Effects of visual perspective and narcissism on self-perception: Is seeing believing?

Would people still see themselves through rose-colored glasses if they had the same perspective as others do? We contrast predictions from narcissism theory with cognitive-informational accounts of self-perception bias. Study I showed that narcissists enjoy situations in which they can view themselves from an external perspective, and report that such situations boost their self-confidence. In Study 2, subjects evaluated their performance in a group task from the normal visual perspective of the self and from a ''reversed'' perspective (manipulated via videotape). Narcissists overestimated their performance, and reversing visual perspective did not reduce this self-enhancement bias. Instead, we Sound a pet-son-situation interaction: Narcissists became even more positively biased in the reversed-perspective condition, whereas nonnarcissists showed even less bins. Thus, allowing narcissistic individuals to observe themselves on videotape further increased their self-admiration, just as the mythical Narcissus admired his reflection in the pond.