Probing the Link between Narcissism and Gambling: The Mediating Role of Judgment and Decision-Making Biases

In this paper, three studies link narcissism to gambling in general, and gambling-related problems in particular, and the predictive link is shown to be mediated by judgment and decision processes. In Study 1, we demonstrate that narcissism relates to greater self-reported gambling frequency and gambling-related monetary expenditures in two samples. We extend these initial findings in Study 2 by showing that narcissism predicts higher reports of gambling-related pathology, as measured with a DSM-IV-based pathological gambling (PG) screen. Finally, we demonstrate in Study 3 that the link between gambling pathology and narcissism is partially mediated by narcissists’ overconfidence, heightened risk acceptance, andmyopic focus on reward, as measured by participants’ behavioral performance on the Georgia Gambling Task (GGT) and Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Discussion focuses on the empirical validation of the long-assumed narcissism–gambling link, the decision processes that underlie this link, and relations between narcissists’ self-perceptions and their self-defeating behavior, especially in risk-relevant contexts. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words narcissism; gambling; overconfidence; risk-taking; Georgia Gambling Task; Iowa Gambling Task