Do YOU have a Machiavellian mind? Researchers find brains of those with Frank Underwood trait go into overdrive if there's an opportunity to rip someone off 

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We have all met them - the Machiavellians who will not hesitate to take advantage of others.

Now, researchers have unravelled what happens inside the brain of a 'Frank Underwood'.

They found Machiavellians' brains went into overdrive when they encountered a partner who exhibited signs of being fair and cooperative.

Researchers found Machiavellians' brains went into overdrive when they encountered a partner who exhibited signs of being fair and cooperative. Picture, Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in House of Cards, who exhibits almost every trait.

Hungarian researchers from the University of Pécs scanned the brains of high scorers on Machiavellianism while they played a simple game of trust. 

The researchers said in the journal Brain and Cognition they found that Machiavellians' brains went into overdrive when they encountered a partner who exhibited signs of being fair and cooperative. 

'We used an fMRI technique to examine individuals as they played the Trust game in fair and unfair situations,' they wrote. 

'Our results revealed that the social environment involving opportunities for exploiting others may be more demanding for Machiavellians who showed elevated brain activities in the fair condition (where the partner made a cooperative initiation) but not in the unfair condition.' 

'Although previous research has revealed a number of social, cognitive and neural components of Machiavellians' decision making processes, less attention has been given to the neural correlates of the high Mach (HM) and low Mach (LM) people's responses to situations involving risks and costs imposed by others in interpersonal relationships.'

They also pinpointed the exact areas in the brain being used. 

'Regarding the specific activated brain areas in the fair condition, the HM's anterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was responding, which is likely to be involved in the inhibition of the prepotent social-emotional response to the partner's cooperative initiative.

'Furthermore, we found increased activity in the HM subjects' inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), compared to LMs, that plays a crucial role in the evaluation of the signals associated with the others' social behavior, especially when the player faces a cooperative partner. 

'Alternatively, although Machiavellians are regarded as poor mind readers, inferior frontal gyrus may be effective in anticipating their partner's subsequent decisions in the social dilemma situation.'

'In short, these new neuroimaging results suggest that when you're mean to a jerk, his or her brain barely fires a synapse in response — it's all that he expects from his fellow (wo)man,' wrote Dr. Christian Jarrett in New York Magazine

'By contrast, if you show the jerk signs of fairness and cooperation, you'll send his or her brain into a spin, as the manipulator works out the best way to take advantage of you.'  

Tamas Bereczkei and his team developed a game that involved four stages.

WHAT ARE MACHIAVELLIAN TRAITS?

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic

In cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, Machiavellian intelligence (also known as political intelligence or social intelligence) is the capacity of an entity to be in a successful political engagement with social groups. 

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. 

He wrote his most renowned work The Prince (Il Principe) in 1513 after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility in Florence.  

'Machiavellianism' has since become a widely-used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described in The Prince. 

The book itself gained enormous notoriety and wide readership because most readers assumed the author was teaching and endorsing evil and immoral behavior. 

Because of this, the term 'Machiavellian' is often associated with deceit, deviousness, ambition, and brutality.

It is the art of manipulation in which others are socially manipulated in a way that benefits the user. 

The term 'everyday politics' was later introduced in reference to these various methods.

Student participants who were a mix of high and low scorers on Machiavellianism played several times with different partners.

First, the participants were given roughly $5 worth of Hungarian currency and had to decide how much to 'invest' in their partner. 

Any money they invested was always tripled as it passed to their partner. 

The partner — participants thought this was another student, but really it was computer-controlled — then chose how much to return and this was pre-programmed to either be a fair amount (around ten percent above or below the initial investment) or a blatantly unfair amount (about a third of the initial investment). 

So, if the participant chose to invest $1.60, a typical fair return by the partner (according to the study design) would be about $1.71, whereas a typical unfair return would be about $1.25. 

After these transactions, the roles switched and the study participant became the trustee. 

Their (secretly computer-controlled) partner made an investment, which was tripled, and the participant decided how much to return, allowing them the chance to punish their partner's earlier unfairness or to reciprocate their earlier cooperation.

The Machiavellians — ended up with more cash at the end of the game than the comparison participants.