Brain scans show more than buyers bargained for

"Putting on a convincing poker face might not depend on skill alone; it could also be down to the wiring of your brain.

Successful poker players and effective bargainers are good at bluffing: in other words, they can manipulate how other people see them. Until now the brain processes behind this ability have been poorly understood, but a new study has identified patterns of brain activity in talented bluffers.

"One of the most important things we do in life is to build models of other people in our minds that we can act upon," says Read Montague at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

So why can some people put on a winning poker face while others can't help giving themselves away? To investigate, Montague scanned the brains of 76 volunteers while they acted as buyers in a bargaining game.

The aim of the game was to trick another player into selling a hypothetical item for less than its true value. In each round, the buyers were told the item's true value, and would suggest a price to the seller, but sellers would decide on the final selling price. The catch was that the sale would only count if the seller unwittingly agreed to a price lower than the real value. Neither buyer nor seller knew during the game whether a sale had counted or not.

The study revealed three types of buyer. Some honest participants just offered the true value, and others hid it, always suggesting a low price. But a third group – dubbed "strategists" – successfully bluffed to trick their opponents."

Read more at New Scientist (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)