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Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#31

Post by thr0awaz »

rhacker wrote: post #11

This is my point of view: Everyone is a narcissist maximally. It's not a spectrum, just a maximum state that is always on, always self preserving, but personality differs quite a bit. Personality causes others to perceive others as being more or less narcissistic. In other words we started using the word narcissistic to start describing personality types.

no... there really are people out there that really think they're better than you, on an existential level, and that the only reason you're better at any one thing than them is because they haven't gotten around to doing it better than you yet.

The short test for narcissism is: "Are you a narcissist?" Actual, pathological, narcissists answer 'yes' so often that it's almost useful as a diagnostic tool. Most people have some idea of their shortcomings.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#32

Post by biglenny »

wellpast wrote: post #9

I've always wanted to be a Narcissist, for years have strived to become one, but I never quite feel like I am one. I always feel like a wannabe-Narcissist, like an impost....

place the ellipsis immediately after "an". better comedic effect

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#33

Post by blurbleblurble »

motohagiography wrote: post #19

It's notable that over the last couple decades, we've moved to where we refer to diabetics as people with diabetes, schizophrenics as people exhibiting symptoms of a variety of mental disorders, disabled as people with disabilities, the obese as people coping with obesity - but narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths are still othered, and yet still within the domain of detatched clinical assessment. These are moral…

this is the realest shit ever thank you so much for your perspective on this

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#34

Post by Theodores »

jacobmoe wrote: post #7

TIL I'm a narcissist. Not how I expected this morning to go. I think these kind of categories that come from psychology are useful and also dangerous. Our innate tendency towards heuristics makes it difficult to talk about this stuff, especially with words like "narcissist" that have strongly negative connotations. The brain is a complicated mess. Maybe the most complicated mess in the universe. We try to impose some…

People are being a bit hard on themselves here.

Narcissism is not something you truly understand until you meet someone who really is one at the far end of the spectrum. Until you spend weeks, months or even years trying to work out why they have had their empathy glands removed you just don't fully understand the 'narcissism' concept. We see narcissists like The Donald and think that is it, actually you need to be on the sharp end of it, in a relationship directly or once removed through family or work to fully understand how insidious it is.

Only when you have learned the importance of 'no contact' do you understand narcissism fully.

All of us have a few traits that the narcissist has however, it is the cluster of characteristics that matters. With the HN readership I expect a fair few people here have genuinely found themselves on teambuilding exercises etc. where they really are the 'brightest person in the room' and have had to step up to 'leadership' because otherwise nothing would get done. That could be a tickbox on your internal 'I must be a narcissist' list. It doesn't make you one though. A lot of boxes have to be ticked.

Furthermore, the true narcissist does not have the brain cells to identify what the condition is. They can even hear of the story of Narcissus and think it is an 'incredibly sweet story', one worth sharing with others. How little they know...

Interestingly teambuilding exercises can lead to moments of 'imposter syndrome'. For instance you might never do sports yet fluke it with 'beginners luck' to beat everyone else. This happened with my sister who can't drive. When she went go-karting with her petrol-head workmates she somehow won. On that day she felt quite the 'imposter' in collecting the prize, not believing it. She was 'quite full of herself', ego brimming, and with a few 'narcissist checkboxes' ticked that day. So there is a correlation.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#35

Post by timr »

smogcutter wrote: post #25
timr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You got anything to back up that claim? That sounds like a pretty big conclusion that you're jumping to without evidence." It's not a "claim". It's literally the null hypothesis: two traits are assumed to be uncorrelated unless proven otherwise. If you want to claim that a sense of "impostor syndrome" is actually indicative of increased skill, it's your job to prove it.

Next you'll come for our precious Dunning-Kruger effect! If my sense of incompetence doesn't mean that I'm actually a big brainy boy, what've I got left?

You can always attack science. If the statistics don't work in your favor, just claim replication crisis.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#36

Post by tanderson92 »

timr wrote: post #20
gizmo385 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Statistically You got anything to back up that claim? That sounds like a pretty big conclusion that you're jumping to without evidence.

"You got anything to back up that claim? That sounds like a pretty big conclusion that you're jumping to without evidence." It's not a "claim". It's literally the null hypothesis: two traits are assumed to be uncorrelated unless proven otherwise. If you want to claim that a sense of "impostor syndrome" is actually indicative of increased skill, it's your job to prove it.

It's also not true that because only two outcomes are possible that the null hypothesis is a 50/50 split between them.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#37

Post by ergothus »

nwellnhof wrote: post #22
jf- wrote: post #18

Non-narcissist here, apparently. I do find the premise somewhat troubling. If you’re supremely confident and never doubt yourself, even in situations where you should, you could be described as a narcissist. And if you’re lacking in self-confidence, and constantly think you’ll be found out, you’re also a narcissist. And there’s probably narcissists who experience a moderate level of self-doubt in between. It’s more l…

I think the key to understanding narcissism is that narcissists only try very hard to appear confident but on the inside they're anything but. The grandiosity they display is just a kind of coping mechanism.

But there's a difference between narcissism and just covering for a lack of self-confidence.

I'm not psychologically trained, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've met exactly one person that I think was a narcissist. He was a jerk, but mostly because he was utterly baffled by any concept that didn't involve him in the center. It was an attribute completely separate from his confidence. I feel like it is really hard to explain if you haven't met someone like that - I was routinely gobsmacked by his reactions - every human interaction I'd had to date had not prepared me for it.

Meanwhile, I have tons of anxiety and often cover it up with false confidence, and our reactions to similar events were dramatically different.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#38

Post by [deleted] »

nwellnhof wrote: post #22
jf- wrote: post #18

Non-narcissist here, apparently. I do find the premise somewhat troubling. If you’re supremely confident and never doubt yourself, even in situations where you should, you could be described as a narcissist. And if you’re lacking in self-confidence, and constantly think you’ll be found out, you’re also a narcissist. And there’s probably narcissists who experience a moderate level of self-doubt in between. It’s more l…

I think the key to understanding narcissism is that narcissists only try very hard to appear confident but on the inside they're anything but. The grandiosity they display is just a kind of coping mechanism.

[deleted]

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#39

Post by astrodust »

biglenny wrote: post #32
wellpast wrote: post #9

I've always wanted to be a Narcissist, for years have strived to become one, but I never quite feel like I am one. I always feel like a wannabe-Narcissist, like an impost....

place the ellipsis immediately after "an". better comedic effect

Be advised that impersonating or misrepresenting yourself as an Officer of Comedy Law is a felony and you may be subject to fine and/or imprisonment.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#40

Post by e40 »

jf- wrote: post #18

Non-narcissist here, apparently. I do find the premise somewhat troubling. If you’re supremely confident and never doubt yourself, even in situations where you should, you could be described as a narcissist. And if you’re lacking in self-confidence, and constantly think you’ll be found out, you’re also a narcissist. And there’s probably narcissists who experience a moderate level of self-doubt in between. It’s more l…

I wonder if narcissism is the brain's reaction to self doubt. I've definitely seen numerous cases of people who have a lot of self doubt over-compensating with adding confidence they shouldn't have.
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