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Narcissists Look Like Good Leaders - But They Aren't! |
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 With Special Guest: Barbora Nevicka Department of Psychology University of Amsterdam Host: Ken Capron | Narcissists' extreme displays of confidence, dominance, and authority match the profile of a prototypical leader, which leads other people to choose narcissists as leaders in group settings (Brunell et al., 2008; Nevicka et al., 2011). The study reported here provides the first evidence that people's positive perceptions of narcissists as leaders are not an accurate reflection of narcissists' actual leadership effectiveness, as indicated by objective group performance. Although group members perceived leaders with higher narcissism as more effective because of their greater displays of authority, narcissistic leaders actually inhibited the exchange of unshared information within the group and thereby diminished group performance (i.e., arrived at suboptimal decisions). |
October 20, 2011 Previously Recorded on October 3
Listen to Barbora Nevicka on Topics In Education
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In the authors own words:
Narcissists Look Like Good Leaders - But They Aren't!Narcissists rise to the top. That's because other people think their qualities - confidence, dominance, authority, and self-esteem - make them good leaders.
Is that true? "Our research shows that the opposite seems to be true," says Barbora Nevicka, a PhD candidate in organizational psychology, describing a new study she undertook with University of Amsterdam colleagues Femke Ten Velden, Annebel De Hoogh, and Annelies Van Vianen. The study found that the narcissists' preoccupation with their own brilliance inhibits a crucial element of successful group decision-making and performance: the free and creative exchange of information and ideas. The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
The study recruited 150 participants and divided them into groups of three. One person was randomly assigned to be the group's leader; all were told they could contribute advice, but that the leader was responsible for making the decision. Then they undertook a group task: choosing a job candidate. Of 45 items of information about the candidate, some were given to all three, and some to only one of the participants.
The experiment was designed so that using only the information all three were privy to, the group would opt for a lesser candidate. Sharing all the information, including what each possessed exclusively, would lead to the best choice. Afterwards, the participants completed questionnaires. The leaders' questions measured narcissism; the others assessed the leaders' authority and effectiveness. All checked off the items among the 45 that they knew - indicating how much the group had shared - and rated how well they'd exchanged information. Experimenters tallied the number of shared items, noted the objective quality of the decision, and analyzed these data in relation to the leader's narcissism.
As expected, the group members rated the most narcissistic leaders as most effective. But they were wrong. In fact, the groups led by the greatest egotists chose the worse candidate for the job. Says Nevicka, "The narcissistic leaders had a very negative effect on their performance. They inhibited the communication because of self-centeredness and authoritarianism."
Narcissism can sometimes be useful in a leader, says Nevicka. In a crisis, for instance, people feel that a strong, dominant person will take control and do the right thing, "and that may reduce uncertainty and diminish stress."
But in the everyday life of an organization, "communication - sharing of information, perspectives, and knowledge - is essential to making good decisions. In brainstorming groups, project teams, government committees, each person brings something new. That's the benefit of teams. That's what creates a good outcome." Good leaders facilitate communication by asking questions and summarizing the conversation - something narcissists are too self-involved to do.
Nevicka says the research has implications beyond the workplace - for instance, in politics. "Narcissists are very convincing. They do tend to be picked as leaders. There's the danger: that people can be so wrong based on how others project themselves. You have to ask: Are the competencies they project valid, or are they merely in the eyes of the beholder?"
Source: healthcanal.com
Psychological Science
pss.sagepub.comPsychological Science published online 19 September 2011
DOI: 10.1177/0956797611417259
The online version of this article can be found at:
pss.sagepub.com/0956797611417259
Reality at Odds With Perceptions: Narcissistic Leaders and Group Performance
Barbora Nevicka, Femke S. Ten Velden, Annebel H. B. De Hoogh, and Annelies E. M. Van Vianen; University of AmsterdamAbstract
Although narcissistic individuals are generally perceived as arrogant and overly dominant, they are particularly skilled at radiating an image of a prototypically effective leader. As a result, they tend to emerge as leaders in group settings. Despite people's positive perceptions of narcissists as leaders, it was previously unknown if and how leaders' narcissism is related to the performance of the people they lead. In this study, we used a hidden-profile paradigm to investigate this question and found evidence for discordance between the positive image of narcissists as leaders and the reality of group performance. We hypothesized and found that although narcissistic leaders are perceived as effective because of their displays of authority, a leader's narcissism actually inhibits information exchange between group members and thereby negatively affects group performance. Our findings thus indicate that perceptions and reality can be at odds and have important practical and theoretical implications.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/08/17/narcissists-look-like-good-leaders-but-are-they/
08/17/2011 | 2:05 pm
Generally speaking, narcissists tend to do well in life. Which is strange, since we usually look down on traits such as arrogance and inflated self-image. And yet, for all the reasons we hate them, society usually rewards narcissists in one crucial category: leadership. For some reason, even though we claim to see through all the trappings of self-love and big egos, we tend to think that narcissists make good leaders, and in group settings, consistently lift them to positions of power. Apparently, we've been duped. While narcissists may look like good leaders, according to a new study by a group of psychology researchers from the University of Amsterdam, they're actually really bad at leading.
The study is due to be published in the October issue of the journal Psychological Science. Here's the abstract:
From the Psychological Science press release:
finding that we prefer confidence over expertise.
Narcissists Look Like Good Leaders. But Are They?
MATTHEW PHILIPS08/17/2011 | 2:05 pm
Generally speaking, narcissists tend to do well in life. Which is strange, since we usually look down on traits such as arrogance and inflated self-image. And yet, for all the reasons we hate them, society usually rewards narcissists in one crucial category: leadership. For some reason, even though we claim to see through all the trappings of self-love and big egos, we tend to think that narcissists make good leaders, and in group settings, consistently lift them to positions of power. Apparently, we've been duped. While narcissists may look like good leaders, according to a new study by a group of psychology researchers from the University of Amsterdam, they're actually really bad at leading.
The study is due to be published in the October issue of the journal Psychological Science. Here's the abstract:
Although they are generally perceived as arrogant and overly dominant, narcissistic individuals are particularly skilled at radiating an image of a prototypically effective leader. As a result, they tend to emerge as leaders in group settings. Despite people's positive perceptions of narcissists as leaders, it was thus far unknown if and how leaders' narcissism is related to the actual performance of those they lead. In the current paper we used a hidden profile paradigm to provide evidence for a discord between the positive image of narcissists as leaders and the reality in terms of group performance. We proposed and found that although narcissistic leaders are perceived as effective due to their displays of authority, leaders' narcissism actually inhibits information exchange between group members and thereby negatively affects group performance. Our findings thus indicate that perceptions and reality can be at odds, which has important practical and theoretical implications.The study is based on the Hidden Profile paradigm. Researchers recruited 150 people and put them into groups of three. One person was randomly chosen as the group's leader, and each group was assigned a task: choosing a job candidate. Everyone was told they could contribute advice, but the leader was ultimately responsible for making the decision. Of 45 items of information about the candidate, some were given to all three, and some to only one of the participants.
From the Psychological Science press release:
The experiment was designed so that using only the information all three were privy to, the group would opt for a lesser candidate. Sharing all the information, including what each possessed exclusively, would lead to the best choice. Afterwards, the participants completed questionnaires. The leaders' questions measured narcissism; the others assessed the leaders' authority and effectiveness. All checked off the items among the 45 that they knew - indicating how much the group had shared - and rated how well they'd exchanged information. Experimenters tallied the number of shared items, noted the objective quality of the decision, and analyzed these data in relation to the leader's narcissism.This is in a way similar to a study we reported on a few years ago,
As expected, the group members rated the most narcissistic leaders as most effective. But they were wrong. In fact, the groups led by the greatest egotists chose the worse candidate for the job. Says lead researcher Barbara Nevicka, "The narcissistic leaders had a very negative effect on their performance. They inhibited the communication because of self-centeredness and authoritarianism."
finding that we prefer confidence over expertise.
Barbora Nevicka
Department of Psychology
University of Amsterdam
Barbora Nevicka,
University of Amsterdam,
Weesperplein 4,
Amsterdam 1018XA,
The Netherlands
eMail: B.Nevicka@uva.nl
Phone: +31 20 755 7918
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Narcissistic Traits and Relationship Dynamics
- Narcissists are individuals, who need perfect mirroring, perfect stroking, perfect responses.
- They need to be in control. When injured or insulted, they typically withdraw or isolate themselves. They do not realize that their withdrawal evokes certain subconscious anxieties in others, especially in significant other relationships, if the narcissist is in relationship with a partner with borderline personality features.
- Narcissists are driven by the need to be liked, desired, and appreciated. They tend to isolate themselves emotionally or physically. They fear a loss of specialness, and are easily injured or outraged when not properly understood. They are dominated by guilt and self-hatred, and have idealized and omnipotent fantasies."
- They are preoccupied with a loss of self-regard, while having an over investment in self, and will do anything to preserve a sense of specialness, and attempt to prove themselves by isolation from others and concentration on perfection, power and omnipotence. This tendency to withdraw is accompanied by a driving need to be desired and appreciated, and the narcissist becomes easily injured, insulted, and outraged when not properly mirrored or understood by self-objects.
- The narcissist, preoccupied with self-regard and driven by and overwhelming desire to be appreciated, lives with the paradox of hatred turned inward to the self and distorted entitlement fantasies. Thus healing occurs when the narcissist is guided away from the guilt, exhibitionism and arrogance and led toward a resurgence of natural curiosity.
- For the narcissist, there are two central issues:
- The child's search for the missing entitlement.
- The sense of being the "chosen one" whose concentration on perfection, power and omnipotence leads to a perfect harmony with God. Narcissists seek out others to confirm or justify exaggerated entitlement fantasies and distortions that the world is deeply indebted to them. Example: "Why should I get a job? You know I am special! I'm going to be an actor or actress!
- Clinically, the narcissist personality disorder (developed in 1968 by Heinz Kohut) is viewed as a developmental arrest in which the main caretakers have withheld phase appropriate mirroring responses. Freud initially conceived of narcissism as the state of self-directed libido.
- Kohut saw the self as an independent structure that evolves along a developmental timeline. NPD is the result of developmental arrest during the normal stage of narcissism, especially during the phase when the child was engaged in a normal state of grandiosity. This grandiose phase is typical in the development of self in that this stage was followed by transmutual internalization and channeling of idealistic aims into more realistic goals. Kohut maintained that primary infantile narcissism is injured by maternal shortcomings, and that empathic responses are needed to modify excessive feelings of rage and guilt. In other words, the child was not able to "dream." This pathology manifests itself in the inability to love others, a lack of empathy, emptiness, over dependence on acclaim, boredom, and an unremitting need to search for power, while making the person unavailable to others.
- Klein (a theorist in 1955) stated in summary that a child recognizes the importance of the mother and the breast. Once an infant recognizes the wholeness of the object and its relation to the self (object-relations theory), at about six months, the infant can then start searching freely out beyond the breast into the environment, usually first with the father. If this bond with mother is disturbed prematurely, it results in a challenge or stirs up rivalry with the father prematurely. One cannot leave the breast or turn to the father until the infant first feels safe with the mother. Guilt, arrogance and exhibitionism are then manifested as a way to attempt to resolve this uncom-pleted developmental stage. Guilt turns inward, leading to self-persecution and self-hatred, loss of curiosity, individuality and thinking.
Unknown aspects of the self keep the narcissistic partner in a continual state of anxiety. Turning away from self to others by making excessive demands through arrogance and intolerance, is an expression of the narcissist's need to be all knowing, God-like, the provider, the protector, and oftentimes the one who takes over in treatment. Many narcissists who are striving to be successful are not developmentally ready for the challenge. For narcissists, the lack of a "mirroring mommy" to reflect the child's normal and healthy narcissist endowments, or to empathize with the child's excessive demands, can result in faulty reflections of the child's true talents, ambitions, goals and aims.
- In relationships, the narcissist who is "in love" is highly cathected to someone who has qualities that he or she wishes to have or had and no longer possesses (beauty, power, organization, sense of self: ability to be alone). The narcissist then tries to own these qualities or to possess them through envy. In other words in finding a love relationship, one will often choose someone who has qualities that are lacking in one's self
- As painful as it is to be with an unavailable narcissistic partner, it can also be a highly charged erotic experience. Narcissists tend to stir up envy and greed in others because they are good at withholding from partners, combined with charm to lure their partners back into the so-called "loving" relationship. Thus partners of narcissists are oftentimes confused, while feeling abandoned. The highs can be high and the lows, quite low!
- Narcissists oftentimes draw to them partners in relationship who fear abandonment, and who experience narcissist traits themselves but in a more significant way. Thus shame is the driving force with them in comparison to the guilt of a narcissist. Shameb~ individuals often referred to as borderline personality disordered individuals, do not have much sense of self. They tend to have a distorted sense of self: and poor bonding abilities. They tend to be overly invested in others, and are dominated by abandonment anxiety. In the attempt to defend against shame and embarrassment for having needs and desires, they will frequently turn to self-soothing modalities in the form of foreign objects, substance abuse, addictive relationships, promiscuity, deviant compulsive behaviors, suicide attempts, and other act to ward off nameless dread. They oftentimes experience need as shame!
- In love relationships they tend to distort and misperceive the good intentions of others. Thus containment is the best approach for them so that they can make good use of perceptions and experiences, and to take some control over their own destinies.
Developed by: Kent A Tompkins, LPC References from: The Narcissistic-borderline Couple by Joan Lachkar, Ph.D.
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