Narcissism and Creativity: Are They Related?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between narcissism and creativity. 71 subjects were asked to identify themselves as being highly creative or not highly creative. Subjects were then given the Barron Symbolic Equivalents Test to measure level of creativity and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory to measure their level of narcissism. Four groups were formed using the subjects' self-report and their Barron scores. Each group was then compared on the Narcissistic inventory scores. A significant difference in the narcissism scores was found between the high-creativity/high-self-report group and all other groups. The greatest difference was found between the high-creativity/high-self-report group and the low-creativity/low-self-report group. Upon further analysis a significant correlation of .25 was found between scores on Barron's test and the narcissism measure, which suggests that there is a small but positive and significant relationship between the personality variables of creativity and narcissism.