Narcissism and Risk-Taking: The Roles of Dangerous and Competitive Social Worldviews

Abstract

Previous research has shown that narcissism is associated with risk-taking. However, little is known about the factors that may contribute to narcissistic individuals being more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour. The present research examined whether social worldviews would mediate the associations that specific narcissistic personality features had with risk-taking across life domains in a sample of Iranian community members (N = 489). Our results revealed that the extraverted, antagonistic, and neurotic aspects of narcissism had positive indirect associations with risk-taking in certain life domains through the competitive social worldview. These results suggest that the tendency to view the social environment as intensely competitive may play an important role in the associations that narcissistic personality features have with risk-taking in certain life domains.

Keywords

• narcissism
• risk
• competition
• worldviews