Emotional Intelligence Not Only Can Make Us Feel Negative, but Can Provide Cognitive Resources to Regulate It Effectively: An fMRI Study.

Neuroscientists have formulated the model of emotional intelligence (EI) based on brain imaging findings of individual differences in EI. The main objective of our study was to operationalize the advantage of high EI individuals in emotional information processing and regulation both at behavioral and neural levels of investigation. We used a self-report measure and a cognitive reappraisal task to demonstrate the role of EI in emotional perception and regulation. Participants saw pictures with negative or neutral captions and shifted (reappraised) from negative context to neutral while we registered brain activation. Behavioral results showed that higher EI participants reported more unpleasant emotions. The Utilization of emotions scores negatively correlated with the valence ratings and the subjective difficulty of reappraisal. In the negative condition, we found activation in hippocampus (HC), parahippocampal gyrus, cingulate cortex, insula and superior temporal lobe. In the neutral context, we found elevated activation in vision-related areas and HC. During reappraisal (negative-neutral) condition, we found activation in the medial frontal gyrus, temporal areas, vision-related regions and in cingulate gyrus. We conclude that higher EI is associated with intensive affective experiences even if emotions are unpleasant. Strong skills in utilizing emotions enable one not to repress negative feelings but to use them as source of information. High EI individuals use effective cognitive processes such as directing attention to relevant details; have advantages in allocation of cognitive resources, in conceptualization of emotional scenes and in building emotional memories; they use visual cues, imagination and executive functions to regulate negative emotions effectively.

The Equipment of the Tyrolean Iceman: Innovation versus Adaptation in the Cultural Evolution of Prehistoric Technologies.

This study argues that the equipment of the Tyrolean Iceman offers a unique perspective for understanding the macroevolutionary-scale functional continuity between later Pleistocene and Holocene human technologies. The Iceman was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps and can be dated to around 3300 BC, corresponding to the North Italian early Copper Age. In his gear there are several technologies which are rarely found at prehistoric archaeological sites, including archery equipment, a complete set of clothing, and a personal tool kit. Our paper will discuss this technological assemblage within the framework of cultural evolutionary theories (subsequently abbreviated as CET). According to the concept of cumulative culture, tools and technologies may become the subject of cultural "descent with modification" which leads to the emergence of complex technological innovations. In conventional narratives, the Neolithic represents the single greatest macroevolutionary transition in human cultural evolution, accompanied by a whole set of novel innovations and encompassing the transition to agriculture. However, as we highlight, the Iceman's equipment includes several technologies with a pre-Neolithic cultural origin. Earlier variants of these technologies were used by cultural groups belonging to the Mesolithic and even the Upper and Middle Paleolithic. Our main goal will be to present an explanatory framework for this macroevolutionary-scale technological continuity. In order to achieve this goal, we explore the heuristic value of two basic concepts of cultural evolutionary explanations-namely, the concepts of innovation and adaptation. Building on this background, we present an overview of the data currently available on the evolutionary history of each technological adaptation found in the equipment of the Iceman. Our results suggest that these technologies were not primarily cultural innovations, but simultaneously they were "obligatory" functional adaptations with a deep evolutionary history.

Arbitrary signals of trustworthiness - social judgments may rely on facial expressions even with experimentally manipulated valence.

Generalization has been suggested as a basic mechanism in forming impressions about unfamiliar people. In this study, we investigated how social evaluations will be transferred to individual faces across contexts and to expressions across individuals. A total of 93 people (33 men, age: M = 29.95; SD = 13.74) were exposed to facial images which they had to evaluate. In the Association phase, we presented one individual with (1) a trustworthy, (2) an untrustworthy, (3) or an ambiguous expression, with either positive or negative descriptive sentence pairs. In the Evaluation phase participants were shown (1) a new individual with the same emotional facial expression as seen before, and (2) a neutral image of the previously presented individual. They were asked to judge the trustworthiness of each person. We found that the valence of the social description is transferred to both individuals and expressions. That is, the social evaluations (positive or negative) transferred between the images of two different individuals if they both displayed the same facial expression. The consistency between the facial expression and the description, however, had no effect on the evaluation of the same expression appearing on an unfamiliar face. Results suggest that in social evaluation of unfamiliar people invariant and dynamically changing facial traits are used to a similar extent and influence these judgements through the same associative process.

[Dark personality traits at work].

Nowadays there has been an increase of scientific interest related to the dark triad of personality: Machiavellianism, subclinical narcissism and subclinical psychopathy. In the last two decades several studies were published about the work related correlates of the dark personality traits. The aim of the current paper is to summarize and review these international and Hungarian research findings. After describing the dark personality traits, we review their effect on carrier choice, workplace behaviors, experiences, and attitudes. The connection between the dark triad traits and leadership effectiveness is also considered. A conclusion is drawn about the positive and negative consequences of hiring employees or leaders with high dark triad traits. On the basis of our review we can conclude that several correlates of the dark personality traits, like stress resistance, strategic thinking, charisma and persuasive communication can be advantageous from the perspective of an organisation. On the other hand, these traits can mean threats on the level of social relationships and organizational functionality. The possible ways of prevention and intervention are also described in the conclusion of this paper.

Iron Concentration in Deep Gray Matter Structures is Associated with Worse Visual Memory Performance in Healthy Young Adults.

Abnormally high deposition of iron can contribute to neurodegenerative disorders with cognitive impairment. Since previous studies investigating cognition-brain iron accumulation relationships focused on elderly people, our aim was to explore the association between iron concentration in subcortical nuclei and two types of memory performances in a healthy young population. Gender difference was found only in the globus pallidus. Our results showed that iron load characterized by R2* value on the MRI in the caudate and putamen was related to visual memory, while verbal memory was unrelated to iron concentration.

Machiavellian emotion regulation in a cognitive reappraisal task: An fMRI study.

Affective coldness is one of the main features of Machiavellianism. Recent studies have revealed that Machiavellians are emotionally detached and that this "affective blunting" is associated with intense feelings, emotional instability, negative emotions, and difficulty in enduring distress. We used brain-imaging techniques to investigate emotion regulation in Machiavellianism at a neuropsychological level. We used situations in which participants were required to demonstrate emotional flexibility to explore the controversy surrounding the fact that Machiavellianism is associated with both cold-mindedness and emotional instability. Participants performed a reappraisal task in which emotionally evocative pictures (from the International Affective Picture System) were presented in different contexts (negative, positive, and neutral). They were asked to interpret a scenario according to its title and to reinterpret it according to another context created by a new title (e.g., negatively labeled pictures shifted to positively labeled ones). During task performance, Machiavellians showed increased activation of brain regions associated with emotion generation-for example, the amygdala and insula. This indicates that Machiavellian individuals are able to be involved emotionally in social situations. Increased activation in the temporal and parahippocampal regions during reappraisal suggests that Machiavellians use semantic-perceptual processes to construct alternative interpretations of the same situation and have enhanced memory for emotional stimuli. Furthermore, they seem to possess an intense awareness that leads them to shift attention from external to internal information to detect environmental changes. These cognitive processes may enable them to adjust their behavior quickly. This study supports the flexibility hypothesis of Machiavellianism and suggests that Machiavellians' approach to emotion regulation is linked to their rational mode of thinking.

Different Paths to Different Strategies? Unique Associations Among Facets of the Dark Triad, Empathy, and Trait Emotional Intelligence.

Emotional deficits, such as limited empathy, are considered a fundamental aspect of the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). However, the nature and extent of such deficiencies seem to vary among dark personalities. By applying multidimensional measures of empathy, emotional intelligence, and the Dark Triad, we aimed to investigate in more detail how individuals high in various dark traits understand and evaluate emotions. Results indicated that each trait, and, moreover, each facet thereof entailed unique emotional deficiencies. Narcissism was positively associated with trait emotional intelligence, whereas the secondary factor of psychopathy was associated negatively. With respect to empathy, only primary psychopathy was linked to an overall deficit, while a positive relationship was found between Machiavellianism and the perspective-taking facet of cognitive empathy. We argue that the specific emotional limitations of the Dark Triad traits might contribute to the successful deployment of different socially aversive strategies.

A Darker Shade of Love: Machiavellianism and Positive Assortative Mating Based on Romantic Ideals.

Machiavellianism is a personality trait that is characterized by manipulative and exploitative attitude toward others, lack of empathy, and a cynical view of human nature. In itself or as part of the Dark Triad it has been the target of several studies investigating romantic relations. Nevertheless, the relationship between Machiavellianism and romantic ideals has not been revealed yet. An undergraduate sample of 143 (92 females) with an average age of 19.83 years (SD = 1.51 years) filled out self-report measures of Machiavellianism (Mach-IV Scale) and romantic ideals (Ideal Standards Scale and NEO-FFI-IDEAL). According to our results, Machiavellianism correlated negatively with the importance of partner's warmth-trustworthiness, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and with the importance of intimacy and loyalty in their ideal relationships. Machiavellianism correlated positively with the ideal partner's possession over status and resources. Explorative factor analysis revealed three components of ideal partner's characteristics. Machiavellianism loaded significantly on two out of three components. Results are discussed with regard to Ideal Standards Model and the Big Five model of personality.

The manipulative skill: Cognitive devices and their neural correlates underlying Machiavellian's decision making.

Until now, Machiavellianism has mainly been studied in personality and social psychological framework, and little attention has been paid to the underlying cognitive and neural equipment. In light of recent findings, Machiavellian social skills are not limited to emotion regulation and "cold-mindedness" as many authors have recently stated, but linked to specific cognitive abilities. Although Machiavellians appear to have a relatively poor mindreading ability and emotional intelligence, they can efficiently exploit others which is likely to come from their flexible problem solving processes in changing environmental circumstances. The author proposed that Machiavellians have specialized cognitive domains of decision making, such as monitoring others' behavior, task orientation, reward seeking, inhibition of cooperative feelings, and choosing victims. He related the relevant aspects of cognitive functions to their neurological substrates, and argued why they make Machiavellians so successful in interpersonal relationships.

The neural basis of the Machiavellians' decision making in fair and unfair situations.

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. In the present study, we used an fMRI technique to examine individuals as they played the Trust game in fair and unfair situations. 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. 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.

Punishment as a means of competition: implications for strong reciprocity theory.

Strong negative reciprocity, that is, sanctions imposed on norm violators at the punisher's own expense, has powerful cooperation-enhancing effects in both real-life and experimental game situations. However, it is plausible that punishment may obtain alternative roles depending on social context and the personality characteristics of participants. We examined the occurrence of punishing behavior among 80 subjects in a strongly competitive Public Goods game setting. Despite the punishment condition, the amount of the contributions decreased steadily during the game. The amount of contributions had no significant effect on received and imposed punishments. The results indicate that certain social contexts (in this case, intensive competition) exert modifying effects on the role that punishment takes on. Subjects punished each other in order to achieve a higher rank and a financially better outcome. Punishment primarily functioned as a means of rivalry, instead of as a way of second-order cooperation, as strong reciprocity suggests. These results indicate the need for the possible modification of the social conditions of punishment mechanisms described by the strong reciprocity theory as an evolutionary explanation of human cooperation.

Machiavellianism and Adult Attachment in General Interpersonal Relationships and Close Relationships.

Up to the present, the relationship between Machiavellianism and adult attachment has remained a question to be answered in the psychological literature. That is why this study focused on the relationship between Machiavellianism and attachment towards significant others in general interpersonal relationships and in intimate-close relationships. Two attachment tests (Relationship Questionnaire and long-form of Experiences in Close Relationship) and the Mach-IV test were conducted on a sample consisting of 185 subjects. Results have revealed that Machiavellian subjects show a dismissing-avoidant attachment style in their general interpersonal relationships, while avoidance is further accompanied by some characteristics of attachment anxiety in their intimate-close relationships. Our findings further refine the relationship between Machiavellianism and dismissing-avoidant attachment. Machiavellian individuals not only have a negative representation of significant others, but they also tend to seek symbiotic closeness in order to exploit their partners. This ambitendency in distance regulation might be particularly important in understanding the vulnerability of Machiavellian individuals.

Feelings and motives underlying Machiavellian behavioural strategies; narrative reports in a social dilemma situation.

This study explored the reasons and motives underlying the decisions of individuals with strong Machiavellian attitudes (High Machs). One hundred and fifty undergraduate students completed the Mach-IV test, and their contributions to, financial success in and narrative reports of a public goods game were analysed. High Machs contributed less to the public good and gained more benefit than Low Machs. Analysis of the narrative reports showed that High Machs used significantly fewer verbs referring to emotional involvement and first person plural verb forms, than did Low Machs. This study confirmed previous findings that High Machs have a cool and rational character and a proself orientation and showed that their lack of group orientation may account for their low cooperation in social dilemmas. The results of narrative content analysis provide a new perspective on the motives and values behind High Machs' decisions and success in different fields of social life.

[Cold-minded thinking? The role of emotional intelligence and emotional stability in Machiavellian decision-making]. / Hidegfeju gondolkodás? Az érzelmi intelligencia és az érzelmi stabilitás szerepe a machiavellista döntéshozatalban.

Previous studies clearly show that Machiavellians' thinking and behavior are characterized by some kind of cold attitude, a tendency to be detached from the emotional features of a particular situation. However, very little is known what this cold-minded attitude means, and the presence or the absence of what abilities can lead to emotional detachment. Surprisingly, our study has shown that Machiavellians - contrary to what others believe - happen to exhibit more emotional instability than others. They experience more negative emotions, lose their peace of mind faster, and have a hard time tolerating psychological distress. However, they try to conceal their emotional worries in two different ways. On the one hand, they cannot express their emotions as subtly and precisely as others, and on the other, they are much worse at identifying and differentiating their own emotional states. Maybe it is just the deficit in evaluating and expressing emotions that enables them to implement the strategy to enforce their self-interest successfully. The weak ability to identify and comprehend their own emotions may help them stay detached from the emotional temperature of a situation, while the difficulties in expressing their emotions enable them to disguise their true intentions from their partners.

The telltale face: possible mechanisms behind defector and cooperator recognition revealed by emotional facial expression metrics.

In this study, we investigated the role of facial cues in cooperator and defector recognition. First, a face image database was constructed from pairs of full face portraits of target subjects taken at the moment of decision-making in a prisoner's dilemma game (PDG) and in a preceding neutral task. Image pairs with no deficiencies (n = 67) were standardized for orientation and luminance. Then, confidence in defector and cooperator recognition was tested with image rating in a different group of lay judges (n = 62). Results indicate that (1) defectors were better recognized (58% vs. 47%), (2) they looked different from cooperators (p < .01), (3) males but not females evaluated the images with a relative bias towards the cooperator category (p < .01), and (4) females were more confident in detecting defectors (p < .05). According to facial microexpression analysis, defection was strongly linked with depressed lower lips and less opened eyes. Significant correlation was found between the intensity of micromimics and the rating of images in the cooperator-defector dimension. In summary, facial expressions can be considered as reliable indicators of momentary social dispositions in the PDG. Females may exhibit an evolutionary-based overestimation bias to detecting social visual cues of the defector face.

Neural correlates of Machiavellian strategies in a social dilemma task.

In spite of having deficits in various areas of social cognition, especially in mindreading, Machiavellian individuals are typically very successful in different tasks, including solving social dilemmas. We assume that a profound examination of neural structures associated with decision-making processes is needed to learn more about Machiavellians' abilities in exploiting other people. More specifically, we predicted that high-Mach people would show elevated activity in the brain areas involved in reward-seeking, anticipation of risky situations, and inference making. To test this hypothesis, we used an fMRI technique to examine individuals as they played the Trust Game. In accordance with our predictions, we found consistent activation in high-Machs' thalamus and anterior cingulate cortex (player 1), and dorsal anterior insula/inferior frontal gyrus (player 2). We suggest that Machiavellians conduct specific neural operations in social dilemma situations that make them successful in exploiting others. Machiavellians may have cognitive heuristics that enable them to make predictions about the future reward in a basically risky and unpredictable situation.

Assessing facial attractiveness: individual decisions and evolutionary constraints.

BACKGROUND: Several studies showed that facial attractiveness, as a highly salient social cue, influences behavioral responses. It has also been found that attractive faces evoke distinctive neural activation compared to unattractive or neutral faces. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to design a face recognition task where individual preferences for facial cues are controlled for, and to create conditions that are more similar to natural circumstances in terms of decision making. DESIGN: In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, subjects were shown attractive and unattractive faces, categorized on the basis of their own individual ratings. RESULTS: Statistical analysis of all subjects showed elevated brain activation for attractive opposite-sex faces in contrast to less attractive ones in regions that previously have been reported to show enhanced activation with increasing attractiveness level (e.g. the medial and superior occipital gyri, fusiform gyrus, precentral gyrus, and anterior cingular cortex). Besides these, females showed additional brain activation in areas thought to be involved in basic emotions and desires (insula), detection of facial emotions (superior temporal gyrus), and memory retrieval (hippocampus). CONCLUSIONS: From these data, we speculate that because of the risks involving mate choice faced by women during evolutionary times, selection might have preferred the development of an elaborated neural system in females to assess the attractiveness and social value of male faces.

Preference for facial self-resemblance and attractiveness in human mate choice.

Empirical studies present considerably consistent data about human mate choice, from which we may infer that it tends to be homogamous for various traits. However, different experiments on facial resemblance led to contradictory results. To obtain additional data about the preference for self-resembling potential mates, male and female composite faces were modified in a manner to resemble subjects. Volunteers were asked to choose a potential partner from three images in different situations: self-resembling faces, non-resembling faces (both with the same degree of other-rated attractiveness), and images which were rated by others as more attractive than the self-resembling faces. Women did not show any preference for similarity; they preferred the most attractive male and female faces. In contrast, men preferred the most attractive images of the opposite sex to self-resembling faces and the self-resembling to non-resembling faces. The self-resemblance of same-sex faces was preferred by neither men nor women. Our results support the hypothesis that both facial similarity (i.e., cues of shared genes) and observer-independent features of attractiveness (i.e., honest signals of genetic quality) play an important role in males' mate choice. The lack of choice for self-resemblance on the female side in this particular study might reflect their more complex decision-making rules that are probably based on other cues beside visual stimuli.

Facialmetric similarities mediate mate choice: sexual imprinting on opposite-sex parents.

Former studies have suggested that imprinting-like processes influence the shaping of human mate preferences. In this study, we provide more direct evidence for assessing facial resemblance between subjects' partner and subjects' parents. Fourteen facial proportions were measured on 312 adults belonging to 52 families, and the correlations between family members were compared with those of pairs randomly selected from the population. Spouses proved to be assortatively mated in the majority of measured facial proportions. Significant correlations have been found between the young men and their partner's father (but not his mother), especially on facial proportions belonging to the central area of the face. Women also showed resemblance to their partner's mother (but not to their father) in the facial characteristics of their lower face. Replicating our previous studies, facial photographs of participants were also matched by independent judges who ascribed higher resemblance between partners, and subjects and their partners' opposite-sex parents, compared with controls. Our results support the sexual imprinting hypothesis which states that children shape a mental template of their opposite-sex parents and search for a partner who resembles that perceptual schema. The fact that only the facial metrics of opposite-sex parents showed resemblance to the partner's face tends to rule out the role of familiarity in shaping mating preferences. Our findings also reject several other rival hypotheses. The adaptive value of imprinting-related human mating is discussed, and a hypothesis is made of why different facial areas are involved in males' and females' search for resemblance.

Spatial exploration behaviour in an extended labyrinth in patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia.

Finding one's way through a labyrinth is both stressful and panicogenic for individuals suffering from panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA), whilst normal subjects experience no stress. In this study the spatial exploratory behaviour of 15 subjects suffering from PDA, together with 15 patients with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and a further 15 normal control subjects - all female - was analysed during a walk through a labyrinth-like basement in an attempt to find the exit. The study covered behavioural variables, i.e., anxiety levels whilst route-searching and exploration-related movements (the frequency and intensity of trunk and head rotation, touching oneself and folding one's arms across the chest) and also physiological variables (blood pressure, heart rate) before and after the labyrinth walk. Data obtained in the PDA subjects were compared with those of the GAD and control subjects, and it was found that the PDA subjects' high blood pressure was associated with disturbed exploratory activity, which restricted their contact to the environment. As a consequence, they did not detect navigation signals to find the right route to the labyrinth exit. The interpretation focused on the analysis of the structure of human extraterritorial fear.