Narcissism's impact on performance under pressure was studied. In a task where participants aimed at a target zone, narcissists expressed more confidence in their abilities under pressure but did not actually perform better. When pressured, narcissists overshot the target zone more often than others. While narcissists view themselves as coping well with pressure, research on their actual performance under pressure has been mixed and requires more investigation. This study explored relationships between narcissism, risk-taking, and performance under different levels of pressure.

1. Narcissism’s Impact on
Performance Under
Pressure
Michelle Lanier
Christian Tovar-Vargas Team
Wallace

2. Characteristics of Narcissism
• Grandiose sense of self-worth and
self-admiration (Campbell, 2007)
• Consider themselves superior and
have high confidence (Campbell, Goodie, &
Foster, 2004)
• Narcissistic Personality Inventory
(Raskin & Terry, 1979)
• Narcissism is correlated with
• Approach Motivation
• Avoidance Motivation

3. Past Studies
• Narcissism and performance patterns under pressure
• Past studies have shown different results:
•Wallace, Carey & Hitti, 2011 – Narcissists overshoot
•Wallace, Ottoson, & Byrne, 2013 – Narcissists undershoot

4. Present Study Differences
• Penalty for overshooting
• Insight into participants strategy
•Risk/reward paradigm

5. Methods
1. Line Bisection and Intro Survey
○ NPI and other personality measures
2. Non-Pressure Round
○ Task Introduced
○ Pre performance questions
○ Task performed
○ Post performance questions
3. Pressure Round
○ Task Introduced
○ Pre performance questions
○ Task performed
○ Line bisection and post performance questions
-5
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

6. Participants
• N = 79 (46 Female)
• Ages 18-21
• 69 right-handed, 8 left-handed, 2 ambidextrous
• 11 Asian or Pacific Islander, 2 Black not of Hispanic origin, 18
Hispanic, 43 White, not of Hispanic origin, 5 Other

7. Non Pressure Round
“There’s no need to be nervous”

8. Pressure Round
“Take your time, and try not to choke”

9. Manipulation Check
• “I feel performance pressure”
• Rating on 5-point scale (1: Strongly Disagree, 3: Neither
Agree/Disagree, 5: Strongly Agree)
Main effect of condition was significant, F(1, 77) = 34.570,
p> .001
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Non pressure condition Pressure condition
AverageRating
Low NPI Score
High NPI Score

10. Narcissist’s Confidence
•“In general, I am good at performing under pressure” correlated
with NPI scores, r = . 264, p = .019
•“ I expect to perform better than (%) of past participants”
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Non Pressure
Condition
Pressure
Condition
Percentage
Low NPI Score
High NPI Score
Main effect of condition was significant, F(1, 77) = 56.848, p >
.000
Main effect of NPI Score was significant, F(1, 77) = 8.376, p =
.005

11. Narcissist's risk tendencies
• “What target zone do you plan to aim for?”
Main effect of condition was significant F(1, 77) =
25.927 p> .001
6.4
6.6
6.8
7
7.2
7.4
7.6
7.8
8
8.2
8.4
Non Pressure
Condition
Pressure Condition
MeanTargetZone
Low NPI Scores
High NPI Scores

12. Overshooting Tendencies
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Non Pressure Condition Pressure Condition
ProportionofShotsovershotoftotal
Low NPI Score
High NPI Score

13. Average Performance
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Non pressure
Condition
Pressure condition
AverageScore
(outof10)
Low NPI Score
High NPI Score

14. “I think I performed better
than (%) of participants”
• After slider game/test
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
Non Pressure
Condition
Pressure Condition
PercentageRating
Low NPI Scores
High NPI Scores
Interaction between condition and NPI Score F(1, 76)
= 5.065, p = .027

15. Implications
• In general, pressure causes performance to suffer
• Narcissism linked with confidence
• Narcissists view themselves as better under pressure even
when they have nothing to base this on
• Narcissists tend to overshoot more

16. What else is there?
This is only a narrow piece of the complex dataset, relationships
being explored include…
• Hemispheric activation and approach/avoidance strategies
• Experimenter differences
• Anxiety and performance
• Gender differences
• Aim and overshooting (risk taking)