I feel smart today! A daily diary study on narcissism and self-assessed intelligence

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Radosław Rogoza - , University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw, University of Lleida (Author)
  • Marcin Zajenkowski - , University of Warsaw (Author)
  • Marco Di Sarno - , University of Milan - Bicocca (Author)
  • Maria Flakus - , Polish Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Lidia Baran - , University of Silesia in Katowice, University of Wrocław (Author)
  • Rossella Di Pierro - , University of Milan - Bicocca (Author)
  • Georg Krammer - , Johannes Kepler University Linz, University College of Teacher Education Styria (Author)
  • Emanuel Jauk - , Chair of Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Medical University of Graz (Author)
  • Ramzi Fatfouta - (Author)

Abstract

While the objective level of intelligence is not associated with narcissism, relations to self-assessed intelligence (SAI) have been repeatedly reported. Existing research suggests that different facets of narcissism may have different associations with SAI. In the current daily diary study (N = 176; N = 3975 total observations), we employed dynamic structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between facets of trait and state narcissism (i.e., agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic) and the level, variability, and instability of SAI assessed over 28 consecutive days. Both trait and state narcissism were consistently related to SAI: agentic narcissism showed a positive relationship, whereas antagonistic and neurotic narcissism showed negative relationships with SAI. Trait agentic and state antagonistic narcissism predicted greater variability of SAI scores throughout the study, while neither trait nor state narcissism predicted the instability of SAI. Finally, we found that experiencing increased agentic narcissism on one day, predicted perceiving oneself as more intelligent on the next day, but feeling smarter did not predict feeling narcissistic over time. Moreover, we demonstrated that differentiating between narcissism facets yielded more theoretically accurate results compared to distinguishing between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)677-691
Number of pages15
JournalEuropean journal of personality
Volume38
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • daily diary, narcissism, personality, self-assessed intelligence, variability