W. Keith Campbell

University of Georgia | UGA · Department of Psychology

This article reports a meta-analysis of the relationships between social network site use and the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) as well as the Big Two metatraits (plasticity and stability). A random effect meta-analysis model was used to calculate the meta-results of Big Five...

This chapter focuses on the role of narcissism in emerging media use and culture. “Narcissism” will refer to the grandiose form unless otherwise noted. The chapter begins by providing a description of narcissism as an individual trait and as a socio-cultural process. It discusses the research findings on narcissism and emerging media. Finally, the...

The relationship between narcissism and social media use has been a topic of study since the advent of the first social media websites. In the present manuscript, the authors review the literature published to date on the topic and outline two potential models to explain the pattern of findings. Data from 62 samples of published and unpublished res...

There exists substantial debate about how to best assess pathological narcissism with a variety of measures designed to assess grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, as well as the DSM-IV and DSM-5 based conceptualizations of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Wright and colleagues published correlations between several narcissism measures (Nar...

In this study, 100 self-reported personality items from the Big Five Aspects Scale, responded to by a sample of 334 undergraduate participants, were used to predict quantity (ideational fluency) and quality (originality) of ideas on a divergent thinking (DT) task. The originality of DT responses was scored through a fine-tuned version of the Genera...

Background Studies have shown evidence for long-term effects of psychedelics on personality, but comprehensive models of psychedelic-mediated personality changes have yet to be explored. Aims The present study aims to investigate (1) perceptions of personality change in the general population, (2) moderators of perceived personality change includi...

The present study examined the safety and efficacy of the ceremonial use of ayahuasca in relation to reports of heightened life event reexperiencing under psychedelics. The study examined (1) the prevalence of specific types of adverse life event reexperiencing, (2) characteristics predictive of reexperiencing, (3) the psychological character of re...

Age and gender differences in narcissism have been studied often. However, considering the rich history of narcissism research accompanied by its diverging conceptualizations, little is known about age and gender differences across various narcissism measures. The present study investigated age and gender differences and their interactions across e...

Changes in narcissistic traits (e.g., entitlement) following the ceremonial use of ayahuasca were examined across three timepoints (baseline, postretreat, 3-month follow-up) in a sample of 314 adults using self- and informant-report (N = 110) measures. Following ceremonial use of ayahuasca, self-reported changes in narcissism were observed (i.e., d...

Intellectual humility (IH) likely is most challenging when individuals are confronted with existential threats, a state we label existential humility (EH). Existential humility includes holding cherished beliefs regarding the meaning of life and death loosely enough to revise in light of evidence, as well as lower defensiveness following existentia...

Background Evidence suggests that psychedelic-assisted therapy carries transdiagnostic efficacy in the treatment of mental health conditions characterized by low mood and the use of avoidance coping strategies. Aims While preliminary evidence suggests that psychological flexibility and emotion regulation processes play an important role within psy...

There is a growing interest in the role of personality characteristics in describing financial outcomes. The Big Five personality traits have been shown to predict relevant financial outcomes including income and net worth. In the present research (n = 395), we move beyond individual Big Five personality traits to look at personality profiles in th...

Scholars posit that economically prosperous times should produce higher individualism and narcissism, and economically challenging times lower individualism and narcissism. This creates the possibility that narcissism among U.S. college students, which increased between 1982 and 2009, may have declined after the Great Recession. Updating a cross-te...

The present study examines the association between the ceremonial use of ayahuasca—a decoction combining the Banistereopsis caapi vine and N,N-Dimethyltryptamine-containing plants—and changes in personality traits as conceived by the Five-Factor model (FFM). We also examine the degree to which demographic characteristics, baseline personality, and...

The Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory (FFNI) has exhibited strong construct validity and is the only measure that captures the three factors associated with recent models of narcissism. Unfortunately, the FFNI and its short form (FFNI-SF) may be too long to use in certain research protocols. To make the FFNI-SF even briefer while maintaining its str...

The present study examines the association between the ceremonial use of ayahuasca – a decoction combining the Banistereopsis caapi vine and N,N Dimethyltryptamine-containing plants – and changes in personality traits as conceived by the Five-Factor model (FFM); as well as the degree to which demographic characteristics, baseline personality, and a...

Abstract Objectives: The Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) capture individual differences in aversive personality to complement work on other taxonomies, such as the Big Five traits. However, the literature on the Dark Triad traits relies mostly on samples from English-speaking (i.e., Westernized) countries. We bro...

The Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) has garnered intense attention over the last 15 years. We examined the structure of these traits’ measure—the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD)—in a sample of 11,488 participants from three W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., North America, Australia & Oceania, Western Europe) and five non-W.E.I.R.D. (i.e....

Public discourse is often caustic and conflict-filled. This trend seems to be particularly evident when the content of such discourse is around moral issues (broadly defined) and when the discourse occurs on social media. Several explanatory mechanisms for such conflict have been explored in recent psychological and social-science literatures. The...

We examined trends over time in vocabulary, a key component of verbal intelligence, in the nationally representative General Social Survey of U.S. adults (n = 29,912). Participants answered multiple-choice questions about the definitions of 10 specific words. When controlled for educational attainment, the vocabulary of the average U.S. adult decli...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121454.].

The overarching aim of this study was to develop and validate a new scale (i.e., the Praise, Indulgence, and Status Parenting Scale [PISPS]) to measure modern parenting practices and behaviors consistent with instilling ideals of specialness (i.e., the notion that one is special), self-esteem, and status in children. In 2 studies on emerging adults...

Adolescents spend a substantial and increasing amount of time using digital media (smartphones, computers, social media, gaming, Internet), but existing studies do not agree on whether time spent on digital media is associated with lower psychological well-being (including happiness, general well-being, and indicators of low well-being such as depr...

Both academic and popular literatures have repeatedly contended that emerging adults are the most narcissistic and entitled age-group in modern times. Although this contention is fiercely debated, the message that emerging adults are narcissistic and entitled has saturated popular culture. Despite this saturation, relatively little empirical work h...

In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13–18) and entering college students, 1976–2017 (N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less time on in-person (face-to-face) social interaction with peers, including getting together or socializing with friends, going to parties, going out, dat...

Different conceptions of narcissism exist within the literature such as grandiose, vulnerable, pathological, collective, and communal, each of which can be measured using self-report measures. Within the current paper, we review and discuss most of the existing measures of these different trait (i.e., non-clinical) narcissism constructs. This inclu...

Clinical theory is skeptical of individuals’ ability to recognize the presence, severity, and impact of clinical symptoms and pathological traits (Oltmanns & Powers, 2012); however, empirical work has found moderate self–other convergence for reports of pathological traits and for Antagonism-related personality disorder (PD) constructs (i.e., psych...

Objective Despite decades of work on narcissism there remain many active areas of exploration and debate including a clear and consensual description of its underlying components. Understanding narcissism's factor structure is necessary for precise measurement and investigation of specific psychological and behavioral processes. The aim of the curr...

Although previous research has shown that individuals take on aspects of the avatars they embody in virtual environments, studies have not yet tested whether this phenomenon, known as the Proteus effect, extends to traits that are undesirable to have, such as narcissism. A total of 133 female participants completed a shopping simulation in virtual...

Previous research on associations between screen time and psychological well-being among children and adolescents has been conflicting, leading some researchers to question the limits on screen time suggested by physician organizations. We examined a large (n = 40,337) national random sample of 2- to 17-year-old children and adolescents in the U.S....

There is broad consensus that there are at least two different dimensions of narcissism: vulnerable and grandiose. In this study, the authors use a new trifurcated, three-factor model of narcissism to examine relations between aspects of narcissism and an array of clinically relevant criteria related to psychopathology, the self, authenticity, and...

Although self-promotion may be the most direct way people self-present, it carries social costs. We propose a novel phenomenon – promotion by others – wherein social networks may afford similar advantages with fewer costs. We utilized egocentric network analysis to examine relationships between social connections and perceived promoter potential (i...

Similarity between narcissism and self-esteem seems intuitive, as both capture positive perceptions of the self. In the current undertaking, we provide a broad comparison of the nomological networks of grandiose narcissism and explicit self-esteem. Pooling data from 11 existing samples (N = 4711), we compared the relations of narcissism and self-es...

The present research used an empirical, crowdsourced trait profiling approach to describe the personality of President Donald Trump (hereafter Trump) that accounts for political views. We recruited participants who voted for Hillary Clinton (N = 120; hereafter Clinton) and Trump (N = 118), and asked them to rate Trump’s personality on the 30 facets...

Mixed findings exist as to whether personality pathology involves a critical lack of awareness and insight. Research questions about insight and awareness in personality pathology are typically assessed via comparing self- and informant reports of traits. However, recent studies have measured insight by asking individuals to evaluate additional que...

Despite a growing interest in the use of self-report measures of narcissism among student, community, and clinical samples, the research on narcissism in prison samples is sparse, despite elevated rates of narcissism in these samples. The current study examined the relations between commonly used measures of grandiose narcissism (Narcissistic Perso...

There is an ongoing debate regarding the nature of narcissism such that some argue that narcissistic individuals oscillate between grandiose and vulnerable states, whereas others argue these dimensions are stable traits (e.g., grandiose individuals remain in grandiose states). Scales sensitive to fluctuations in narcissistic states are necessary to...

This article explores links between cultural individualism and the age at which adult-role responsibilities are assumed (the speed of maturation to adulthood). Across 43 years (1973-2015) within the United States, yearly indicators of individualism were positively correlated with later onset of work and family responsibilities (a slow life strategy...

Despite a growing interest in the use of self-report measures of narcissism among student, community and clinical samples, the research on narcissism in prison samples is sparse, despite elevated rates of narcissism in these samples. The current study examined the relations between commonly used measures of grandiose narcissism (Narcissistic Person...

Although there is evidence that experts agree on the traits that characterize narcissism, this agreement may be due, in part, to the influence of DSM-based operationalizations. Because these trait descriptions are important in shaping conceptualizations and serving as empirical criteria for construct validation, we explored their generalizability....

Psychological entitlement is a stable personality trait known to predict a range of concerning outcomes in people’s lives. Recent research has suggested that entitlement might have domain-specific manifestations such as romantic entitlement, academic entitlement, and sexual entitlement. The present work sought to examine such a domain specific mani...

Historical conceptualizations have framed personality disorders (PDs) as unchanging and ego-syntonic. However, recent evidence suggests that individuals with PD traits may have some insight into their personality and consider those traits to be somewhat ego-dystonic. To replicate and extend previous findings, participants (N = 328) self-reported th...

Given advantages of freely available and modifiable measures, an increase in the use of measures developed from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), including the 300-item representation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI–R; Costa & McCrae, 1992a Costa, P., & McCrae, R. (1992a). The five-factor model of personality and its...

Evidence is accumulating that American culture has become more individualistic since the 1950s. In the present research, we focused on one plausible manifestation of individualism, the use of swear words in cultural products. We examined trends in the use of the seven words identified by George Carlin in 1972 as the “seven words you can never say o...

Objective: Theoretical conceptions of narcissism have long been characterized by two seemingly opposing poles: grandiosity and vulnerability. The goal of the current study was to investigate the extent to which traits associated with one profile are perceived to co-occur with the other within an individual. Method: Lay raters (n = 862; 56% femal...

While the research on generational differences has continued to grow, there are still questions about whether "generation" is a useful construct. In this study, generational boundaries or cut-offs are examined using a large, nationally representative sample of high school seniors whose attitudes and work values were assessed over time. Compared to...

There has been a surge in interest in and research on narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Despite or because of this increased attention, there are several areas of substantial debate that surround the construct, including descriptions of grandiose and vulnerable dimensions or variants, questions regarding the existence of a con...

Due to increased empirical interest in narcissism across social sciences, there is a need for inventories that can be administered quickly while also reliably measuring both the agentic and antagonistic aspects of grandiose narcissism. In this study, we sought to validate the factor structure, provide representative descriptive data and reliability...

Recent studies have examined perceived levels of narcissism as rated by Americans and non-Americans and found support for early assumptions that American culture is perceived as narcissistic (Miller et al., 2015; Wolfe, 1976). However, specific reasons for this phenomenon remain unclear. The aim of the current study was to test if proximal, salient...

In three large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. 12 th graders, college students, and adults ( N = 9 million) conducted 1968–2015, Americans became significantly more supportive of legal marijuana (cannabis) starting in the mid-1980’s. Hierarchical models using age-period-cohort analysis on the adult (General Social Survey) sample showed t...

Objective: Increasing attention has been paid to the distinction between the dimensions of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability. We examine the degree to which basic traits underlie vulnerable narcissism with a particular emphasis on the importance of neuroticism and agreeableness. Methods: Across four samples (undergraduate, online commun...

We propose a five factor trait-based approach to identify core components of narcissism along with two forms, grandiose and vulnerable. Narcissism’s core is captured by low Agreeableness, including facets of entitlement and grandiosity. Adding Extraversion to this core describes grandiose narcissism; whereas adding Neuroticism to this core describe...

Research on narcissism has shown it to be multidimensional construct. As such, the relations the larger construct bear with certain outcomes may mask heterogeneity apparent at the more basic trait level. This article used the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, a Five-Factor Model-based measure of narcissism that allows for multiple levels of analysi...

Minecraft is an open world block-based game that has become increasingly popular because of its freedom of self-determined gameplay and its potential as a creative platform for self-expression. We conducted two studies to examine the link between personality, including the Big Five and narcissism, and Minecraft play. Study 1 (N=247) assessed person...

This article focuses on the interplay between narcissistic leaders and organizations. It attempts to capture the gist of this interplay with a model outlining the narcissistic organizational trajectory. The Energy Clash Model borrows and adapts a phase/state physics metaphor to conceptualize narcissism as a force that enters or emerges in a stable...

Orth, Trzesniewski, and Robins (2010) concluded that the nationally representative Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL) cohort-sequential study demonstrated moderate to large age differences in self-esteem, and no birth cohort (generational) differences in the age trajectory. In a reanalysis of these data using 2 different statistical techniques, we fin...

Academic Biography of W. Keith Campbell

Narcissism is broadly described as a grandiose sense of self, feelings of entitlement, and a need for attention and admiration. Theorists have long suggested that to maintain an overly positive self-image, individuals with narcissistic features often self-enhance (Leary, 2007) and exhibit distorted (John & Robins, 1994) self-perceptions. Despite th...

The theory of the creative class has proven to be useful but may be slanted towards professional levels of creativity. Additionally, differences between (a) objective measures of regional creativity, including the Creativity Index used by Florida (2012) and (b) creativity as measured by more traditional psychological assessments (that are commonly...

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) shows high rates of comorbidity with mood, anxiety, substance use, and other personality disorders. Previous bivariate comorbidity investigations have left NPD multivariate comorbidity patterns poorly understood. Structural psychopathology research suggests that two transdiagnostic factors, internalizing (wit...

Continuing a long-standing trend in the U.S. Social Security Administration database of first names (N = 358 million), American parents were less likely to choose common names for their children between 2004 and 2015, including the years of the Great Recession (2008–2010). These trends were similar in California (severely affected by the recession)...

The goal of the present research was to clarify the relationship between narcissism and hypomania, both of which are multidimensional in nature. More specifically, this study examines the relations between two narcissism dimensions (grandiose and vulnerable) and three hypomania dimensions (social vitality, mood volatility, and excitement) in relati...

Dishonesty is ubiquitous in our world. The news is frequently filled with high-profile cases of corporate fraud, large-scale corruption, lying politicians, and the hypocrisy of public figures. On a smaller scale, ordinary people often cheat, lie, misreport their taxes, and mislead others in their daily life. Despite such prevalence of cheating, cor...

Prior research has separately examined the influence that narcissism and power have on the general concept of overconfidence. In this article we examine the influence of narcissism on overconfidence utilizing three different methods to operationalize the overconfidence construct (Studies 1–4). In addition, we examine the role that power plays in th...

GCES Scale from: McCain J, Gentile B, Campbell WK (2015) A psychological exploration of engagement in geek culture. PLoS ONE, 10(11): e0142200. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142200

Geek Identity Scale from McCain J, Gentile B, Campbell WK (2015) A psychological exploration of engagement in geek culture. PLoS ONE, 10(11): e0142200. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142200

In a recent study, Bianchi (2014) showed that macroeconomic conditions (i.e. average unemployment rate) during the years of emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 25) are inversely related to adult narcissism. Fletcher (2015) called into question the robustness of the results and Grijalva et al. (2015) presented meta-analytic support for real gender differ...

Recent research concerning sexual harassment has highlighted important individual differences in the tendency to engage in these behaviors. The present studies extend these findings by examining the connections between the Dark Triad of personality traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and sexual harassment proclivity. Study...

The Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale (NGS) is a short adjective-based measure of narcissistic grandiosity (Rosenthal, Hooley, & Steshenko, 2007). The NGS has already shown promise as a measure of grandiose narcissism, but it has never been the subject of a formal validation study. In the current study (N = 870 across 3 samples), the factor structure...

Narcissism, overconfidence, and risk seeking are all positively correlated in U.S. samples. Overconfidence and risk seeking show consistent cross-cultural variation with higher averages among Chinese samples than U.S. samples, whereas the prior literature is mixed with regard to narcissism. These variables have never been studied simultaneously acr...

The present study hypothesized that there exist two distinct groups of entitled individuals: grandiose-entitled, and vulnerable-entitled. Self-report scores of entitlement were collected for 916 individuals using an online platform. Model-based cluster analyses were conducted on the individuals with scores one standard deviation above mean (n = 159...

Geek culture is a subculture of enthusiasts that is traditionally associated with obscure media (Japanese animation, science fiction, video games, etc.). However, geek culture is becoming increasingly mainstream; for example, in the past year alone, Dragon*Con, a major Geek convention in Atlanta, Georgia, attracted an attendance of over 57,000 memb...

In this rejoinder, we comment on Wright's response to our reanalysis and reinterpretation of the data presented by Wright and colleagues. Two primary differences characterize these perspectives. First, the conceptualization of grandiose narcissism differs such that emotional and ego vulnerability, dysregulation, and pervasive impairments are more c...

The issue of Americans' levels of narcissism is subject to lively debate. The focus of the present research is on the perception of national character (PNC) of Americans as a group. In Study 1, American adults (N 100) rated Americans as significantly more narcissistic than they perceived themselves and acquaintances. In Study 2, this finding was re...