ABSTRACT
We study the relationship between positional preferences (i.e., preferences concerning the relative rank or position in comparison to others) and narcissism. We use six ‘money burning’ mini-dictator games to measure positional preferences. Two dimensions of narcissism are distinguished: narcissistic admiration (self-enhancement through searching for being admired) and narcissistic rivalry (self-defence through an antagonistic orientation towards others). Controlling for other relevant individual characteristics such as the Big Five personality traits and gender, we find evidence that narcissistic admiration is a negative predictor and narcissistic rivalry a positive predictor of positional preferences. We further find exploratory evidence that studying business or economics as a major (versus minor) subject is associated with less positional preferences and that the relationships between narcissism and positional preferences are mediated by decision makers’ expectations with regard to other players’ choices.
Acknowledgments
We thank Anja Schwaiger for her support in the data entry process, and we thank Isabelle Fischer, María José Gallucci, Michael Paul Grosz, Heiko Holz, Ulrich Ludewig, and Julian Nüßle for their support in conducting the experiment.
Disclosure statement
There is no potential conflict of interest.
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Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.