14 DAY TRIAL // A new study demonstrates that people who over-appreciate themselves usually emerge as leaders of previously leaderless groups. This is because their overconfidence in their own abilities often becomes accepted by the respective groups and integrated in their regular beliefs, which makes narcissistic people more likely to be elected as leaders.
In a recent article, we tracked down the evolution of the ostracizing behavior of modern bosses from the most ancient of times up to now. This time, we'll refer to a character trait that gets them where they are, in managerial positions. In a recent study, scientists have demonstrated how high narcissism test scores generally indicate a potential leader. This feature refers to a person being self-oriented, lacking an empathic capacity when it comes to others around them, and exaggerating their own capabilities and talents.
“Not only did narcissists rate themselves as leaders, which you would expect, but other group members also saw them as the people who really run the group,” explained Amy Brunell, an assistant professor of psychology at the Ohio State University in Newark, the main author of the study. “They like power, they are egotistical, and they are usually charming and extraverted. But the problem is, they don't necessarily make better leaders,” she added.
In fact, there were three separate studies, the first two involving 432 and 408 students respectively, while the third was conducted on 153 managers from an MBA program. All 3 groups were divided in small teams of 4 persons. During the first test, they were initially asked to evaluate themselves and, after that, they were given the evaluation of a different member of their group in order to argue for it as their candidate, as they were required to elect a leader. The evaluations measured narcissism among other personality traits. The results showed that one of the dimensions of narcissism, the desire for power, was more of an influential factor in the election process than the other one, the desire for attention.
The second test had the 408 participants imagining themselves cast on a desert island, after which, during a group discussion, they were required to choose 15 items they would take with them in order to help them survive on the shore. Upon comparing them with a list made by an expert, the results showed that neither narcissistic individuals nor groups led by them performed any better than average persons or groups. For the third test, the 4-member teams of MBA business managers were asked to pretend that each of them was a school board that had to make a decision on how best to allocate a fictional important contribution from a company, under careful observation by trained professionals. The professional observers took several factors into account, like gender, self-esteem or extroversion level, and watched how the discussions were usually led by the most narcissistic people.
“Even trained observers saw narcissistic people as the natural leaders,” stated Brunell. “In addition, this study showed that narcissism plays a role in leadership among real-world managers.” According to her, high self-esteem should not be mistaken for narcissism. “A person with high self-esteem is confident and charming, but they also have a caring component and they want to develop intimacy with others," Brunell explained. "Narcissists have an inflated view of their talents and abilities and are all about themselves. They don't care as much about others.”