Research debunks commonly held belief about narcissism

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/apa-rdc040315.php

Public Release: 6-Apr-2015
American Psychological Association

Contrary to popular belief, excessive use of first-person singular pronouns such as "I" and "me" does not necessarily indicate a narcissistic tendency, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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The researchers could find no association between pronoun use and narcissism. When they analyzed data by gender, they found men had a slightly higher correlation than women but neither was statistically significant nor practically meaningful.

"The most interesting finding is that the results did not vary much across two different countries, multiple labs, five different narcissism measures and 12 different samples," said Mehl. "We were surprised by how consistent of a near-null finding it was."

Identifying narcissists is important because over time their grandiosity, self-focus and self-importance can become socially toxic and can have negative consequences on relationships, said Carey.

"The next question, of course, is how else, if not through I-talk, narcissism is revealed through language," she added. "We are working on this question in a follow-up study using the same data."