Auxin Posted August 6, 2014 Just one simple question can identify narcissistic people Scientists have developed and validated a new method to identify which people are narcissistic: just ask them. In a series of 11 experiments involving more than 2,200 people of all ages, the researchers found they could reliably identify narcissistic people by asking them this exact question (including the note): To what extent do you agree with this statement: "I am a narcissist." (Note: The word "narcissist" means egotistical, self-focused, and vain.) Participants rated themselves on a scale of 1 (not very true of me) to 7 (very true of me). (How narcissistic are you? Take the test here.) Results showed that people's answer to this question lined up very closely with several other validated measures of narcissism, including the widely used Narcissistic Personality Inventory. The difference is that this new survey – which the researchers call the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS) – has one question, while the NPI has 40 questions to answer. "People who are willing to admit they are more narcissistic than others probably actually are more narcissistic," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University. "People who are narcissists are almost proud of the fact. You can ask them directly because they don't see narcissism as a negative quality – they believe they are superior to other people and are fine with saying that publicly." Bushman conducted the study with Sara Konrath of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy (formerly of the University of Michigan) and Brian Meier of Gettysburg College. Their results appear in the journal PLOS ONE. Understanding narcissism has many implications for society that extend beyond the impact on the individual narcissist's life, Konrath said. "For example, narcissistic people have low empathy, and empathy is one key motivator of philanthropic behavior such as donating money or time to organizations." "Overall, narcissism is problematic for both individuals and society. Those who think they are already great don't try to improve themselves," Bushman said. "And narcissism is bad for society because people who are only thinking of themselves and their own interests are less helpful to others." Bushman emphasized that SINS shouldn't be seen a replacement for the longer narcissism questionnaires. The NPI and other instruments can provide more information to researchers, such as which form of narcissism someone has. "But our single-item scale can be useful for long surveys in which researchers are concerned about people getting fatigued or distracted while answering questions and possibly even dropping out before they are done," Bushman said. He noted that if it takes a person 20 seconds to answer the single question in the SINS measure, it would take him or her 13.3 minutes to answer the 40-question NPI. "That is a big difference if you're doing a study in which participants have to complete several different survey instruments and answer a long list of other questions," he said. The 11 different experiments took a number of different approaches to determine the validity of SINS. Some used undergraduate college students, while others involved online panels of American adults. One experiment found that SINS was positively related to each of the seven subscales of the NPI which measure various components of narcissism (vanity, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, authority, superiority, self-sufficiency, and entitlement). Another study found that that participants tended to have similar scores on SINS when tested 11 days apart. One experiment replicated past work that showed people scoring high in narcissism were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors and had difficulty maintaining long-term committed romantic relationships. People who scored higher on narcissism on the SINS had both positive and negative outcomes, Bushman said. They reported more positive feelings, more extraversion, and marginally less depression. But they also reported less agreeableness, and more anger, shame, guilt, and fear. In addition, people scoring high on SINS showed negative interpersonal outcomes, such as having poor relationships with others and less prosocial behavior when their ego was threatened. The advantage of SINS compared to other measures, Bushman said, is that it allows researchers to identify narcissists very easily."We don't think SINS is a replacement for other narcissism inventories in all situations, but it has a time and place," he said. [Link] Just curious whos in love with themselves 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Optimystic Posted August 6, 2014 (edited) i'm awesome, and i fuck dolphins really i float in between awesome and mundane, half man half amazing just not less a man, and not more amazing, than most who am i foolen.... im just a sucker with low self esteem , oh yeaaaaaa, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa this part: people scoring high in narcissism were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors and had difficulty maintaining long-term committed romantic relationships. hahahahahahaha the laughter is just to hide my sadness.... no further comment Edited August 6, 2014 by Spine Collector 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DiscoStu Posted August 7, 2014 on a scale of 0 to bot6 i'm jesus 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
obtuse Posted August 7, 2014 I would assume everyone floats around on the scale. we have days where we are not, and we have days where we need a little bit just to get through the day. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coolname Posted August 7, 2014 (edited) I'm about as awesome as this dog Edited August 7, 2014 by coolname 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cactuscarl Posted August 7, 2014 Agreed obtuse most the time I'd be low on that chart but there would be the odd day where i am the center of the universe....MEEEE! lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderIdeal Posted August 8, 2014 (edited) i can admit i'm better than most others.......... in some ways in some traits most others are better than me. therefore i chose the middle score, 4. Edited August 8, 2014 by ThunderIdeal Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paradox Posted August 9, 2014 imo almost every human on the planet is a narcissist. Almost every single child, from birth onwards is indoctrinated into the delusional & narcissistic belief that they are somehow more special than all other creatures on the planet, that they are different to & transcendent of nature when in fact we have next to no perspective on the matter whatsoever & we're simply extremely ugly apes with an overdeveloped neural cortex. If anything we are more like an evolutionary mistake. The kind of apes that are in our close genetic group generally seem to have quite sinister forms of social politics, are quite goofy looking & to be honest, extremely ugly & compared to most creatures tend to have quite off-putting habits & general demeanor. Members of this group evolving a large brain & therefore an ability to dominate the global environment is a recipe for total chaos & destruction, which is obviously what we're all witnessing right now as we systematically decimate everything that is good on this planet. It would seem to me that the apes reached their evolutionary pinnacle with the forest dwelling orangutan, an exemplary, contemplative & inspiring member of the tropical forest ecosystem. the evolution of a developed neural cortex seems much more appropriate in animals such as dolphins & orca's or other such large brained mammals. They appear to mostly employ their intelligence in the pursuit joy & various extremely novel forms of survival & play, without the obsessive & toxic ego mutation that has occurred with neurally developed apes. It would appear humans have missed the point (if there is one) when it comes to the question of how to use intelligence intelligently, which unfortunately as far as i'm concerned negates that very intelligence altogether. What we call narcissistic is just an extreme example of a very normal, highly delusional neurally mutant ape state of mind. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderIdeal Posted August 9, 2014 i enjoy your views as always, i just wonder which psychological condition you qualify for misanthrope maybe? going by the statements in that post (although you're trying to stress a point obviously), i'd say that's a bit one-sided, or rather, you're judging with some fairly personalised criteria. picking your ass and your nose during the same self-important trundle is hilarious in a way, but then the only animals possessing such a refined sense of toilet humour as to actually get the joke are your fellow primates. maybe terrence mckenna was dead wrong about mushrooms being the catalyst for language and culture, maybe it was actually fart jokes? on a scale of one to seven, one meaning that humans are shit and seven meaning that humans are awesome, i give humans 4. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paradox Posted August 9, 2014 yeah i definitely am a tad misanthropic from time to time. It's also just good sport to take a swipe at the collective human ego, it helps give me perspective on my own ego. & by ego i mean the habitual neural grid through which we experience ourselves as an individual, the neurological habit pattern that leads to almost all of my misconceptions about reality & therefore leads to almost all of my own misery & the misery i put on others. But i'm definitely also a philanthropist, the way i see it it's like the way someone who loves you deeply can tell you when your being a fuckwit & so they do, because you are & we need to trust the people that love us to tell us the truth. Maybe i tend to lean more toward misanthropy these days but thats because humanity is in a fucking tragic state & it would seem to me that is mostly due to the fact that a very imbalanced narcissism has infected the human ego which has warped the collective conscious into a toxic, cancerous amalgamation of death (or some such dramatic sounding analogy). One tends to have to be a bit blunt when getting to the point with these things don'tcha reckon? Misanthropic or not, every time i try to figure out what psychological condition best describes me it seems i have a little bit of every psychological condition there is. Which isn't so bad i guess. But why do i get the feeling you're trying to lure me into showing how narcissistic i am by asking me about myself? hehe 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paradox Posted August 10, 2014 You have to admit, apes are about the ugliest animal on the planet. Have you ever cleansed your perception & contemplated the human form with an iota of objectivity? sheesh. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamwalker. Posted August 10, 2014 "intelligence intelligently,"...so true.... humanity is by definition & nature the narcissist....so by taking modest 4.....you would in deed be such a narcissist...better to come out & admit we are all 10's.....like it or lump it....10 & proud....or 10 & guilt ridden...or lie ? such a waste of potential......probably some transposon, jumped into our ancestral neural dna... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paradox Posted August 11, 2014 (edited) People just don't like hearing this stuff, as generally they're under the impression that humans are just totally awesome. All I'm saying is we really have no logical reason to come to the conclusion that humans are awesome except a general speciecentric narcissism. Its not misanthropic to point that out, its just logic. The fact we have nothing on this planet to meaningfully compare our intelligence to means straight away that we lack perspective on the matter entirely. Even if there is something we can meaningfully compare ourselves to, we certainly don't seem intelligent enough to understand it. The evolutionary adaptations our species has made are rightly very interesting & evolution & life on this planet are profoundly, elegantly complex & awesome, but we didn't evolve ourselves, we just woke up one day & happened to be human. Nature & evolution are awesome... 'We' are just a temporary neurological pattern that manifests itself psycholigically as a 'person' & the fact is our bumbling apishness is destroying just about everything that this 'awesome' evolution has spent so long manifesting. The only time misanthropy comes into this as far as I reckon is that I get angry at humanity for smiting our very real capabilities for awesomeness & shit over everything & think we're just great instead. I guess though its hard to stay angry at something that sux simply for the fact its a dumb powerful ape that doesn't understand itself. Poor old humans Edited a typo.. Edited August 11, 2014 by paradox 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderIdeal Posted October 23, 2014 Thought I was wrong once.. Yeah.. So admittedly I have been wrong once. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderIdeal Posted October 23, 2014 ... Im extremely proud of myself for being so humble about it though... (insert laudation below/anywhere/everywhere). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderIdeal Posted October 24, 2014 i'm not awesome but... i'm pretty awesome. (in light of the recent spate of "i'm not a X but.." threads) making a joke that references earlier jokes, one of the things that makes me awesome. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
-YT- Posted October 26, 2014 well i think im awesome in my own mind but i dunno how much that counts towards a conclusion or delusion Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Distracted Posted October 27, 2014 I'm self involved and barely think of anyone but myself but I have a very low opinion of myself when compared to others, i'm shit at almost everything I put my mind to. I'm not sure where that puts me on the spectrum. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Francois le Danque Posted October 30, 2014 FIGJAM: Fuck i'm good, just ask me! (i'm still abstaining from voting because i can't help but think it's a trick; "oh no i'm not a narcissist, no way, i'm too good for that!") Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
