Claim: The Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis only applies to reptiles.
Evidence: In primatology, machiavellian intelligence is the capacity of an organism to be in a successful social maneuvering and political engagement with social groups. 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. The claim that large brains are linked to large social groups in primates and cetaceans, on which the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis is based, is criticized by a number of researchers for overlooking the availability of food as a common limiting factor for brain size and social group size.