Narcissism in action: perceptions, team dynamics, and performance in naturalistic escape room settings
Narcissism in action: perceptions, team dynamics, and performance in naturalistic escape room settings
We investigated narcissism in a naturalistic social context. Specifically, we examined how individuals high in admirative and rivalrous narcissism are perceived in team dynamics. Participants (n = 101) worked in small teams (k = 23 teams) during escape room-based tasks. Using a round-robin design, we observed alignment between self- and peer-ratings on interpersonal traits. Those high on admirative narcissism were perceived as confident but overestimated their likeability, whereas those high on rivalrous narcissism were perceived as aggressive and lazy. Teams characterized by high levels of rivalry exhibited reduced team cohesion, which in turn was associated with poorer team performance. There were no team-level effects for narcissistic admiration. The research advances understanding of admirative and rivalrous narcissism by simulating real-time teamwork in escape rooms.
narcissism, team dynamics, cohesion, team conflict, team performance
Bush-Evans, Reece
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Hart, Claire M.
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Cisek, Sylwia Z.
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Satchell, Liam P.
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Sedikides, Constantine
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27 October 2025
Bush-Evans, Reece
24d9c338-437c-4b62-b87d-c04c240060c7
Hart, Claire M.
e3db9c72-f493-439c-a358-b3b482d55103
Cisek, Sylwia Z.
10849294-02f2-4c1f-8359-8b9beb5bebaa
Satchell, Liam P.
6bf6ff6c-3ffa-4663-919d-a268fd814bf8
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Bush-Evans, Reece, Hart, Claire M., Cisek, Sylwia Z., Satchell, Liam P. and Sedikides, Constantine
(2025)
Narcissism in action: perceptions, team dynamics, and performance in naturalistic escape room settings.
Behavioral Sciences, 15 (11), [1461].
(doi:10.3390/bs15111461).
Abstract
We investigated narcissism in a naturalistic social context. Specifically, we examined how individuals high in admirative and rivalrous narcissism are perceived in team dynamics. Participants (n = 101) worked in small teams (k = 23 teams) during escape room-based tasks. Using a round-robin design, we observed alignment between self- and peer-ratings on interpersonal traits. Those high on admirative narcissism were perceived as confident but overestimated their likeability, whereas those high on rivalrous narcissism were perceived as aggressive and lazy. Teams characterized by high levels of rivalry exhibited reduced team cohesion, which in turn was associated with poorer team performance. There were no team-level effects for narcissistic admiration. The research advances understanding of admirative and rivalrous narcissism by simulating real-time teamwork in escape rooms.
Text
Bush-Evans et al., in press, Behavioral Sciences
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
behavsci-15-01461-v2
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 22 October 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 October 2025
Published date: 27 October 2025
Keywords:
narcissism, team dynamics, cohesion, team conflict, team performance
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 507080
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/507080
ISSN: 2076-328X
PURE UUID: 0423e253-eaf2-4c65-a7f4-3973d776b129
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Date deposited: 26 Nov 2025 17:46
Last modified: 27 Nov 2025 02:37
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Author:
Reece Bush-Evans
Author:
Liam P. Satchell
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