Self-absorbed individuals exhibit poor cognitive memory.

First published: November 19, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12690

Commentary

An individual who is self-absorbed and cares little about the needs of others, a narcissist, was investigated regarding his memory of other people's faces.

The narcissistic individual's self-focus and tendency to ignore the needs of others predicted that he or she would feel harmed in recognizing faces and their surroundings.

From this study, narcissistic individuals showed worse recognition memory than non-self-absorbed individuals on a face recognition memory test. (Studies 1 [ N = 332] and 2 [ N = 261])

This difference also occurred with non-social stimuli (i.e., objects, houses, cars), suggesting a broad recognition deficit. (Studies 3A [ N = 178], 3B [ N = 203], and 3C [ N= 274])

From these results, excessive self-focus in narcissistic individuals predicts this memory deficit, (Study 4 [ N = 187]). Magnificent narcissism may affect memory for visual perception.