Narcissists better at job interviews, but they knew that

If your answer to the question, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all," is frequently, "Why, me of course," then you'll have no problem getting gainfully employed, a new study says.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln say narcissists may actually be better equipped to land that new job or promotion.

In a study that involved putting 72 participants through a simulated job interview, narcissists scored much higher than non-narcissists, the researchers said.

They attributed the narcissists' success to their exceptional self-promotion skills and their comfort with speaking at length, particularly about themselves.

"This is one setting where it's OK to say nice things about yourself and there are no ramifications. In fact, it's expected," study co-author Peter Harms, an assistant professor of management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in a statement.

"Simply put, those who are comfortable doing this tend to do much better than those who aren't."

The findings are published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

The Interview

For their two-part study, researchers decided to test the effectiveness of narcissistic behaviours in a job interview setting.

For the first part, they video-taped 72 participants in simulated job interviews. The researchers said the narcissists were excellent self-promoters, a skill that became more apparent when they were challenged by their interviewers.

The narcissists ramped up their self-promotion efforts, while the rest of the participants backed off under the pressure.

"When feeling challenged, they tend to double down," Harms said. "It's as if they say ‘Oh, you're going to challenge me? Then I'm not just great, I'm fantastic.' And in this setting, it tended to work."

Outside Input

For the second part of their study, the researchers asked more than 200 experts to evaluate videos of job applicants who had similar skills but varying levels of narcissism.

The experts gave higher ratings to applicants who shone at self-promotion, who spoke at length and smiled, and who also used compliments to cozy up to the interviewers.

Those who tried modesty to ingratiate themselves to their interviewers got lower scores.

Harms said the findings show the narcissistic candidates' "delivery" was what may make them appear better.

"These results show just how hard it is to effectively interview, and how fallible we can be when making interview judgments," he said.

"We don't necessarily want to hire narcissists, but might end up doing so because they come off as being self-confident and capable."

Better Hires?

Harms cautioned that there is little evidence to suggest narcissists make better workers, so employers should guard against hiring self-promoters unless those qualities are best suited to the job.

"What we do know is that they can be very disruptive and destructive when dealing with other people on a regular basis," he said. "If everything else is equal, it probably is best to avoid hiring them."

Facebook feeds narcissism

While their gifts of self-promotion may make narcissists poor job candidates, the narcissist's Facebook activity may also give employers pause.

A study released last month found a link between the number of Facebook friends and status updates with a tendency to be a "socially disruptive" narcissist.

The Western Illinois University study found that of the 300 study participants, those who had more friends, who tagged themselves in photos and who updated their status most often through the day to have narcissistic personality traits.

"People who have a heightened need to feel good about themselves will often turn to Facebook as a way to do so," study author Chris Carpenter told Mashable.

According to Carpenter, Facebook gives narcissists the opportunity to make themselves the centre of attention.

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