Narcissism and stock market investing: Correlates and consequences of cocksure investing

Two studies tested whether narcissists are prone to making risky stock market investments. In Study 1, narcissistic participants reported being more inclined to invest in stocks that exhibited high volatility (i.e., large price fluctuations). In study 2, participants created hypothetical investment portfolios using a selection of real stocks whose values were tracked for a five-week period. Narcissists selected more highly volatile stocks for their portfolios and this tendency was explained by narcissists’ heightened approach motivation. Narcissists also lost significantly more money during the tracking period—the stock market as a whole declined by approximately 30% during the tracking period—and this was fully explained by the heightened volatility of their investments. Cumulatively, these results suggest that narcissistic personality is linked to risky stock market investing, which is especially maladaptive during periods of economic decline.