Narcissism and Celebrity

I was taking selfie today, and suddenly I remembered something I learned from one of my psychology courses. When talking about narcissism, our professor mentioned that selfie is considered as one sign of narcissism and he took Justin Bieber as an example. However, I think this is a very debatable question. Because I always consider selfie as a convenience way of capturing one of the meaningful moments in my life and sharing the moment with my friends. Besides, I took selfie often and I am also rated really low on narcissism. Of course, I believe scientifically speaking there must be a more precise definition of selfie as a sign of narcissism.

Anyways, another thing mentioned by our professor also caught my mind — are celebrities more narcissistic? This seems like an obvious question, but I still found an study in order to fill my curiosity.

In the study, the researchers used the NPI (Narcissistic Personality Inventory) to measure the degree of narcissism. They not only assessed the NPI scores of celebrities with different occupations, but also got the NPI scores from MBA students and the general population. It is not easy to clarify the definition of celebrities and get NPI scores from them. To simplify the selecting celebrity process and increase the validity of the test, researchers only selected the celebrity participants from the guests list of the nationally syndicated radio show Loveline hosted by Dr.Drew Pinsky. Also, the survey was guaranteed complete anonymity.

As a result, it shows that “celebrities are significantly more narcissistic than MBA students and the general population.” Also, female celebrities are significantly more narcissistic than male celebrities, this is opposite to the findings in the general population. By comparing the celebrities with different occupations, the researchers found that reality television celebrities have significantly higher NPI scores followed by comedians, actors, and musicians. One of the researchers’ hypothesis was that the celebrities’ NPI scores are related to their years of experience. However, the results failed to show any relationship which suggest that celebrities’ narcissistic personality were already formed before they enter the industry.

Anyways, the results do not mean that all celebrities are narcissists, and definitely not imply that most celebrities have narcissistic personality disorder. Therefore, do not be disappointed at your favorite idol!

Student ID: 260415310

Reference:

Mark Young, S., and Drew Pinsky. ‘Narcissism And Celebrity’. Journal of Research in Personality 40.5 (2006): 463–471. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.