Effects of Visual Perspective and Narcissism on Self-Perception: Is Seeing Believing?

Abstract

Would people still see themselves through rose-colored glasses if they had the same perspective as others do? We contrast predictions from narcissism theory with cognitive-informational accounts of self-perception bias Study I showed that narcissists enjoy situations in which they can view themselves from an external perspective, and report that such situations boost their self-confidence In Study 2, subjects evaluated their performance in a group task from the normal visual perspective of the self and from a “reversed” perspective (manipulated via videotape) Narcissists overestimated their performance, and reversing visual perspective did not reduce this self-enhancement bias Instead, we found a person-situation interaction Narcissists became even more positively biased in the reversed-perspective condition, whereas nonnarcissists showed even less bias Thus, allowing narcissistic individuals to observe themselves on videotape further increased their self-admiration, just as the mythical Narcissus admired his reflection in the pond