Mind-Reading and Metacognition: Narcissism, not Actual Competence, Predicts Self-Estimated Ability

Ames, Daniel R.; Kammrath, Lara K.

doi:10.1023/b:jonb.0000039649.20015.0e

Cited by 176 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Though the norm data for this test showed female advantage (ds = .30 and .38 for the long and short forms, respectively; Costanzo & Archer, 1989, 1993, subsequent studies have mainly shown negligible sex differences (Ames & Kammrath, 2004;Aube & Whiffen, 1996;Iizuka, Patterson, & Matchen, 2002;Woods, 1996). These weak results are to be expected if items with female-stereotypic and male-stereotypic content are tallied together in the test's total score.…”

Section: Female-relevant Versus Male-relevant Contentmentioning

confidence: 79%

Are Women Always More Interpersonally Sensitive Than Men? Impact of Goals and Content Domain

Hall

Mast

2008

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

109

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Two studies examined motivation and content domain as possible influences on sex differences in interpersonal sensitivity. Although much research has found women to excel on tasks measuring interpersonal sensitivity, most of the tasks have measured accuracy in female-relevant domains such as emotion. The present studies measured interpersonal sensitivity, defined as accurate recall of another person, for both female-relevant and male-relevant content domains and also included motivational manipulations intended to influence men and women differently. Study 1 measured accuracy of recalling information in a written vignette about a person, and Study 2 measured accuracy of recalling details about an interaction partner. Both studies supported hypotheses about domain specificity and gender-relevant motivation. However, even for male-stereotypic content and for tasks framed to favor men's motivation to perform well, men's accuracy never exceeded women's.

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Section: Female-relevant Versus Male-relevant Contentmentioning

confidence: 79%

Are Women Always More Interpersonally Sensitive Than Men? Impact of Goals and Content Domain

Hall

Mast

2008

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

109

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“…We first measured participants' overconfidence by having them complete the geography task individually and compared their self perceived 12STATUS ENHANCEMENT ACCOUNT OF OVERCONFIDENCE performance to their actual performance (e.g., Ackerman, Beier, & Bowen, 2002;Ames & Kammrath, 2004;Jones, Panda, & Desbiens, 2008;Krueger & Mueller, 2002;Kruger & Dunning, 1999;Larrick et al, 2007;Moore & Small, 2007). We then paired participants in dyads, wherein they worked on the same geography task together.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

A status-enhancement account of overconfidence.

Anderson¹,

Brion²,

Moore³

et al. 2012

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

377

382

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In explaining the prevalence of the overconfident belief that one is better than others, prior work has focused on the motive to maintain high self esteem, abetted by biases in attention, memory, and cognition. An additional possibility is that overconfidence enhances the person's social status. We tested this status enhancing account of overconfidence in six studies. Studies 1 through 3 found overconfidence leads to higher social status in both short and longer term groups, using naturalistic and experimental designs. Study 4 applied a Brunswikian (1956) lens analysis and found that overconfidence leads to a behavioral signature that makes the individual appear competent to others. Studies 5 and 6 measured and experimentally manipulated the desire for status and found that the status motive promotes overconfidence. Together, these studies suggest that people might so often believe they are better than others because it helps them achieve higher social status.Keywords: overconfidence, self perception, status, power, groups, person perception 3STATUS ENHANCEMENT ACCOUNT OF OVERCONFIDENCE A Status Enhancement Account of OverconfidenceThe pervasiveness of overconfidence is somewhat puzzling. Individuals not only tend to have positive self perceptions, they often believe they are more talented and competent than others, even when they are not (for reviews, see Alicke & Govorun, 2005; Dunning, Heath, & Suls, 2004). To mention just a few examples, individuals tend to overplace their occupational abilities (Haun, Zeringue, Leach, & Foley, 2000), social skills (Swann & Gill, 1997), and physical talents relative to those of others (Dunning, Meyerowitz, & Holzberg, 1989; for exceptions, see Kruger & Burrus, 2004;Moore & Small, 2007). The propensity for overconfidence is puzzling because being able to accurately place one's abilities relative to those of others is clearly useful (e.g., Alicke, 1985; Dunning et al., 2004;. Recognizing one's limitations would help people set more realistic goals (Ehrlinger & Dunning, 2003), avoid contests one will lose (Camerer & Lovallo, 1999), and select strategies that facilitate success (Neale & Bazerman, 1985), for example. So why would individuals form overly positive judgments of their abilities?Scholars have mostly offered two explanations. The first explanation posits a motivated bias: Individuals are driven to be confident because it provides them with psychological benefits (Dunning, Leuenberger, & Sherman, 1995; Kunda, 1987). For example, self confidence can improve self esteem (Alicke, 1985), mental health (Taylor & Brown, 1988), and task motivation and persistence (Pajares, 1996). The second explanation highlights the cognitive processes that may sometimes produce directional biases. People might simply be unable to accurately assess their own competence and arrive at biased self views from fairly mundane judgment processes. For example, biased self views can 4STATUS ENHANCEMENT ACCOUNT OF OVERCONFIDENCE arise simply because people are more likely to intend success ...

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“…The results of prior research are mixed. In some cases narcissism was unrelated or negatively related to emotion recognition skills (e.g., Ames & Kammrath, 2004;Marissen, Deen, & Franken, 2012;Jauk, Freudenthaler, & Neubauer, 2016). …”

Section: Narcissism and Eimentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Narcissism and Emotional Intelligence Win Us Friends? Modeling Dynamics of Peer Popularity Using Inferential Network Analysis

Czarna

Leifeld

Śmieja

et al. 2016

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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This research investigated effects of narcissism and emotional intelligence (EI) on popularity in social networks. In a longitudinal field study we examined the dynamics of popularity in 15 peer groups in two waves (N=273).We measured narcissism, ability EI, explicit and implicit self-esteem. In addition, we measured popularity at zero acquaintance and three months later. We analyzed the data using inferential network analysis (temporal exponential random graph modeling, TERGM) accounting for self-organizing network forces. People high in narcissism were popular, but increased less in popularity over time than people lower in narcissism. In contrast, emotionally intelligent people increased more in popularity over time than less emotionally intelligent people. The effects held when we controlled for explicit and implicit self-esteem. These results suggest that narcissism is rather disadvantageous and that EI is rather advantageous for long-term popularity.KEYWORDS: Emotional Intelligence, Narcissism, Popularity, Peers, Change over Time AcknowledgementsWe thank David Kenny and Carolyn C. Morf for inspiring comments of an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Mind-Reading and Metacognition: Narcissism, not Actual Competence, Predicts Self-Estimated Ability

Cited by 176 publications

References 39 publications

Are Women Always More Interpersonally Sensitive Than Men? Impact of Goals and Content Domain

Are Women Always More Interpersonally Sensitive Than Men? Impact of Goals and Content Domain

A status-enhancement account of overconfidence.

Do Narcissism and Emotional Intelligence Win Us Friends? Modeling Dynamics of Peer Popularity Using Inferential Network Analysis

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