diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/native-types-short-circuit-literal-eval.yml b/changelogs/fragments/native-types-short-circuit-literal-eval.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2e860e4d1fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/native-types-short-circuit-literal-eval.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+  - jinja2_native - short-circuit ``ast.literal_eval`` for non-string values
diff --git a/lib/ansible/template/native_helpers.py b/lib/ansible/template/native_helpers.py
index 4eb630614ef..d2632051cab 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/template/native_helpers.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/template/native_helpers.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ from jinja2.runtime import StrictUndefined
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_text
 from ansible.module_utils.common.collections import is_sequence, Mapping
 from ansible.module_utils.common.text.converters import container_to_text
-from ansible.module_utils.six import PY2, text_type
+from ansible.module_utils.six import PY2, text_type, string_types
 from ansible.parsing.yaml.objects import AnsibleVaultEncryptedUnicode
 from ansible.utils.native_jinja import NativeJinjaText
 
@@ -73,6 +73,10 @@ def ansible_native_concat(nodes):
             # https://github.com/pallets/jinja/issues/1200
             # https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/70831#issuecomment-664190894
             return out
+
+        # short-circuit literal_eval for anything other than strings
+        if not isinstance(out, string_types):
+            return out
     else:
         if isinstance(nodes, types.GeneratorType):
             nodes = chain(head, nodes)