IV scale to measure subjects’ Machiavellianism.And we using 3(Machiavellianism personality: high group,medium group,low group)× 2(gender: male,female)× 3(situation: voluntary situation,punishment situation,post-voluntary situation)mixed experimental design,in order to explore the characteristics of Machiavellianism and fair related decision-making behavior in different situations,and whether Machiavellianism will have an impact on fair decision-making behavior,whether there are gender differences.In study 2,62 subjects were randomly selected from study 1 to perform resting state f MRI scans.The whole brain functional network was constructed by Power-264,and the relationship between the organizational attributes of small-world network and Machiavellianism was explored.And we further calculate the local efficiency and global efficiency of network transmission,which represent the organization characteristics of small-world,to further explore the neural basis of Machiavellianism.This study finds that there are gender differences in Machiavellianism,and the impact of Machiavellianism on fair behavior in different contexts is moderated by gender.At the same time,the small-world attribute of the f MRI was negatively predictive of Machiavellianism scores in males.Further analysis showed that the low local and high global information transmission ability of the whole brain connectivity network may be one of the important neural bases of the high Machiavellianism for males.From the perspective of behavioral characteristics,this study explores the influence of Machiavellianism on fair decision-making,and for the first time,it deeply explores the neural basis of Machiavellianism from the whole brain functional connectivity network,focusing on gender differences.Therefore,this study expands the relevant exploration of Machiavellianism,and provides a new way for in-depth interpretation of Machiavellianism and its performance in social decision-making.At the same time,it is helpful for the in-depth study of Machiavellianism and provides effective suggestions for building the correct social values.