| Are you having trouble viewing this email? If so, click here to see it in a web browser. | | | | | | | | | | | | | JUNE 16, 2011 | Business Students Score Higher
on Narcissism | | | Undergraduate business students scored significantly higher than psychology students on a widely used measure of narcissism (17.67 versus 15.19 on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory) in a study led by James W. Westerman of Appalachian State University. Although many jobs today require managers to be interpersonally skilled, "our future business leaders appear to be even more self-absorbed and entitled" than students in other disciplines, the researchers say. | | | Source: Are Universities Creating Millennial Narcissistic Employees? | | | | | | | | FEATURED PRODUCT |  | | Harvard Business Review
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81 comments:
OK, what's the point? Nurses like to help people, engineers like to design things and work with numbers, teachers like to teach kids, and business people want to make money so that we can pay the nurses to take care of our elderly parents, the engineers to design products for our business, and the teachers to teach our kids. Sounds like the circle of life to me.
I'm not really seeing the point either. I don't think these tests are really accurate. Different students would score differently. If anyone can explain these results to me, let me know if the posts below.
A little background information would be helpful regarding the study conducted, i.e. demographics. Regardless, the sample data of the population utilized for this survey seems skewed. I find it difficult to believe that narcissism does not permeate in any other educational disciplines.
I don't really see the point of the article either. It's kind of insulting if you ask me. Just because SOME business graduates are narcissistic and self-absorbed doesn't mean we all are. You can't just generalize something like this to a group of people.
So we were given the result of a study with no insight to its real world application. This article was a waste of time.
I'm not even fully sure if I understand the use of the word narcissm in this case. Either way the article needs to be a little more in depth rather than just blasting numbers and vague info.
I really do not understand the point of this article. Different student score differently all the time.
Ok, so what if business majors are more narcissist? Yea, we may be a little more self-absorbed, but I guess we have to be to make it in the business world! hah
although I do believe that most business people are narcissist, I do not believe that there is enough information provided about how the survey was conducted. This survey does not seem to have much data to give a strong argument about it's findings. Despite that, i do find business people to be more self centered and driven. They should be in order to be a leader.
Narcissist, this may be true, but you have to have a certain ora about yourself to succeed in this business world.
I don't see why they portray business students as narcissist, when the study was only done between business and psychology students. Everyone is different and not everyone is vain or selfish. I don't think enough research was put into this statistical study to point the finger and judge so quickly!
I do not think that this can be a very valid assumption. Everyone is different and no one person thinks the same way. Comparing just a handful of business students to psychology students will not give you desired results. The perrson who conducted this study should have known that.
This is just as valid as polling 1000 people and saying that 85% of Americans believe in abortion when there are over 350 million Americans who didn't get a vote. I just think that in today's world, most people are self absorbed and have such high standards that they set that sometimes lose track of whats really important. I know I have a manager who truly thinks he is Gods gift to man.
You have to be self-confident, believe in yourself, and believe that you are the best to get to the top. If you think you are just ho-hum then you won't get anywhere. The key is to find the balance between thinking you are the best at everything and being able to acknowledge others for the great work they do without feeling as though you should have done it instead of them.
Aren’t business people out to make money in most cases? Why wouldn’t we be expected to rate high on this “narcissism , self-absorbed” test?
Despite my comment before, it is a pretty interesting fact while also making complete sense!
I don't think you can generalize all business students in one batch. There are way too many different people out there to make such an assumption. I don't agree with this article.
I'm not really sure if I'm following this article. As a fellow business student, I do not know many self-absorbed or entitled students around me. To me I see many friendly students willing to help one another. I do not agree with what this article said.
I don't really know what they are trying to get at. There is no cookie cutter person for any profession. Each profession needs different outlooks and personalities to deal with clients and customers.
I don't think that we can be really sure on this assumption. People are different and don't all think the same way.
I agree, I don't fully understand this article. These test can't be accurate, all people are different and think differently.
Okay, I didn't really care for this article. People often lie on personality test so they are often inaccurate.
You can't compare business students from one school to those of another. One group of people being narcissistic does not make others.
I don't know that I necessarily agree with this article. How do they find this information?
Hahaha. How true. I know I definitely hold true to this idea. There is something to be said about a little self confidence when going into the big bad business world.
I agree with the article but I like to interact with people and know how they are feeling emotional.
I am not sure how much research was done or what characteristics he was looking at specifically, but I think it is very interesting. Why are business students are more likely to be more narcissistic, I do not know. I do not feel very self-absorbed, in a bad sense anyway. I am absorbed with school and the real world approaching does give me a great feeling. Sometimes it is good to a some quality TLC, with yourself.
I think that every self absorbed person would say that they are in fact not selfish or entitled. That being said I am a business student and I'm not self absorbed. I am nothing short of awesome, anything but entitled. How the hell do you test for narcissism anyway. I was not surveyed...
I don't think that we can be really sure on this assumption. People are different and don't all think the same way.
I think that too many people are self absorbed and cocky without reason. I think that it's important to believe in yourself and to be confident, but it's important that you don't take that to the point where you can't learn from people and better yourself because you think that youre all knowing.
I do not exactly agree with this article for all schools. i think many business schools are loaded with students from wealthy and ritzy areas, and I have a feeling that is where they took their number from. In most business school especially ours students are working and paying their way through college so I do not know how they would feel entitled or self absorbed.
I have heard that my generation and the generations to follow have an issue with entitlement across the board. I can admit that I have things a lot easier that my parents did, but I don’t really feel entitled to the good life. I can’t even speculate as to why business students are more narcissistic other students.
I don’t really like this idea. I’m a business major and I don’t feel I’m self-absorbed. I think that depends on the person; I don’t believe you can characterize a group of people. They might have found this in their research; however you can manipulate most statistics to what the research wants them to say. But congrats on your research!
Okay, student scores vary. I think that to assume that business student feel that they are entitled I believe is a general concept, in regard to my assessment. I do believe that business student feel that as long as they work they should be promoted.
Like others, I fail to really see much point in this article. There isn't really enough information to even attempt to make a valid point. Business students do intend to work and make money but that doesn't mean they aren't willing to work hard and earn everything.
I'm still trying to process how this study was able to conclude that business students tested significantly higher than the psychology students for narcissistic personalities. What kind of questions were asked? I think that it's extremely important to be confident in what you do and the things you believe in. Some people may confuse a strong confident individual for a narcissistic business student. Who knows?
I guess this study introduces that business majors tend to be overly confident compared to psychology majors.This is not necessarily a bad thing for business majors, its just a little surprising to us. Whichever way you put it, when it comes to work, its okay to be a narcissist as long as you work hard.
I'm not seeing the point in this article. I would need more background information.
Maybe this article has some truth to me, but I mean come on, can you blame business students for being more confident within their abilities in comparison to a liberal arts major when going out into the work field?
Ok good, I'm fine with that. I have probably too much confidence in myself but who is to say that is a bad thing. Maybe the people who don't seem to have enough can come take some lessons in being cocky from me.
I don't really concern myself with narcissism because it's not a trait I have, nevertheless from what the article states I gather that students are more self-absorbed and seem to less collaborative as future business leaders of America.
I don’t understand the point that they are trying to make. I am not sure how much narcissism matters in the business world. I know it is very important for people such as CEOs and big executives of companies to not be extremely self-absorbed. I think in other occupations in business it would be okay to have more self-absorbed people.
I do not think this article is very reliable. It doesn't show a lot of evidence supporting their idea that business students are more narcissistic. For one, you can't only compare a handful of business students to a handful of psychology students. You would have to include all majors. And two, everyone is different and thinks differently. So by saying business students are more narcissistic is a poor judgment.
This article wasn't that helpful to me. It doesn't give hard evidence on the fact that business students are more narcissistic. Yea big CEO's need the trait but it really doesn't matter when it comes to just simple business students. In all, this article to me was just an opinion not hard facts.
After reading this article it has left me wondering, is this a bad thing? I'm not so sure that it is. The primary person that should be important to us is ourselves. You cannot take care of anyone properly or manage anyone properly unless you think of yourself first.
I can see it. But I think there is more to the information than that. First, we are in a self serving major. The entire point is for us to figure out how to get ahead. Other disciplines learn how to play politics once they're on the job. We learn when we're still in school. At the same time, we are also taught about higher end ideals while having to deal with the reality of events like Enron, Sacs Oxley, etc.
I don’t know exactly what one should do what this information. I think inherently, businessmen would be more “narcissistic” than, say, doctors and psychologists and teachers, whose field constantly deals with the wellbeing of others. Also, narcissism can mean a lot of things, some of which wouldn’t really affect other parties.
I dont see the point of all of this. I agree. I think its all one big circle.
I think all of these surveys are ridiculous. It causes people to be very stereotypical and anyway, who really cares about who's the most narcissistic??
I feel like this is rather a broad statment or judgement that business students are narcissistic. There are plenty of business students that I know that are not self-absorbed at all. However, compared to some professions, I could understand how business majors are more narcissistic.
I do not think that narcissistic is a good word to describe business students. Sometimes, especially in the business world, one has to be confident in what they are trying to sell to other companies or to execs of companies. I think a better word to describe business students might be confident. when anyone get to a level of hierarchy, then they might be narcissistic, but that can be in any field whether it is business or psychology.
i dont really think its a good word at all. sometimes in the business life its to confident or can come off very silly.
Unfortunately I am going to agree with this. Our generation are so self absorbed that it is ridiculously. Don't get me wrong this could be a good thing, but also a bad thing. It's good to want to only focus on yourself and be the best you can be, but at the same time you need to remember about others around you.
I really don’t know what to think about that. I feel that everyone is different and test differently. It’s hard to say one test administered in one university correctly portrays all students. Yes I do believe that there are many narcissists in the business world but do I think they outnumber the ones in other fields? No. everyone has their flaws.
Without seeing information about the poll and how many people were questioned I can't form an opinion about this. I believe most young people are fascinated with themselves. There is an amount of development that takes place in the workplace that helps to form an individual before they become business leaders.
I cant possibly write anything that makes the point better then a previous poster did. David wrote “OK, what's the point? Nurses like to help people, engineers like to design things and work with numbers, teachers like to teach kids, and business people want to make money so that we can pay the nurses to take care of our elderly parents, the engineers to design products for our business, and the teachers to teach our kids. Sounds like the circle of life to me” I couldn’t agree more.
Just judging from the other posts i think this might have some truth to it. It seems like everyone is offended that business students tested high for being narcissistic. Of course your not narcissistic you are all too perfect to be narcissists....
I don't think that we are actually narcissistic, I just think that we have self confidence and are ready to be leaders so we know that we have power and are going to do great things so we are confident not conceited.
Being a business student...not too sure how to feel about this article..haha
This is an offensive article. Just because I want to be successful and provide for my family doesn't make me self absorbed. This was a dumb article. Big waste of my time.
im not getting the point i dont believe these tests are correct
I think in the busniess world you have to be prepared about things life can throw at you. You also have to think that you are on top or deserve it that way you fight for it.
I don't think that this is right. You can not base one college students opinion on every other ones. This is not a good article!
I do not think this is a good test. You cant say this goes for all students, not a good article.
I do not think that this can be a very valid assumption. Everyone is different and no one person thinks the same way. Comparing just a handful of business students to psychology students will not give you desired results. The perrson who conducted this study should have known that.
I could see this being true if it were taken at a school like Yale or Harvard, due to the fact that most of the students there come from more rich families that Southeastern would, but I do not find this true at all for myself so therefore I do not agree with this information.
This study is pointless, regardless of the background information on the study. Just like LEAP, IOWA, ACT and any other standardized test, I don't see how one test can determine how "smart" a person is. Some people are best test takers regardless of in instruction they've been given. This was a useless article and seems like a useless study!
I don’t know about this article. It is not fair to say that business majors are self-absorbed. I’m sure there are their fair share that are, but people are all different. To stereotype this is not the least bit ethical. Common sense tells you that this is not ethical or makes sense for that matter.
Makes sense to me. Business people don't always get that type of reputation for nothing. If you ask me, this megalomania-esque personally is all too common in the business world. Most managers worry only about themselves and nothing but.
Agreed!! Business majors are self absorbed for the most part. However this plays into what they are looking to accomplish. For the most part they know what they want, know how they are going to accomplish their goal so this play to their ego very much. On the other hand I do not know what this study is trying to relate in making this observation.
I totally agree with the article. Business majors really take their accomplishments to heart. They always look to the future and know what they want and how they are going to get it done. Business major's egos can be quite high. It seems like everything they accomplish is a competition.
This was a very different approach to business students, but I certainly can't discredit it! I've certainly seen some rather large ego's within the business field. I'm not sure if it's the supposed confidence that were supposed to walk out with, but I think it can also be a disadvantage. If your not approachable and too self absorbed, people won't find incentives to do business with you. Maybe all of us in business should take a look at this :)
I think it’s an interesting study, but it seems to reflect expected results. Psychology majors are observant of personalities and behaviors, and most likely will self examine them with the information they gain through their education. However, a business major usually is very individualistic and ambitious in hopes to manage or run a company by being a risk taker or working their way up the hierarchy, but either way, they are both characteristics of someone with self-confidence.
This doesn't seem right just because one or a few students tests results showed this. Everyone is different and I kind of take this to offense being a business student.
I don't quite know what to think about this. I believe that everyone is different and everyone is their own person. To say that business students are narcissistic, I do not agree with. Yes, I will agree that alot if not most of them are pretty self absorbed, but so are a lot of people in our generation. So, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this.
Narcissism is an important trait in any manager. Narcissism is my best trait....:)
I don't think that we can be really sure on this assumption. People are different and don't all think the same way.
The part that states today's business students are more self absorbed is no shocker because of the world that we're living in that tells up we are "entitled". I find this to be quite humorous.
I'm not sure if I fully understand and or agree with this article, what does it matter if business majors are more narcissist? Business majors may be more self-absorbed but in todays work place you kind of have to, to be able to be successful and move up the ladder.
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