Dr. Reece Bush-Evans, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Bournemouth University, recently published a study quarto. Perhaps most surprising of all, he made groundbreaking discoveries on the ways that narcissism can hurt team performance. Scientists at the Universities of Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester worked together on the study. They investigated the effects of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism on group behavior in a cooperative task.
Our research—which included more than 100 participants—succeeded by putting small groups of escape room challengers through the gauntlet. Even as they worked through these exercises, Dr. Bush-Evans and his team noticed the interactions and behaviors among team members. They identified two distinct forms of narcissism: Narcissistic Admiration and Narcissistic Rivalry. Narcissistic Admiration includes friendliness, self-assurance, and a desire to be the center of attention. In comparison, Narcissistic Rivalry is characterized by cutthroat competitiveness and open contempt for others’ innovations.
One of her key takeaway was that “confidence and charm can be mistaken for competence.” Dr. Bush-Evans. This misperception can result in negative impacts on teams. This research revealed that teams with higher levels of narcissistic rivalry achieved drastically poorer performance on the escape room tasks. Dr. Bush-Evans explained, “When one person believes they’re superior to their teammates, it can damage team dynamics and lead to failure.” He explained that this mentality sort of “destroyed the team spirit that would’ve allowed them to get the work done.”
To explore these potential mechanisms, we performed a confirmatory quantitative analysis including a mediation analysis approach (PROCESS Model 4; Hayes, 2022). In its initial effort to examine associations between narcissistic rivalry and perceived team performance. Together, these results underscore the dynamic, transactional quality of team processes and the toxic risk that narcissism creates for team functioning.
This study is more than an exercise in academic curiosity. Invaluable advice for any organization that needs collaboration to survive and succeed. Gaining clarity on how different varieties of narcissism reveal themselves on teams can equip leaders to overcome unhealthy dynamics and build stronger, more effective teams.
The journal Behavioral Sciences featured the study’s results. It provides a detailed look at the ways personality attributes shape the joint work. For anyone wanting to read more in-depth information, the DOI for the study is 10.3390/bs15111461.
