Celebrities and Narcissism
200 celebrities, as defined as famous people who appeared on Loveline, were given the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and compared to 200 MBA students.
Guess what? Celebrities scored higher than MBA students. Big surprise.
But some interesting findings:
Female celebrities scored higher on every component than males, but especially high on exhibitionism, superiority, and vanity. (The other components are exploitativeness, authority, entitlement and self-sufficiency.)
Breaking the celebrities down according to "profession":
Reality TV stars had the highest scores, (most significantly in exploitativeness) followed by comedians and actors (close 3rd), then musicians.
The MBAs showed the opposite distribution: males were more narcissistic than females, especially entitlement and self-sufficiency.
For example, #10 "I can talk my way out of anything" is most heavily loaded for "exploitativeness" but negatively weighted for "exhibitionism."
Reminds me of a joke by Janeane Garafalo (from memory): you know, all actors in LA are the same, they're just waiting for your lips to stop moving so they can talk about themselves.... I guess it would help if I were paying attention, but they're just talking crap...
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November 4, 2008 10:19 AM | Posted by : | Reply
i can't stand MBAs. those "degrees" are just a bunch of signaling. i read somewhere that they were the most likely students to cheat in school. i find this easy to believe.
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November 4, 2008 10:22 AM | Posted by : | Reply
This is a challenge to interpret. All items are narcissistic. The response format is forced choice: you pick the one of two items that most describes you, then go on to the next item. So, there is no way to come out of this questionnaire without being branded with narcissism of some stripe.
So, I believe it answers the question: to the degree that you have any narcissism in your personality make-up, what flavor of narcissism is it?
Stable, replicable factor analysis results merely support the concept that there are flavors of narcissism. These same people could also have taken a forced-choice altruism questionnaire or a forced-choice conscientiousness questionnaire.
Maybe with a more thorough reading, I can figure out how this subclinical instrument notes who is more narcissistic.
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November 4, 2008 11:00 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Duh. Actors are the worst sort.
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November 4, 2008 2:39 PM | Posted by : | Reply
"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
"Meaningless of meaningless! All is meaningless!"
"Futility of futilities, all is futile."
and now
"Narcissism of narcissism! All is narcissism!"
Ecclesiastes 1:2
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November 5, 2008 12:22 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Wow. I just found your blog and read a few of the posts. Amazing stuff, man. I'm a 1l at columbia and your posts have both lifted my spirits and given me something meaningful to do while in class. Never stop writing.
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November 13, 2008 9:01 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Could naming yourself after an academic credential be construed as narcissism?
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November 19, 2008 1:54 PM | Posted by : | Reply
"Reality TV stars had the highest scores, (most significantly in exploitativeness) followed by comedians and actors (close 3rd), then musicians."
Really, really interesting post. You really do have the most kick ass blog on the web. I do, however, see some problems with the instrument. And really, aren't we all a bit narcissistic. Or maybe its some kind of power-seeking behavior that facilitates egoism. Perhaps, it's a lack of love...for the other and the self?
"Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where
power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
--C. G. Jung, "On the Psychology of the Unconsciousness"
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