The NPI-16 as a short measure of narcissism

Narcissism has received increased attention in the past few decades as a sub-clinical individual difference with important everyday consequences, such as self-enhancement in perceptions of one’s own behavior and attributes. The most widespread measure used by non-clinical researchers, the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory or NPI-40, captures a range of different facets of the construct but its length may prohibit its use in settings where time pressure and respondent fatigue are major concerns. In this article, we draw from the NPI-40 set of items to create and validate a shorter, unidimensional measure, the NPI-16. In five studies, we show that this short NPI closely parallels the NPI-40 in its relation to other personality measures and dependent variables. We conclude that the NPI-16 has notable face, internal, discriminant, and predictive validity and that it can serve as an alternative measure of narcissism when situations do not allow the use of longer inventories.