The researchers found that while many narcissists may perceive themselves as highly intelligent, critical thinkers, they are less likely to use important reflective thinking strategies when solving problems, Therefore, the high levels of confidence they have in their intellectual abilities are often misplaced.
Narcissism is positively associated with self-assessed intelligence, but not objective intelligence.
Only narcissistic admiration was found to be associated positively with self-assessed intelligence and IQ overestimation (Zajenkowski, Leniarska, & Jonason, 2020). The studies reviewed above focused on SAI in relation to narcissism understood as a relatively stable personality trait.
In addition to narcissism, many other traits are common to genius and adolescence: melancholy, eccentricity, moodiness, a tendency toward partial insanity, and a tendency to go to extremes.
Narcissists consider intelligence to be an important asset that leads to benefits in the social world. They are highly motivated to maintain a grandiose self-view with regard to intelligence, which enables them to feel good; they defend this self-view against criticism and want to appear smart to other people.
Perfectionism. You can spot a narcissist through their extremely high need for everything to be perfect. They believe they should be perfect, you should be perfect, events should happen exactly as expected, and life should play out precisely as they envision it.
Communal grandiose narcissists also seem to feel good about themselves and have inflated views of how helpful and caring they are. They tend to believe that they will make the world a better place, but ironically, they also appear to be concerned about their personal power as well, although they might not admit it.
Productive narcissists—people who often have a dash of the obsessive personality—are good at converting people to their point of view. One of the most successful at this is GE's Jack Welch.
“Grandiose narcissism appears to correlate positively with healthy self-esteem and extroversion,” Papageorgiou says. These types of narcissists tend to be very confident, which is a good thing. (A vulnerable narcissist, on the other hand, might be overly sensitive.)
Interestingly, they also rated themselves as having higher levels of negative aspects of narcissism, such as being power-oriented, impulsive, arrogant, and prone to exaggerate their abilities. In other words, narcissists are aware that they are narcissists.
Narcissistic personality disorder may be linked to: Environment — parent-child relationships with either too much adoration or too much criticism that don't match the child's actual experiences and achievements. Genetics — inherited characteristics, such as certain personality traits.
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, a diminished ability or unwillingness to empathize with others' feelings, and interpersonally exploitative behavior.
How common is narcissistic personality disorder? Experts estimate that up to 5% of people have NPD. Narcissism is one of 10 personality disorders. These disorders cause people to think, feel and behave in ways that hurt themselves or others.
Many narcissists, at some point or other, do become aware of the effect their behaviors have on other people, but they are completely indifferent to it.
High-functioning: This characterizes people who are able to garner enough admiration to fulfill their narcissistic needs. They are often highly successful and admired.
Two studies with five independent samples (NTOTAL = 1009) were conducted. Participants who had high levels of narcissism were more mentally tough and resilient than participants who had low levels of narcissism. Subclinical psychopathy and Machiavellianism were largely unrelated to mental toughness and resilience.
Overachieving
Some narcissists have much to prove (to themselves and others), and may go out of their way to overachieve. They gravitate toward careers and endeavors which provide a sense of power, prestige, recognition, and/or material success.
According to a new study, people with an inflated sense of self-worth get ahead in life because they are mentally tough. Their “grandiosity, entitlement, dominance and superiority gives them motivation and confidence to take on life's challenges”, says the Daily Mail.
“As a personality trait, narcissism exists on a spectrum from healthy functioning to severely disordered,” explains Mark Ettensohn, Psy. D., a clinical psychologist and author of Unmasking Narcissism. Some level of narcissism is normal and even healthy and adaptive, he says.
Using a score of 4 as a cutoff for moderate-to-high narcissism, this suggests that upwards of 18 percent of CEOs might be considered narcissists (see Exhibit 3).
She says despite their negative traits, narcissists can often be very successful in the workplace. This is due to their charisma, extreme self-confidence, and willingness to take big risks.
A question arises: Do narcissistic employees perform better? They certainly think they do, and they receive higher salaries, but a review of more than 200 studies indicates that narcissistic employees do not score any higher on job performance.
Here are some narcissism red flags to look out for: Lacking empathy. They seem unable or unwilling to have empathy for others, and they appear to have no desire for emotional intimacy. Unrealistic sense of entitlement.
Summary: For most people, narcissism wanes as they age. A new study reports the magnitude of the decline of narcissistic traits is tied to specific career and personal relationship choices. However, this is not true for everyone.
The researchers found that while many narcissists may perceive themselves as highly intelligent, critical thinkers, they are less likely to use important reflective thinking strategies when solving problems, Therefore, the high levels of confidence they have in their intellectual abilities are often misplaced.