Machiavellian intelligence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In primatology, Machiavellian intelligence is the capacity of an organism to be in a successful political engagement with social groups.[1] The first introduction of this concept came from Frans de Waal's book Chimpanzee Politics (1982). In the book de Waal notes that chimpanzees performed certain social maneuvering behaviors that reminded him of the works of Machiavelli.[2]
This hypothesis posits that large brains and distinctive cognitive abilities of humans have evolved via intense social competition in which social competitors developed increasingly sophisticated “Machiavellian” strategies as a means to achieve higher social and reproductive success.[3]