Narcissists will never Admit their Mistakes - Study

 

Usually, common narcissistic traits include having a strong sense of self-importance, experiencing fantasies about fame or glory, exaggerating self-abilities, craving admiration, exploiting others and lacking empathy.

Commonly when people find their actions have resulted in an undesirable outcome, they tend to rethink their decisions and ask, ‘what should I have done differently to avoid this outcome? They tend to reconsider their decision and ask.

However, narcissists don’t learn from their mistakes because they don’t think they make any. A new study found.

The study, co-authored by researchers in Oregon, Texas, Chile, and Singapore, was published in the journal of management. It involved four experiments that surveyed different groups of people with psychological tests before the results were analyzed.

Narcissists have no empathy for others; they usually believe themselves to be superior and deserving of success but demand excessive attention and admiration from others. Unlike most people.

 Narcissists do not engage in “should counterfactual thinking, the process of analyzing past mistakes and imaging what should have been done to avoid them. Instead, they assume that any errors were unavoidable because they believe they could have been at fault.

According to the study, mental processes that protect self-interest, such as taking credit for successes and blaming failures on outside forces, are used by all people to some extent. However, narcissists rarely, if ever, think in any other way.

Narcissists do this way more because they think they’re better than others. They don’t take advice from other people, they don’t trust different opinions.

Authors said - Narcissists show stronger self-enhancement and self- protection tendencies, narcissists show more substantial hindsight bias when their predictions are accurate and a reverse hindsight bias when their predictions are inaccurate, both of which harm their learning and future decision making.

How did they find out?

Researchers have conducted four variations on the same hiring experiments, they tested the various levels of narcissism present among students, employees, and managers, and looked at how that might play out in the workplace.

In an online survey, volunteers have been asked whether they identified more with statements like – “I think I am a special person.” then a statement like “I am no better or worse than most people.”

Right after this quiz, applicants were offered an opportunity to sign up for another in-person study. To avoid influencing expectations, the researchers made efforts to keep the participants unaware that the questionnaire was connected to the follow-up study.

This more personal half of the study involves groups being asked to read many qualifications for a hypothetical job and choose who to hire. They were then given their pick’s performance assessment and asked whether they made the right decision.

Subtle variations in the methodology and performance of the outcome of all four experiments allowed researchers to analyze how narcissism can impact hindsight bias and our ability to reflect on what we should have done.

Conclusively, the researchers found those who scored high for narcissism were less likely to admit they should have done something different in hindsight, even when their predictions were inaccurate.

The authors aren’t sure why this is the case. However, they say the study suggests narcissists are “especially prone to blindly feel like winners after success.” Whereas after failure, they do not engage with their mistakes.

How narcissists usually act when mistakes do?

A trademark of a narcissistic personality disorder or even a person with a high number of narcissistic traits is this strange problem with accountability. Not only do narcissists lack the ability to give and truly mean empathy; however, they consistently blame others for their own mistakes and feelings and have an uncanny way of turning things around and making it someone else’s problem.

You are the crazy one, not them. You are at fault, not them. If you show them clear evidence of something they have done, they will deny it or say they don’t remember it. They will tell you took it wrong and will narrate differently from what they meant. In this process, they do not own about it. You just it wrong.