There is a mania characterized by vanity, the mania of Narcissus. This is usually manifested under the form of a tranquil mania, in which we behold the patient infatuated with his beauty, his charms, his wit, his dress, his talents, titles, and birth.

This link between narcissism and status, especially the drive for leadership, continued through early 20th-century psychoanalytic writing. Freud’s (1931) narcissistic libidinal type emphasized independence, aggressiveness, and leadership. The enigmatic Wilhelm Reich (1933) described the phallic-narcissistic character in terms of self-confidence, competitiveness, arrogance, leadership, and aggressive responses to threats to the ego.

These ideas carried over into modern personality psychology, particularly the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), introduced by Raskin and Hall (1979). The NPI includes items assessing leadership, superiority, and public attention, such as “I would prefer to be a leader,” “If I ruled the world it would be a much better place,” and “I wish someone would someday write my biography.” In other words, the desire for leadership, status, and recognition was built into the modern personality construct of grandiose narcissism.

Subsequent research examined how narcissism was associated with the pursuit of status and public admiration. One of my favorite studies was conducted by my friend Harry Wallace, whom I knew back when he was in graduate school. In a 2002 paper with Roy Baumeister, Harry examined how narcissistic individuals performed when they had an opportunity for personal glory.

My favorite experiment from Harry’s paper involved having participants throw darts under conditions of high or low performance pressure. But more relevant to our discussion was another experiment in which participants completed an idea-generation task. In one condition, their performance would be publicly identified and compared with that of others; in another, their individual performance could be evaluated privately; and in a third, there was no individual evaluation. More narcissistic individuals performed better when success offered an opportunity for public attention, but relatively poorly when individual performance could be evaluated privately. The important point is that narcissistic individuals were not necessarily better performers overall; their performance depended on whether success offered an opportunity for glory.

There has been some interesting research since then looking at narcissism and public performance. One of my favorite narcissism papers of all time was Young and Pinsky’s (2006) study of celebrities. If memory serves, Mark Young literally sat in the green room of Dr. Drew Pinsky’s Loveline radio show and handed the NPI to celebrities appearing on the program. They found that celebrities generally scored higher on narcissism than comparison groups, with reality television personalities scoring highest, followed by comedians, actors, and musicians. Of course, this was correlational, but the results are consistent with the idea that more narcissistic individuals are especially attracted to opportunities for celebrity and public recognition.

More recent research by Dufner and colleagues (2015) explored a related question by studying acting students and improvisational theater performers who were not necessarily celebrities. They tried to determine whether attraction to public performance was more closely associated with narcissistic admiration, involving agentic self-promotion, or narcissistic rivalry, involving competitiveness and antagonism. Actors scored higher on admiration but lower on rivalry than comparison groups, and those higher in admiration were especially motivated by applause.

This brings us to a new paper by Zitek and colleagues (2026), titled Inflated Titles, Inflated Egos: Narcissism Predicts the Desire for Public Rewards. This paper takes something of an economic approach to narcissistic status seeking. Rather than simply asking whether narcissistic individuals want status or admiration, the researchers examined whether people would prefer rewards delivered publicly or privately, or even choose a prestigious title over higher pay.

Across four primary studies, the researchers examined narcissism and preferences for public recognition. In the first study, participants rated how motivating they found public and private workplace rewards. People generally preferred private rewards, but narcissism predicted greater motivation for public rewards (r = .21).

The second study compared public and private versions of seven workplace rewards. For example, participants considered receiving a 10% year-end bonus announced publicly in a company-wide email or receiving the identical bonus privately. Again, narcissism predicted a greater relative preference for public recognition (r = .26).

A third study examined possible explanations for this preference. Narcissism again predicted a preference for receiving a financial bonus publicly rather than privately (r = .29). This preference was associated with a stronger desire for status and less concern about provoking envy among coworkers. In other words, people higher in narcissism appeared more interested in public recognition and less worried about whether their colleagues might resent them. This lack of concern with envy, I think, adds an interesting wrinkle to the story.

The fourth study was probably my favorite because it involved a trade-off between a prestigious job title and actual compensation. Participants considered two hypothetical jobs: one offered a more impressive title, while the other offered higher pay. Importantly, both jobs involved the same authority and influence, so the title did not confer additional power. Most people preferred the higher-paying job, but narcissism predicted a greater relative preference for the prestigious title (r = .40). Narcissism also predicted a greater willingness to work harder for an improved title, but not for higher pay.

Zooming out, we are now approaching two centuries of writing and research showing that narcissism and the pursuit of status go together. From Guislain’s patients infatuated with their titles and noble birth to contemporary employees willing to trade financial compensation for a more impressive job title, the basic pattern looks solid.

This isn’t an accident. Early medical observations were followed by psychoanalytic models and, eventually, self-report personality questionnaires. We now have a pretty good sense that narcissism predicts the pursuit of status, sometimes even at the potential expense of salary and with less concern about provoking envy.

You can use this information to avoid trouble. For example, don’t place yourself between a narcissist and an opportunity for status. As the old quip goes, the most dangerous place in Washington, DC, is between Senator ________ and a TV camera. (I left this as a fill-in-the-blank because I’ve heard the joke told about several different senators.)

But you can also use this information to your advantage. If you can offer public recognition and status, you have a potentially powerful way to motivate narcissistic individuals. That’s a useful tool to keep in your back pocket.

Links to my work: Homepage; Peterson Academy; Books on Amazon

My New Peterson Academy course: The Psychology of Wealth

My PA Intro to Psych history lecture now on YouTube

Some citations

Dufner, M., Egloff, B., Hausmann, C. M., Wendland, L.-M., Neyer, F. J., & Back, M. D. (2015). Narcissistic tendencies among actors: Craving for admiration, but not at the cost of others. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(4), 447–454.

Raskin, R. N., & Hall, C. S. (1979). A narcissistic personality inventory. Psychological Reports, 45(2), 590.

Raskin, R., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 890–902.

Wallace, H. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2002). The performance of narcissists rises and falls with perceived opportunity for glory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(5), 819–834.

Young, S. M., & Pinsky, D. (2006). Narcissism and celebrity. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(5), 463–471.

Zitek, E. M., Krause, V., & Jordan, A. H. (2026). Inflated titles, inflated egos: Narcissism predicts the desire for public rewards. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Disclaimer:

The information in this post is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing contained herein constitutes medical, psychological, psychiatric, financial, or professional advice of any kind. This content is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition, nor should it be relied upon as a substitute for consultation with qualified medical, mental health, financial, or other licensed professionals. Always seek the advice of an appropriately credentialed professional regarding any specific questions or concerns you may have.

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