Narcissism and United States’ culture: The view from home and around the world.

Abstract

The issue of Americans' levels of narcissism is subject to lively debate. The focus of the present research is on the perception of national character (PNC) of Americans as a group. In Study 1, American adults (N = 100) rated Americans as significantly more narcissistic than they perceived themselves and acquaintances. In Study 2, this finding was replicated with American college students (N = 322). PNC ratings of personality traits and externalizing behaviors revealed that Americans were perceived as disagreeable and antisocial as well. In Study 3, we examined the broader characteristics associated with PNC ratings (N = 183). Americans rated the typical American as average on a variety of characteristics (e.g., wealth, education, health, likability) and PNC ratings of narcissism were largely unrelated to these ratings. In Study 4 (N = 1,202) Americans rated PNCs for different prespecified groups of Americans; as expected, PNC ratings of narcissism differed by gender, age, and occupational status such that American males, younger Americans, and Americans working in high-visibility and status occupations were seen as more narcissistic. In Study 5 (N = 733), citizens of 4 other world regions (Basque Country, China, England, Turkey) rated members of their own region as more narcissistic than they perceived themselves, but the effect sizes were smaller than those found in the case of Americans' perceptions of Americans. Additionally, members of these other regions rated Americans as more narcissistic than members of their own region. Finally, in Study 6, participants from around the world (N = 377) rated Americans as more narcissistic, extraverted, and antagonistic than members of their own countries. We discuss the role that America's position as a global economic and military power, paired with a culture that creates and reifies celebrity figures, may play in leading to perceptions of Americans as considerably narcissistic.

Narcissism and Social Networking Behavior: A Meta‐Analysis

“…Cultural influences are considered to play a substantial role in the development and maintenance of a narcissistic self. Initial studies that compared narcissism in different world regions suggest that narcissism is more prevalent in Western cultures (United States and, to a lesser extent, Europe) than in Eastern cultures (Asia; Foster, Campbell, & Twenge, ; Miller et al, ). Some researchers further identified an increase in narcissism across time (“generation me”; e.g., Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, ), whereas others found little support for generational changes in narcissism (e.g., Grijalva et al, ; Roberts, Edmonds, & Grijalva, ; Trzesniewski & Donnellan, ).…”

Exposure to Celebrities as a Possible Explanatory Mechanism in the Perception of American Narcissism

“…Research has consistently identified that both Americans and non-Americans alike view the typical American to be very high in trait narcissism and Extraversion, and low in Agreeableness. In fact, both American and non-American participants in several previous samples rate the average American as meeting diagnostic criteria for an NPD diagnosis under DSM-5 (Miller et al, 2015), despite the fact that this tends to be a relatively infrequent diagnosis. Despite the pervasiveness of this distorted perception of Americans' national character, the particular mechanisms by which this view is developed and maintained are unknown.…”

“…We estimated a medium effect size of Cohen's d = 0.5, a conservative estimate based on the finding from Miller et al (2015) that high visibility exemplars (e.g., actors/actresses) were rated as significantly more narcissistic (d = 1.03) than low visibility exemplars (e.g., teachers). Analyses indicate that for an independent sample t-test with power of 0.9 to find a medium effect at a significance level of .05, 86 participants were needed in each condition, suggesting that this study (N = 300) was sufficiently powered for a medium effect.…”

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Recent studies have examined perceived levels of narcissism as rated by Americans and non-Americans and found support for early assumptions that American culture is perceived as narcissistic (Miller et al, 2015;Wolfe, 1976). However, specific reasons for this phenomenon remain unclear.

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“…More recently, Miller et al (2015) conducted an extensive investigation of the magnitude, nature, and generalizability of PNC ratings of Americans by both Americans and non-Americans alike. The authors replicated previous findings about PNCs of American narcissism in a community sample of older adults, and found that in addition to pathological personality traits, the typical American is thought to demonstrate a remarkably high level of antisocial behavior (e.g.…”