Narcissists love themselves. Even in psychology experiments. This is a problem that psychologists who try to study narcissists in the lab face because narcissists are likely to present themselves in the best possible light, exaggerate their abilities on self-report surveys, and are generally unaware of their true selves (Vazire, 2010).
A fascinating new study by Nick Holtzman and his colleagues sets out to find out what happens when you put audio recorders on a group of narcissists and listen to them go about their day. What do they say?
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First, the researchers administered a self-report measure of narcissism with items like “Everyone loves hearing my stories.” Then, for four days, the participants wore a small, pocket-sized digital audio recorder during their waking hours. Every 12.5 minutes, the recorder recorded 30-second audio clips of their environment. The participants had no idea when the recorder was on.
The researchers then transcribed the audio and sent it to a validated psychological text analysis program. They focused their analysis on variables specifically associated with narcissism: extroverted behaviors (talking, being in a group, socializing), unpleasant behaviors (using swear words or anger words), academic disengagement (attending classes), and using sexual language (e.g., “fuck,” “naked”).
They found that narcissism was associated with extroverted behaviors, and was particularly predictive of being in a group, being social with others, and talking about friends. The association appeared to be much stronger among female narcissists and remained significant after controlling for the personality trait openness, suggesting that there is something unique about narcissism that predicts extroverted behaviors above and beyond openness.
Narcissism was positively associated with engaging in unpleasant behaviors, including arguing, using swear words, and using anger words. For both genders, narcissists who were high in exploitative/entitlement were the most disruptive. This is interesting because exploitative/entitlement is considered the negative side of narcissism and is the most maladaptive aspect of Narcissism (Raskin & Novacek, 1989).
As the researchers note, this combination of high openness and low agreeableness in narcissists has both benefits and drawbacks:
“Specifically, while most narcissists (particularly women in this particular sample) exhibit many of the outgoing behaviors that are likely to make a good first impression (e.g., socializing, talking about friends), they also exhibit unpleasant behaviors, which likely helps explain their difficulties in maintaining a good reputation over time (Buck et al., 2010; Campbell, 2005; Paulhus, 1998).
While the overall narcissism composite was not associated with class attendance, the exploitative/entitlement aspect of narcissism was positively associated with academic withdrawal in both men and women. This association also held after controlling for the personality trait of conscientiousness. The researchers note that “this finding suggests a mechanism by which self-enhancement is associated with academic withdrawal over time (Robbins & Beer, 2001)—inflated self-importance may lead to evasion of Academic commitments, which may contribute to disappointing academic outcomes.”
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Narcissism was also positively associated with greater use of sexual language. This association was stronger among narcissists who were high in exploitative/entitlement and leadership/authority. This association remained after controlling for potential interference with the use of anger and sexually explicit swear words. The researchers note that this “impulsive sexual strategy” “is consistent with the view that narcissists tend to be impulsive and seek short-term gain (Vazier & Funder, 2006).”
