Do narcissists make better decisions? An investigation of narcissism and dynamic decision-making performance

We investigated whether narcissism affected dynamic decision-making performa nce in the presence and absence of misleading information. Perfo rmance was examined in a two-choic e dynamic decision-making task where the optimal strategy was to forego an option providing larger immedia te rewards in favor of an option that led to larger delayed rewards. Information regarding foregone rewards from the alternate option was presented or withheld to bias participants toward the sub-optim al choice. The results demonstrated that individuals high in narcissistic traits performe d comparably to low narcissism individuals when foregone rewar d information was absent, but high narcissism individuals outperformed individua ls low in narcissistic traits when misleading information was presented. The advantage for participa nts high in narcissistic traits was strongest within males, and, overall, males outperformed females when foregone rewards were present. While prior research emphasizes narcissists’ decisionmaking deficits, our findings provide evidence that individuals high in narcissistic traits excel at decision-ma king tasks that involve disregarding ambiguous information and focusing on the long-term utility of each option. Their superior ability at filtering out misleading information may reflect an effort to maintain their self-view or avoid ego threat. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.