Who's smarter, ethical people or the amoral or immoral sociopaths?

Sociopaths know how to mimic the genuine empathy ethical folks exhibit in order to move them closer to their goals. Eventually it all comes crashing down, though. I think it depends on how you measure success. No matter how nice of a person you are, there is a level sociopathy and or compartmentalization that has to occur for you to run a successful hedge fund, bank, or move up the corporate ladder.

Someone doing that they genuinely love surrounded by people they love and is not in the pursuit of fame, money, or material means is probably the smartest and happiest person. They win every time.

By "smarter" you seem to mean "making a better life choice" rather than "more intelligent." Using that definition, I would argue that ethical people are making the better life choice.

I have someone in my family who is amoral. Starting in his adolescence, he discarded rules and social codes that didn't benefit him. He shoplifted, lied, and cheated without shame, and he blamed this behavior on his (admittedly) deprived and traumatic childhood. Because he had real intelligence and ambition, he clawed his way up the academic ladder, and is now a medical doctor. You might think that, having finally achieved some measure of cultural and financial success, he would feel less antagonistic toward the rest of the world. He does not; he is still filled with cynicism and contempt for others. I find him unbearable to talk with for more than a few minutes at a time, and I often feel genuinely sorry for him: I wonder what it would feel like to have to live inside of a mind like his, with no beauty or goodness, and no escape.

Conversely, I think that ethical people, over the long term, have the potential to develop inner strength and peace that no one can take from them, no matter how challenging their external circumstances. So I agree with R1; there's no contest.

Another vote for being comfortable with your conscience, if you have one. It may not make you richer, but it will make you happier.

But that’s the big “if” isn’t it R3?

IF you have one, it seems so many more people these days do not, or have successfully tuned their conscience out to the degree that they may as well not have one.

Or maybe we’re just seeing more examples of this in these times of extreme media. This culture of narcissism being an aspiration certainly obfuscates matters.