Amy B. Brunell

Leader Emergence: The Case of the Narcissistic Leader:

These studies investigate whether individuals with high narcissism scores would be more likely to emerge as leaders during leaderless group discussions. The authors hypothesized that narcissists would emerge as group leaders. In three studies, participants completed personality questionnaires and engaged in four-person leaderless group discussions. Results from all three studies reveal a link between narcissism and leader emergence. Studies 1 and 2 further reveal that the power dimension of narcissism predicted reported leader emergence while controlling for sex, self-esteem, and the Big Five personality traits. Study 3 demonstrates an association between narcissism and expert ratings of leader emergence in a group of executives. The implications of the propensity of narcissists to emerge as leaders are discussed.

Understanding the Social Costs of Narcissism: The Case of the Tragedy of the Commons

Two studies examined narcissism and behavior in a commons dilemma. Study 1 used a four-person, laboratory-based task and Study 2 used a dyadic task. Participants were told that they represented one of four (Study 1) or two (Study 2) forestry companies and then were asked to harvest timber from a renewable forest. Narcissism was found to be positively related to acquisitive goals and harvesting more timber in the initial round. The more narcissists harvesting in the competitive group of four (Study 1) or dyad (Study 2), the less timber was harvested overall and the more rapidly the forest was depleted. Within competitive groups and dyads, however, narcissists harvested more than the nonnarcissists competing with them. In all, narcissism provided a benefit to the self, but at a long-term cost to other individuals and to the commons.

A New Measure of Interpersonal Exploitativeness

Measures of exploitativeness evidence problems with validity and reliability. The present set of studies assessed a new measure [the Interpersonal Exploitativeness Scale (IES)] that defines exploitativeness in terms of reciprocity. In Studies 1 and 2, 33 items were administered to participants. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated that a single factor consisting of six items adequately assess interpersonal exploitativeness. Study 3 results revealed that the IES was positively associated with “normal” narcissism, pathological narcissism, psychological entitlement, and negative reciprocity and negatively correlated with positive reciprocity. In Study 4, participants competed in a commons dilemma. Those who scored higher on the IES were more likely to harvest a greater share of resources over time, even while controlling for other relevant variables, such as entitlement. Together, these studies show the IES to be a valid and reliable measure of interpersonal exploitativeness. The authors discuss the implications of these studies.

Clever and crude but not kind: Narcissism, self-esteem, and the self-reference effect

According to the agency model of narcissism (Campbell, Brunell, & Finkel, 2006) narcissists view themselves as high on agentic traits but low on communal traits. To test if this self-view extends to recall, two experiments examined the extent to which narcissism was associated with self-ratings and recall of agentic and communal traits that varied in valence. Across both experiments a trait description task was followed by a surprise recall task for the trait words and then completion of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988). Within the self-reference condition narcissism was related to higher selection in the trait description task and to higher recall of positive-agentic (e.g., clever) traits. This general pattern of results occurred for narcissism even while controlling for the related personality variables of self-esteem, agency, and communion. In contrast to narcissism, within the self-referent group self-esteem predicted higher recall for positive-communal traits (e.g., kind) but lower recall for negative-communal traits, a finding consistent with mnemic neglect. Overall, results supported the agency model of narcissism and extended this model to suggest that narcissists rate themselves more highly not only on positive-agentic traits but also on negative-communal traits.

Self-Determination and Sexual Experience in Dating Relationships

The authors propose the Model of Self-Determined Sexual Motivation to examine sexual motivation in dating relationships using a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) framework. This model predicted that sexual need satisfaction would mediate the association between self-determined sexual motives and the outcome variables of psychological well-being and relational quality. Three studies tested this model. Study 1 was a cross-sectional study that investigated sexual motivation in dating relationships. Study 2 was an event-contingent interaction record study that investigated specific sexual interactions over 2 weeks. Study 3 combined event- and interval-contingent methods using a daily diary to examine the model for both partners to enable examination of actor and partner effects. Discussion section focuses on the power of examining SDT in the sexual domain.

That's a Boy's Toy: Gender-Typed Knowledge in Toddlers as a Function of Mother's Marital Status

ABSTRACT A child who is highly gender schematic readily uses gender when processing new information. In the current study, we examined whether and how family structure predicts a childs level of gender-typed knowledge (as assessed by a gender-stereotype sorting task) once the category of gender is in place (as assessed by a gender-labeling task). It was predicted that children from more “traditional” family structures (married mothers) would have more gender-typed knowledge compared to children from less traditional families (unmarried mothers). Moreover, we explored if this relationship would be related to, at least in part, the greater frequency of androgynous behaviors (i.e., both masculine and feminine household activities) an unmarried mother performs. Twenty-eight children (age 2 to 3) were tested at local childcare centers. The mother of each child reported her marital status as well as how often she engaged in stereotypically masculine and feminine behaviors. As expected, mothers’ marital status was associated with childrens level of gender-typed knowledge, such that children with unmarried mothers had less gender-typed knowledge, in part due to the unmarried mothers greater frequency of androgynous behaviors. Implications for childrens acquisition of gender-related stereotypes and the possible benefit of having mothers model both masculine and feminine behaviors are discussed.

Are narcissists more attracted to people in relationships than to people not in relationships

Does grandiose narcissism predict greater attraction for others in relationships? We examined this question by replicating previous work implicating grandiose narcissists as mate poachers (Studies 1 and 2). We then used an experimental paradigm (Studies 3 and 4) to assess the extent to which grandiose narcissists indicate a greater interest in someone who is already in a relationship compared to someone who is single. Results suggest that although grandiose narcissism related to reports of more frequent mate poaching attempts, grandiose narcissists did not appear to be more interested in taking someone away from an existing relationship. Instead, participants took their own relationship status into consideration (rather than the relationship status of a target) when evaluating their interest in a target for a short-term fling or a long-term relationship. Thus, although grandiose narcissists report more frequent mate poaching attempts, they do not appear to be more interested in people in relationships compared to those who are single.

Using Homogenous Scales to Understand Narcissism: Grandiosity, Entitlement, and Exploitativeness

There may be times when researchers want to focus on specific narcissistic traits in their own right. In this chapter, we explore the facets of grandiosity, entitlement, and exploitativeness. It is not uncommon for these facets to be associated with different outcome variables. These outcome variables include mental health as well as immoral and unethical behaviors. Two advantages of examining specific traits are a more nuanced understanding of narcissism and the ability to examine the narcissistic traits that bridge grandiose and vulnerable narcissism.

Narcissism and Involvement in Risk-Taking Behaviors

Multiple studies investigated the effects of narcissism on risk-taking behaviors utilizing both self-report and behavioral measures. Most research focused on grandiose narcissism. Recently, research has also assessed vulnerable narcissism and relationships between the homogenous traits of narcissism and risk-taking behavior. Grandiose narcissism was linked with increased involvement in risky sexual behaviors, sexual aggression, aggressive driving, compulsive exercise, alcohol use and abuse, illicit drug use and abuse, compulsive buying behaviors, and gambling. Vulnerable narcissism was associated with aggressive driving and compulsive buying behaviors. The homogenous traits of narcissism, including grandiosity, exploitativeness, and entitlement, were associated with sexual aggression, involvement in high-risk sports, gambling, and unethical behaviors. With regard to performance on behavioral measures designed to assess risk-taking behaviors, the relationship between narcissism and risk-taking is more mixed. The mechanisms underlying why narcissists take risks are also examined. Avenues for future study are presented.