Narcissism and successful interviewing

Typical advice given for employment interviews includes being succinct and not over exaggerating. While these practices may still have merit, soon to be published research suggests that narcissists are actually more likely to be successful in interviews. On the surface, this is surprising considering narcissism is generally considered to be an obnoxious trait.

In the first study, 72 participants were videotaped in a simulated job-applicant setting. Not surprising, narcissists were more likely to self-promote. However, unlike typical interviewees who would back-off when challenged by an interviewer, narcissists tend to double down and engage in even more self-promotion.

This strategy apparently works, as for the second study, 222 raters evaluated videos of applicants with similar skill levels across various narcissism levels. These raters consistently awarded narcissistic individuals much higher.

Why is this the case? Lead researcher Dr. Peter Harms explains:

This shows that what is getting (narcissists) the win is the delivery. These results show just how hard it is to effectively interview, and how fallible we can be when making interview judgments. We don’t necessarily want to hire narcissists, but might end up doing so because they come off as being self-confident and capable. [/note]

These findings highlight the importance of 1) Using structured interviews and 2) Leveraging additional data sources, such as assessment data, when making significant personnel decisions such as hiring.

The news release can be found at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The article is soon to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.