Narcissistic Tendencies Among Actors

2014

Building on a two-dimensional reconceptualization of grandiose narcissism, we investigated how narcissistic admiration (the tendency toward agentic self-promotion) and rivalry (the tendency toward other derogation) are related to acting. Study 1 ( N = 583) showed that acting students scored higher on narcissistic admiration than students with other majors, but at the same time, the acting students scored lower on rivalry. In Study 2 ( N = 283), we compared improvisational theater actors with a comparison group and found the same pattern: Admiration was higher, but rivalry was lower among the actors (across both self-reports and informant reports). Effects persisted when we controlled for s…