Machiavellian players outperform chance in exploitative social situations [causal]
The finding of interest from this work for the argument here is that the most machiavellian of the players were most able to exploit the situation to their greatest advantage, and do much better than chance would
XREF: Links to evolutionary psychology and Dark Triad research on strategic social manipulation.
Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 590