@adam-l

therefore it relies on deep, ancestral faculties.

To add technical detail as a starting point for a deeper dive. Primate level cognition and metacognition, on the level that humans consider setting us apart from "lower animals ", is based in the Neocortex, which evolved long after the Old Mammalian and Reptilian brains, both of which still make up the bulk of human braincase content. Dark Triad individuals can perform dumb AF at tasks and skills that run on neocortex circuitry, yet some can greatly outperform their "intellectual " peers at crafty self serving and group dynamic manipulation. It makes me think of the terabytes of Naughty Dog shorts showing how creative canines can be at getting something placed out of their reach, often gaming humans and other dogs with rather detailed multi step schemes requiring forethought and planning. The underlying brain circuitry driving such behaviors evolved EONS before we clever monkies built our neocortex atop it.

It can require a LOT of neocortex processing time, for a trusting intellectual type. To detect when a seemingly dumb person is successfully manipulating them by outperforming at using these older brain circuits.

Lol, autocorrect kept trying to change Neocortex to Neocon. NOOOOOOO!

@Stigma

Yes, naturally, intelligence is a product of evolution.

I believe the dimension of machiavellianism is independent of intelligence (re @Vermillion-Rx). It has to do with using other humans, as opposed of using nature. So, if human society is considered something positive, machiavellianism is basically parasitism. It's a strategy.

You can have stupid machiavellians. You see them everywhere. They try this and that small con. They eventually end up playing only with other stupids, because a smart guy figures them out.

Something I, and others, have been pondering, is the natural limit to intelligence. There's this unsolvable problem, death, for which there isn't a solution. We basically deal with it deceiving ourselves in a way or another. A bit too intelligent, and you might lose that capability, making you insane. The mad genius archetype, the bright kid who ends up with schizophrenia, etc.

And something that I have been pondering, is another problem of the same magnitude as death: realizing that your mother is not protective, but is taking advantage of you. The devouring mother is probably another route through which bright kids end up mentally unstable.