Blacks are more narcissistic

In a new study in the Journal of Research in Personality, it was found that, compared to whites, blacks have a higher average score on several measures of narcissism. Going from large differences to small ones, blacks are much more self-absorbed (d = .83); entitled (d = .61); they are more likely to be grandiose exhibitionists (d = .57); to see themselves as good leaders (d = .45); to feel superior (d = .37); to think they can fool most people (d = .29); and to try to avoid rejection at all costs (d = .24).

Having been given the title of Archetypical Victim, blacks are very prone to thinking of themselves as special. But with a high heritability of .64, narcissism might be a racial trait.

Blacks, gay men, and narcissism

MIDUS study participants were asked: "I enjoy being unique and different from others in many respects." In personality research, this item is a measure of narcissism. Here are the means by race/ethnicity (N = 3,980):

Narcissism mean score

Blacks 4.87*
Asians 4.75
Hispanics 4.41
Amerindians 4.21
Whites 4.07

*significantly higher than whites at the 95% confidence level


The black mean is 1/2 a standard deviation higher than the white mean--a moderate difference. The higher measured black level of self-esteem might be actually tapping greater narcissism.


Gay men 4.79*
Bisexual men 4.59
Straight men 4.13

*significantly higher than straight men at the 95% confidence level


The mean for gay men is more than four-tenths of a standard deviation higher than the straight male mean--also a moderate difference.

Homosexuality and narcissism

College males were asked the following questions while participating in the Longitudinal Study of Violence Against Women:

1. "I feel that 'I'm the greatest' and better than other people."
2. "I brag a lot about myself and what I do."
3. "I am a self-centered person. I want things to go my way."
4. "I remind myself that I'm "number one" and have to look out for myself first."
5. "I am better at doing most things than other people."


Answers ranged from "not at all like me" to "very much like me." I correlated the answers, and Cronbach's alpha was .76. Cronbach's indicates how well a set of items measures a single, underlying construct, and .76 is pretty good. So I summed the items and called it a narcissism scale. Next, I lumped gay and bisexual men together to increase N, and calculated means. For the gay group it is 12.00 (n = 39), and for straights it's 10.42 (n = 708). The differences are statistically significant (p < .05, two-tail).