Narcissism, Confidence and Risk Attitude by Campbell, Goodie and Foster (PDF)

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Narcissism, Confidence, and Risk Attitude


W. KEITH CAMPBELL, ADAM S. GOODIE and JOSHUA D. FOSTER

University ofGeorgia, USA

ABSTRACT

The present research addresses whether narcissists are more overconfident than others and whether this overconfidence leads to deficits in decision making. In Study 1, narcissism predicted overconfidence. This was attributable to narcissists’ greater confidence despite no greater accuracy. In Study 2, participants were offered fair bets on their answers. Narcissists lost significantly more points in this betting task than nonnarcissists, due both to their greater overconfidence and greater willingness to bet. Finally, in Study 3, narcissists’ predictions of future performance were based on performance expectations rather than actual performance. This research extends the literature on betting on knowledge to the important personality dimension of narcissism.


Excerpt:

"...Narcissism is a dynamic, socially defined construct with two key elements: a positive, inflated, and agentic view of the self; and a self-regulatory strategy to maintain and enhance this positive self-view (for a review, see Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001). Narcissists’ positive self-views have been demonstrated empirically in several ways. Narcissists differentially think that they are special and unique (Emmons, 1984), that they are entitled to more positive outcomes in life than are others (Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, 2004), that they are more intelligent and physically attractive than they actually are (e.g., Gabriel, Critelli, & Ee, 1994), and that they are better than others on agentic traits (e.g., dominance, power) but not on communal traits (caring, morality; Campbell, Rudich, & Sedikides, 2002).

In terms of self-regulatory strategies, empirical research demonstrates that narcissists use both intrapsychic and interpersonal strategies to maintain their positive self-views. On the intrapsychic side, narcissists fantasize about fame (Raskin & Novacek, 1991) and strategically attribute responsibility for their own success to abilities (e.g., Campbell, Reeder, Sedikides, & Elliot, 2000; Farwell & Wohlwend-Lloyd, 1998). On the interpersonal side, narcissists differentially brag and draw attention to the self (Buss & Chiodo, 1991), and strive to compete with and dominate others (e.g., Carroll, 1987). Narcissists also desire to associate with high-status others in order to gain esteem (Campbell, 1999). Not surprisingly, narcissists shift the blame for failures onto colleagues (John & Robins, 1994) or evaluators (Kernis & Sun, 1994).

In the simplest terms, one can think of narcissists as individuals for whom enhancing the positivity of the self (specifically, to achieve status and esteem) is overwhelmingly important. Much of their psychological and social lives is directed toward this goal. In the present research, we look at decision making as one of the domains of narcissists’ behavior that may be differentially distorted by the striving for status and esteem. One might suspect that narcissists have a particular long-term interest in making reasonable and measured decisions, based on the causal reasoning: good decisions!success!status and esteem, and the fact that status and esteem have heightened salience for narcissists. However, we suspected that narcissists’ decisions may be undermined by their short-term interest in maintaining an inflated self-image (cf. Robins & Beer, 2001). Narcissists’ grandiose self-views may preclude the realistic appraisal of one’s likelihood of success needed for successful decisions, resulting in overconfidence and risk-taking..."

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