One of the central aspects of narcissism is grandiosity. This means that narcissists tend to think highly of themselves. In particular, they tend to have a positive view of themselves compared to other people.
To be fair, almost everyone has a reasonably positive view of themselves. The Lake Wobegon effect is the observation that people generally believe they are better at a variety of skills than they actually are. The name comes from the radio show created by Garrison Keillor in which all the children in the fictional town of Lake Wobegon are “above average.” Of course, not everyone can be above average.
The central question about narcissism, then, is whether this tendency to enhance one’s opinion of oneself applies to every trait.
A paper by Emily Grijalva and Luyao Zhang in the January 2016 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin examined this issue.
Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of a number of studies linking people’s degree of narcissism to their tendency to enhance their view of themselves. (A meta-analysis examines data from many different studies to capture general trends in research that may only be apparent when looking at a large number of studies.)
In the studies in the meta-analysis, participants filled out an inventory measuring their degree of narcissism and then rated themselves on a number of personality traits. In these studies, other people who knew the participants also rated them on these traits.
The team’s main question was whether a person’s degree of narcissism predicted the difference in the ratings he gave himself compared to the ratings others gave him.
In general, narcissists tended to have an improved view of themselves. Interestingly, narcissists were particularly inclined to promote traits that reflected their ability to influence the world.
Therefore, narcissists viewed themselves as more arrogant, extroverted, honest, and open than others believed them to be. They also believed they were smarter, better leaders, and more physically attractive than others thought they were.
However, narcissists do not strongly enhance all traits. Traits that reflect the ability to be part of a community are not enhanced. Narcissists did not believe they were more conscientious, fair, likable, or reliable than others thought they were.
This pattern reflects that narcissists inflate their view of themselves in order to boost their self-esteem. This means that narcissists are focused on making a huge impact on the world around them. They want others to know them by their individual abilities rather than their ability to work with a team.
As a result, they often focus on traits that reflect individual leadership and greatness rather than positive traits that would make them better members of society.
