Narcissism and Task Persistence

Wallace, Harry M.; Ready, C. Beth; Weitenhagen, Erin

doi:10.1080/15298860802194346

Cited by 49 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Highly volatile and unpredictable contexts would be particularly appealing to narcissistic individuals because the pressure and challenge of such an unstable context would magnify the glory of their success (Wallace & Baumeister, ). As narcissists persist in the face of failure (Wallace, Ready, & Weitenhagen, ) and show lower levels of stress and anxiety when faced with situational stressors (Kelsey, Ornduff, McCann, & Reiff, ), it is possible that they could help reduce the anxiety of team members in an uncertain context.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty enhances the preference for narcissistic leaders

Nevicka

Hoogh

Vianen

et al. 2013

Euro J Social Psych

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Narcissistic leaders present us with an interesting paradox, because they have positive as well as negative characteristics. As such, we argue that the nature of the context determines how suitable narcissists are perceived to be as leaders. Here we propose that a specific contextual factor, that is, uncertainty, increases the preference for narcissists as leaders. As an initial test of this prediction, the first study showed that narcissistic characteristics were evaluated as more desirable in a leader in an uncertain context rather than a certain context. In Studies 2 and 3, we further hypothesized and found that high narcissists are chosen as leaders more often than low narcissists, especially in uncertain (rather than certain) contexts. In all of the studies, individuals were shown to be aware of the negative features of narcissistic leaders, such as arrogance and exploitativeness, but chose them as leaders in times of uncertainty, regardless. Thus, a narcissistic leader is perceived as someone who can help reduce individual uncertainty. These results reveal the importance of contextual uncertainty in understanding the allure of narcissistic leaders. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty enhances the preference for narcissistic leaders

Nevicka

Hoogh

Vianen

et al. 2013

Euro J Social Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A key element may be the persistence exhibited by chronic self-promoters. Recent studies have shown how relentless narcissists can be (Campbell, Reeder, Sedikides, & Elliot, 2000;Collins & Stukas, 2008;Wallace, Ready, & Weitenhagen, 2009). They won't back down on their exaggerations even in light of concrete contradictory evidence (Robins & John, 1997).…”

Section: Chronic Self-promotersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐presentation style in job interviews: the role of personality and culture

Paulhus

Westlake

Calvez

et al. 2013

J Applied Social Pyschol

104

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Chronic self‐promoters may thrive in job interviews where such behavior is encouraged. In Study 1, 72 participants were videotaped as they simulated the job applicant role. Accountability was manipulated by the expectation of expert versus nonexpert interviewers. As accountability increased, self‐promotion tended to decrease among non‐narcissists but increase among narcissists. Ingratiation showed no interaction or main effects. In Study 2, 222 raters evaluated applicant videos varying in narcissism (high vs. low) and ethnicity (European heritage vs. East Asian heritage). Chronic self‐promoters (i.e., European‐heritage narcissists) were given the most positive evaluations. Detailed behavior analyses indicated that the narcissism advantage was derived primarily from frequent self‐praise and the European‐heritage advantage from use of active ingratiation tactics. In sum, self‐presentation styles that pay off in the (Western) interview context are highly selective.

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“…NPI scores are negatively correlated with measures of shame (Campbell, Foster, & Brunell, 2004;Gramzow & Tangney, 1992) and positively correlated with self-forgiveness (Strelan, 2007) and subjective well-being (Rose, 2002;Rose & Campbell, 2004). Wallace, Ready, and Weitenhagen (2009) found that NPI narcissists were quick to admit failure on a creativity test and did not feel bad about doing so if accepting failure opened up alternative avenues for self-enhancing outcomes.…”

Section: Competing Explanations For Narcissistic Self-enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Narcissists seem less able or at least less willing than other people to delay selfgratification (see Vazire & Funder, 2006), so they may not choose to endure the inevitable potholes in paths to highly self-enhancing outcomes. To the extent that narcissists consistently take a path-of-leastresistance approach to secure immediate self-enhancement as Wallace et al (2009) proposed, they resign themselves to relatively mundane achievements of low-to-moderate self-enhancement value.…”

Section: Do Narcissists Undermine Their Self-enhancement Goals?mentioning

confidence: 99%