title: Clever and crude but not kind: narcissism, self-esteem, and the self-reference effect.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Wayne State University , Detroit , MI , USA.
authors.forename: Lara L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Amy B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Brunell
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009289:Narcissism; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult