Narcissistic self-promotion is not moderated by the strength of situational cues

The present study examined whether situational differences moderate the influence of narcissism on self-promotion. As the strong situation hypothesis would assume, personality influences would be lowest in strong situations that include clear cues for self-promotion. Therefore, 219 participants received different situational cues (no prime, subliminal prime, or explicit request to self-present) prior to the task to self-describe. We rated the self-descriptions to the degree of a favorable and narcissistic impression (in an agentic or communal way). Results showed that all participants promoted themselves more favorably and narcissistically in situations with an explicit request only. The impact of narcissism on self-promotion was invariant across conditions. It was concluded that narcissism leads to enhanced self-promotion irrespective of situational strength. Implications for the way we study the strong situation hypothesis are discussed.