It Takes Just One Question to Identify Narcissism
Ohio State researchers believe they have developed and validated a new method to identify which people are narcissistic. And, the beauty is that the tool is only a single question. In a series of 11 experiments involving more than 2,200 people of all ages, the researchers found they could reliably identify narcissistic people by asking them this exact question (including the note): To what extent do you agree with this statement: “I am a narcissist.” (Note: The word “narcissist” means egotistical, self-focused, and vain.) Participants rated themselves on a scale of one (not very true of me) to seven (very true of me). Results showed that people’s answer to this question lined up very closely with several other validated measures of narcissism, including the widely used Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). The difference is that this new survey — which the researchers call the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS) — has one question, while the NPI has 40 questions to answer. “