English Annotation # 3 About Video Gamed And Teenagers’ Mental Health

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Personality and Individual Differences 87 (2015) 212–218

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Narcissus plays video games

Juliane M. Stopfer a,⁎, Beate Braun b, Kai W. Müller b, Boris Egloff c
a Department of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Germany
b University Medical Center Mainz, Germany
c Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

⁎ Corresponding author at: University of Göttingen, De
Göttingen, Germany.

E-mail address: jstopfer@uni-goettingen.de (J.M. Stop

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.08.011
0191-8869/

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:
Received 20 May 2015
Received in revised form 3 August 2015
Accepted 6 August 2015
Available online 25 August 2015

Keywords:
Narcissism
Rivalry
Video games
Online behavior
Internet/cyberpsychology

Two phenomena of our time have fascinated the general public and the scientific community alike: (a) narcissism
as a personality characteristic with important implications for daily social functioning, and (b) the (vast) use of
digital media such as video games. But how are these phenomena related to one another? To investigate this
question, we administered an online survey to 2,891 individuals to assess their levels of narcissistic admiration
and rivalry (NARQ; Back et al., 2013) and their video-gaming activities (frequency of playing, reasons for playing,
preferred game genre and role). Results revealed that these narcissism dimensions were differentially related to
video gaming: Individuals high on rivalry played video games for distraction and preferred action games and act-
ing as lone fighters; those high on admiration played video games to stimulate their imagination and preferred
the role of team leader. Findings were robust when controlling for sex, age, extraversion, and agreeableness.

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

According to Greek mythology, Narcissus was a young man who
stared into a lake all day to watch his beautiful reflection. Science and
the public alike have been fascinated by narcissism for decades
(Freud, 1914/1990), aiming to understand its causes, correlates, and so-
cial consequences. This fascination has perhaps even increased since, in
their much disputed book, Twenge and Campbell (2009) reported a rise
in the level of narcissism in young Americans. With the emergence of
Online Social Networks (OSNs), narcissism research has focused more
and more on digital environments. It seems that modern-day narcissists
stare at their Facebook profiles all day and wait for the selfies they
posted to be liked by others (Sorokowski et al., 2015). Although OSNs
are often described as the emerging phenomenon of our modern time,
there is yet another medium that is used by 1.8 billion people all over
the globe (Statista, 2015), spreading across both sexes and all age
groups (Entertainment Software Association, 2014): video games.
Maybe modern-day narcissists stare at their computer screens all day
long and want their avatars to be the best in the game. Interestingly,
our knowledge about the relation between narcissism and video gam-
ing so far is sparse. Because narcissism is known to have some benefits
for the self and others (e.g., leadership status, Brunell et al., 2008; suc-
cess in dating, Dufner, Rauthmann, Czarna, & Denissen, 2013) but also
comes with costs (e.g., poor management rankings, Blair, Hoffman, &
Helland, 2008; conflicts in close relationships, Buss & Shackelford,
1997; Campbell & Foster, 2002), it is important to understand narcis-
sists’ behavior in real as well as in virtual environments.

partment of Psychology, 37073

fer).

1. The importance of studying narcissism

Narcissism is a construct used in clinical psychology to describe indi-
viduals with high but fragile self-esteem (Kernberg, 1998). However,
narcissism is also used as a dimensional descriptor of personality, refer-
ring to the extent to which individuals have a grandiose view of them-
selves (e.g., Paulhus, 2001). Research has shown that narcissism
comes along with self-assured, humorous, and charming behaviors
(Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2010; Paulhus, 1998) but also with hostility,
arrogance, and selfishness (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; Buss &
Chiodo, 1991; Colvin, Block, & Funder, 1995). Back et al. (2013) ex-
plained these apparently inconsistent behavioral patterns in their re-
cently proposed Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept (NARC).
According to this model, narcissism can be disentangled into two posi-
tively related but distinct dimensions: narcissistic admiration and nar-
cissistic rivalry. A narcissist’s overarching goal, to maintain a grandiose
self, can hence be achieved through two strategies: gaining social admi-
ration from others through self-promotion (e.g., charming and self-
assured behaviors) or preventing social failure through self-defense
(e.g., devaluation of others, hostile and aggressive behaviors). The social
benefits of admiration have been found to be most prevalent at short-
term acquaintance (e.g., Back et al., 2010; Oltmanns, Friedman,
Fiedler, & Turkheimer, 2004), whereas the social costs of rivalry have
emerged in the long run (e.g., Blair et al., 2008; Paulhus, 1998).

2. The importance of studying video gaming

Besides watching TV, exercising, and reading, playing video games is
one of the most common leisure activities. User statistics have revealed

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1 The data were gathered as part of a larger project (Braun et al., submitted for publica-
tion). However, the analyses in the present article do not overlap with those of the previ-
ous work.

2 Further measures were applied, but they were not relevant to the present research
question and were thus not mentioned in this paper.

3 The response format ranged from 1 to 5 instead of 1 to 6 (Back et al., 2013) because the
NARQ was still in its developmental phase when data collection began for the present
study.

213J.M. Stopfer et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 87 (2015) 212–218

that people spend more and more time gaming—from 5.1 h a week in
2011, to 5.6 h in 2012, to 6.3 h in 2013 (Nielsen Company, 2015).
Whereas in prior video games, Spartanic designs prevailed, with tech-
nological advances, gamers can nowadays imitate almost every kind of
action in fascinatingly designed virtual environments. This provides
gamers with the possibility of engaging in all sorts of behaviors that
they otherwise could not do (e.g., driving an aircraft), to step into envi-
ronments in which they could not reside (e.g., outer space), and to act
out roles that they normally would not occupy (e.g., detective).
“[They] can pretend they are Olympians, Formula 1 drivers, rock stars
or sharpshooters” (Ablow, 2013; see also Przybylski, Weinstein,
Murayama, Lynch, and Ryan (2011)). Such aspects may also include
being the hero, cooperating with teammates and forming communities,
and competing with and manipulating rivals. Taking into account both
the significant amount of time spent gaming and the huge variety of
possible behaviors, video gaming is considered a meaningful context
with potential long-term consequences for the individual and his or
her social environment.

3. Prior research on narcissism and video gaming

An interesting first exploration of the narcissism–gaming link was
provided by Kim, Namkoong, Ku, and Kim (2008). In their large sample
of 1471 Korean online gamers, they found that narcissism was positive-
ly correlated with online game addiction. However, both the individual
difference and the gaming variables were measured with a clinical focus
(narcissistic personality disorder scale and online game addiction scale).
Although they assessed the gamers’ favorite aspects of playing
(e.g., leveling and building up their character), they did not report the
correlations between these aspects and narcissism. Further research
on video gaming has taken into account personality traits other than
narcissism. For instance, high neuroticism (Mehroof & Griffiths, 2010;
Müller, Beutel, Egloff, & Wölfling, 2014) and low extraversion and
conscientiousness have been found to be related to internet gaming dis-
order (Müller et al., 2014; Wang, Ho, Chan, & Tse, 2015); low agreeable-
ness was linked to playing violent video games (Chory & Goodboy,
2011); and all Big Five traits but neuroticism predicted leadership moti-
vations in gaming (with a negative effect of agreeableness; Graham &
Gosling, 2013).

Overall, however, our knowledge on the narcissism–gaming associ-
ation is limited because prior video-gaming studies (a) did not include
personality traits such as narcissism (Yee, 2006); (b) assessed video
gaming with a (clinical) focus on gaming addiction (Gentile et al.,
2011); or (c) focused on violent video games (e.g., Anderson &
Bushman, 2001; Elson & Ferguson, 2014), one game genre, or a specific
game (most frequently World of Warcraft; Bessière, Seay, & Kiesler,
2007; Billieux et al., 2013; Graham & Gosling, 2013; Herodotou,
Kambouri, & Winters, 2014; Visser, Antheunis, & Schouten, 2013),
thereby neglecting the variety of existing game genres. In addition,
most studies on narcissism and online behavior (e.g., Bergman,
Fearrington, Davenport, & Bergman, 2011; große Deters, Mehl, & Eid,
2014) have predominantly relied on one narcissism measure, the
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988), a ques-
tionnaire that, despite its wide use, has been criticized for not
distinguishing between beneficial and maladaptive aspects of narcis-
sism (Ackerman et al., 2011; Back et al., 2013).

4. The present research

The objective of the present study was to examine the relation be-
tween narcissism and video gaming in a fine-grained manner. For this
purpose, we itemized narcissism into its dimensions of admiration
and rivalry and assessed video gaming in a likewise detailed way, rang-
ing from gaming behavior and reasons for playing to preferred game
genres and roles. This strategy prevented us from drawing potentially
invalid generalizations about video gaming in general and allowed us

to examine the spectrum of gaming forms. Moreover, disentangling nar-
cissistic admiration and rivalry has been well-demonstrated to provide
an understanding of narcissism’s diverse, potentially conflictive, corre-
lates (e.g., Dufner et al., 2015; Fatfouta, Gerlach, Schröder-Abé, &
Merkl, 2015). Playing video games should be appealing to narcissists be-
cause games offer a chance for social admiration (e.g., by dominating
leaderboards, guiding a team), whereas the perils of social failure can
be avoided or diminished (e.g., by playing as frequently as necessary
to win a game), thereby boosting the narcissist’s ego. Thus, we expected
a positive correlation between narcissism and video gaming (see Kim
et al. (2008)). Importantly and more specifically, we expected differen-
tial correlates of narcissistic admiration and rivalry: The former should
be related to gain-oriented reasons for playing as well as game genres
and roles that allow the gamer to hold a position from which to offer
guidance; the latter should be associated with escape-oriented reasons
for playing as well as power-related game genres and roles.

5. Method

5.1. Participants1

A total of N = 2,891 individuals (2,421 male, 470 female) with a
mean age of 23.17 years (SD = 5.99; Range: 13 to 65) participated in
our study. Of those participants, N = 2,734 individuals (2,377 male,
357 female) with a mean age of 23.06 years (SD = 5.91, Range: 13 to
65) affirmed the item “yes, I play video games.”

5.2. Procedure and instruments2

We placed links to our online questionnaire on various online fo-
rums as well as on popular online game sites. To achieve heterogeneity
of the sample, no exclusion criteria other than having access to the In-
ternet and understanding German were specified. As an incentive to
participate in the study, four vouchers of 50€ were raffled.

5.2.1. Narcissism
Participants provided ratings of their level of narcissism using the

Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ; Back et al.,
2013). The 18 NARQ items cover both narcissism dimensions, admira-
tion and rivalry, and were administered on 5-point Likert-type scales
ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (agree completely).3 Cronbach’s
alpha was α = .82 for admiration, α = .81 for rivalry, and α = .84 for
the full narcissism scale.

5.2.2. Control variables
Participants reported their sex and age. Extraversion and agreeable-

ness were assessed using the Big Five Inventory-SOEP (BFI-S; Schupp &
Gerlitz, 2008), a 15-item, validated, short version of the Big Five Inven-
tory (BFI; Lang, John, Lüdtke, Schupp, & Wagner, 2011). Participants
provided their answers on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(disagree strongly) to 7 (agree strongly). Cronbach’s alpha was α = .45
for agreeableness and α = .81 for extraversion. These coefficients
were largely consistent with those reported previously (Hahn,
Gottschling, & Spinath, 2012).

5.2.3.

Video-gaming behavior

All participants reported whether they played video games or not.

Those who approved the item “yes, I play video games” indicated how

Table 1
Associations between Narcissism and video-gaming behavior.

Video-gaming behavior

NARQ dimensions Frequency Period Money

Narcissism .03 .03 .05**
Admiration −.03+ .01 .01
β1 −.06** −.00 −.02
β2 −.04+ .03 .02

Rivalry .08*** .04* .08***
β1 .09*** .03* .08***
β2 .09*** .01 .07**

Note. N ranged from 2,734 (period, money) to 2,891. NARQ scores were assessed on a scale
ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (agree completely). Frequency refers to the fre-
quency of playing video games, ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (every day); period refers to
how long the person has been playing video games (in years); money refers to the
money that was spent on video games (in percentage of monthly salary). Correlations
were controlled for sex and age. β1 indicates the beta weights from the regressions in
which the gaming-behavior variables were regressed on sex, age, admiration, and rivalry.
β2 indicates the beta weights from the regressions in which the gaming-behavior variables
were regressed on sex, age, extraversion, agreeableness, admiration, and rivalry.
+ p b .10. * p b .05. ** p b .01. *** p b .001.

214 J.M. Stopfer et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 87 (2015) 212–218

often they played using a Likert scale with the anchors 1 (less than once a
month), 2 (once a month), 3 (once a week), 4 (two to three times a week),
and 5 (every day). The two items were combined to form the item fre-
quency, ranging from 0 (I do not play video games) to 5 (I play video
games every day). Video gamers further reported the number of years
since they began playing and the percentage of their monthly salary
that they spend on video games. They also rated reasons for playing
video games on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (very often).
The most prevalent reasons were relaxation (M = 2.95, SD = 0.93),
amusement (M = 2.93, SD = 0.87), and because of the storyline (M =
2.66, SD = 1.10). Video gamers were asked how often they usually
played various video-game subgenres such as first-person shooter,
round-based strategy, massively multiplayer online role-playing
games (MMORPGs), life simulations, and others. Ratings were made
on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (very often). Using
Apperley’s (2006) classification of game genres, we categorized the sub-
genres into the genres action (M = 2.54, SD = 0.84), strategy (M = 2.13,
SD = 0.80), role-playing (M = 2.01, SD = 0.73), and simulation (M =
1.58, SD = 0.44). The cluster unclassified (M = 1.54, SD = 0.39) was
added to additionally account for such subgenres as jump’n’runs and
games of skill. Finally, participants reported on the roles they usually
played while playing video games in the multiplayer mode using a
Likert scale ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 6 (agree completely):
playing against others (M = 4.68, SD = 1.56); playing with others
(M = 5.42, SD = 1.07); acting as a tank (someone who protects other
characters by redirecting attacks from enemies towards himself; M =
3.54, SD = 1.67); acting as a supporter (M = 3.79, SD = 1.69); acting
as a lone fighter (M = 3.56, SD = 1.71); and acting as a team leader
(M = 3.39, SD = 1.63). Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations for
all measures are presented in Tables S1 to S5 in the supplementary
material.

5.3. Analyses

In a first step, we computed partial correlations between narcissism,
narcissistic admiration, and narcissistic rivalry with the video-gaming
variables, controlling for sex and age. These results provided a first
impression of the relation between narcissism and video gaming. We
controlled for sex and age because past research has repeatedly
shown that these variables are correlated with both narcissism
(e.g., Back et al., 2013; Foster, Campbell, & Twenge, 2003) and video
gaming (Hartmann & Klimmt, 2006; Homer, Hayward, Frye, & Plass,
2012; Yoon, Duff, & Ryu, 2013). In a second step, we explored the
unique contribution of each narcissism dimension to the prediction of
the gaming variables. Therefore, we computed regressions with the
gaming variables as the dependent variables and sex, age, admiration,
and rivalry as predictors (entered simultaneously into the regression
equations). By employing this procedure, we could determine the effect
that each narcissism dimension had over and above the other one. For
instance, we could determine whether there was a relation between
the frequency of playing video games and rivalry when the influence
of admiration was held constant. In a final step, we examined the ro-
bustness of the effects of admiration and rivalry by taking into account
the Big Five traits extraversion and agreeableness. Prior studies have re-
vealed an association between admiration and extraversion, whereas
rivalry has been found to be negatively correlated with agreeableness
(e.g., Back et al., 2013; Dufner et al., 2015; see also Bradlee and
Emmons (1992); Paulhus (2001)). We computed regressions with
the gaming variables as the dependent variables and sex, age, extraver-
sion, agreeableness, admiration, and rivalry as predictors. Again, by
employing this procedure, we were able to examine the effect of each
narcissism dimension over and above the other dimension as well as
in addition to the traits extraversion and agreeableness. For instance,
we could determine whether there was a relation between the frequen-
cy of playing video games and rivalry over and above the influences of
admiration, extraversion, and agreeableness.

6. Results

6.1. Narcissism and video-gaming behavior

First, we analyzed whether there was an association between narcis-
sism and video-gaming behavior. As Table 1 shows, narcissism was not
associated with the frequency of video game playing nor with the length
of time participants had been playing them; it was, however, weakly
positively related to the amount of money that was spent on video
games. A closer look at the narcissism dimensions of admiration and ri-
valry revealed a more differentiated picture: Whereas admiration was
not related to video-gaming behavior, rivalry was correlated with fre-
quency and money. This pattern was pronounced when both admira-
tion and rivalry were entered simultaneously into the regression
equations to predict gaming behavior (see the β1 rows) and remained
even after extraversion and agreeableness were also added to the re-
gression equations as predictors (see the β2 rows). These results suggest
that especially the narcissism dimension rivalry contributed to video-
gaming behavior. However, the question of why narcissists played
video games was not answered by these analyses.

6.2. Narcissism and reasons for playing video games

In a next step, we explored whether there was an association be-
tween narcissism and reasons for playing video games. As presented
in Table 2, narcissism was most strongly related to the reasons having
something to talk about and improving the avatar’s abilities. The first rea-
son, having something to talk about, went along with high scores on both
narcissistic admiration and rivalry; the latter revealed a strong associa-
tion with rivalry that remained even after simultaneously entering
admiration and rivalry (see the β1 rows) and extraversion and agree-
ableness into the regression equations (see the β2 rows). A similar pat-
tern emerged for the reasons amusement and distraction. In these cases,
adding both narcissism dimensions to the regression equations further
enhanced the positive effect of rivalry and the negative effect of admira-
tion. Gamers who had high values on admiration further indicated that
they played video games to stimulate their imagination, to improve their
real-life abilities, and, to some degree, because of the social relations in
the virtual world. The effect for the reason social relations, however, dis-
appeared after adding extraversion and agreeableness to the regression
equation (see the β2 rows). Finally, curiosity was to some degree related
to both admiration and rivalry, whereas almost no correlations emerged
between narcissism and the two reasons storyline and relaxation. In
sum, for individuals high on admiration, the incentives to play video
games included imagination stimulation and improving one’s real-life

Table 2
Associations between narcissism and reasons for playing video games.

Reasons for playing

NARQ dimensions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Narcissism .04* .07*** −.02 .02 .09*** .10*** .05* .12*** .14*** .07***
Admiration −.03 −.05** −.01 .01 .10*** .11*** .06** .09*** .07** .06**
β1 −.07** −.12*** −.01 .01 .10*** .11*** .06** .07*** .02 .05*
β2 −.05* −.11*** .04+ .01 .15*** .13*** .03 .08*** .03 .06**

Rivalry .10*** .17*** −.02 .02 .04* .05** .02 .11*** .15*** .06**
β1 .12*** .21*** −.02 .02 .01 .02 −.00 .09*** .15*** .04*
β2 .12*** .21*** −.03 .05* −.00 .02 .03 .10*** .15*** .05*

Note. N ranged from 2,717 to 2,727. NARQ scores were assessed on a scale ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (agree completely). Reasons for playing were assessed on a Likert scale
ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (very often) and were coded as follows: 1 = amusement, 2 = distraction, 3 = storyline, 4 = relaxation, 5 = stimulation of imagination, 6 = improvement of
real-life abilities, 7 = social relations in virtual world, 8 = have something to talk about, 9 = improving the abilities of the avatar, 10 = curiosity. Correlations were controlled for sex and
age. β1 indicates the beta weights from the regressions in which the reason variables were regressed on sex, age, admiration, and rivalry. β2 indicates the beta weights from the regressions
in which the reason variables were regressed on sex, age, extraversion, agreeableness, admiration, and rivalry.
+ p b .10. * p b .05. ** p b .01. *** p b .001.

215J.M. Stopfer et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 87 (2015) 212–218

abilities, but for those high on rivalry, they included distraction, amuse-
ment, and improving the avatar’s abilities. It could consequently be hy-
pothesized that dimensions of narcissism would have differential
associations with preferences for certain video-game genres.

6.3. Narcissism and video-game genre

We next examined whether there was an association between nar-
cissism and the preferred video-game genre. Narcissism was positively
correlated with a preference for action games and unclassified games
(such as jump’n’runs; see Table 3). The first relation was mainly due
to the rivalry dimension and remained significant even after admiration
and rivalry (see the β1 rows) as well as extraversion and agreeableness
were entered simultaneously into the regression equations to predict
the preferred game genre (see the β2 rows). The relation with unclassi-
fied games, however, was primarily due to the admiration dimension,
again remaining stable when regressions were computed. The connec-
tion between a preference for role-playing games and low admiration
remained when taking rivalry into account but not when taking extra-
version and agreeableness into account. Admiration was also correlated

Table 3
Associations between narcissism and the preferred video-game genre.

Video-game genre

NARQ dimensions Simulation Strategy Action Role-playing Unclassified

Narcissism .02 −.01 .06** −.04* .08***
Admiration .03+ −.02 .04+ −.06** .10***
β1 .04* −.01 .01 −.06** .10***
β2 .08*** .02 −.01 −.01 .10***

Rivalry −.01 −.01 .07** −.01 .03
β1 −.02 −.00 .06** .02 −.00
β2 −.05* −.03 .08*** −.02 .02

Note. N ranged from 2,732 (strategy) to 2,733. NARQ scores were assessed on a scale rang-
ing from 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (agree completely). Preferred video-game genres refer
to Apperley’s (2006) classification and were assessed by ratings of how often various sub-
genres were played ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (very often). Simulation included: life sim-
ulations (e.g., The Sims), economy simulations (e.g., Sim City), sport simulations
(e.g., Fifa), other simulations (e.g., Flight Simulator). Strategy included: real-time strategy
games (e.g., Age of Empires), round-based strategy games (e.g., Civilization). Action
included: first-person shooter single-player (e.g., Half Life), first-person shooter
multiplayer (e.g., Counterstrike), third-person games (e.g., Tomb Raider). Role-playing
included: MMORPGs (e.g., World of Warcraft), single-player role-playing games
(e.g., Dragon Age), adventures (e.g., Monkey Island). Unclassified included: jump’n’runs
(e.g., Donkey Kong), social-network applications (e.g., Farmville), browser games
(e.g., Sea Fight), games of skill (e.g., Tetris), music games (e.g., Guitar Hero), brain jogging
(e.g., Dr. Kawashima), online gambling and card games (e.g., Poker), and single-player
card games (e.g., Solitaire). Correlations were controlled for sex and age. β1 indicates the
beta weights from the regressions in which the genre variables were regressed on sex,
age, admiration, and rivalry. β2 indicates the beta weights from the regressions in which
the genre variables were regressed on sex, age, extraversion, agreeableness, admiration,
and rivalry.
+ p b .10. * p b .05. ** p b .01. *** p b .001.

with a preference for simulation games to some degree. Controlling for
rivalry as well as extraversion and agreeableness in the regressions
brought about this effect (see the β2 row). Playing strategy games was
not related to any narcissism variable. In sum, these results speak to
the idea that individuals who differed in their levels of narcissistic admi-
ration and rivalry chose to play different game genres: Simulation
games and jump’n’runs or games of skill were preferred by gamers
high on admiration, whereas action games were preferred by those
high on rivalry. But which role in a video game was played by whom?

6.4. Narcissism and video-game roles

In a final step, we investigated the association between narcissism
and the preferred role while playing video games in the multiplayer
mode. As indicated in Table 4, the strongest correlation with narcissism
emerged for the roles lone fighter and team leader. Acting as a lone fight-
er was strongly related to the rivalry dimension and showed only weak
positive associations with admiration. Adding both admiration and
rivalry simultaneously into the regression equations to predict the
preferred role showed that only the effect of rivalry remained (see the
β1 row), even if additional predictors were added (see the β2 row).
The opposite pattern was observed for the role of team leader: A weak
relation to rivalry disappeared when admiration and rivalry were simul-
taneously entered into the regression equations. The association be-
tween admiration and acting as a team leader was robust even when
extraversion and agreeableness were controlled for. Higher values on
admiration accompanied a preference for playing both with and against
others, but these associations did not hold when the personality traits

Table 4
Associations between narcissism and the preferred video-game role.

Video-game role

NARQ
dimensions

Against With Tank Supporter Lone
fighter

Team
leader

Narcissism .05* −.02 .05* −.03 .13*** .20***
Admiration .07** .06** .06** −.00 .05** .27***
β1 .07** .10*** .05* .01 −.00 .28***
β2 −.00 .02 .03 .03 −.01 .19***

Rivalry .01 −.09*** .03 −.04* .16*** .05*
β1 −.01 −.12*** .01 −.04* .17*** −.04+
β2 .03 −.07** .03 −.04 .17*** .00

Note. N ranged from 2,360 to 2,378. NARQ scores were assessed on a scale ranging from 1
(do not agree at all) to 5 (agree completely). The preferred role while playing video games
in the multiplayer mode was rated on a scale ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 6 (agree
completely). Against = playing against others; with = playing with others; tank/support-
er/lone fighter/team leader = acting as a tank/supporter/lone fighter/team leader. Corre-
lations were controlled for sex and age. β1 indicates the beta weights from the regressions
in which the role variables were regressed on sex, age, admiration, and rivalry. β2 indicates
the beta weights from the regressions in which the role variables were regressed on sex,
age, extraversion, agreeableness, admiration, and rivalry.
+ p b .10. * p b .05. ** p b .01. *** p b .001.

216 J.M. Stopfer et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 87 (2015) 212–218

were controlled for. Video gamers with higher scores on rivalry tended
to be less interested in playing with other gamers. Small effects emerged
for the roles of tank (with high admiration) and supporter (with low ri-
valry), but those disappeared when the additional traits were taken into
account. In sum, these results suggest that admiration and rivalry were
differentially related to adopting certain roles in video games: Acting as
a team leader was associated with higher scores on admiration, whereas
acting as a lone fighter was linked to higher values on the rivalry
dimension.

7. Discussion

Narcissism is a characteristic with potentially far-reaching intra- and
interpersonal consequences. Here, we studied the link between narcis-
sism and an essential ingredient of modern entertainment—video
games. Drawing on a large sample, our study revealed that narcissism
as a global dimension was related to playing video games to some de-
gree. Not only did narcissists prefer playing action and unclassified
games (e.g., jump’n’runs), but they also enjoyed acting as lone fighters
or team leaders. No connection emerged with the frequency of playing.
Importantly, the differentiation between narcissistic admiration and ri-
valry revealed a much clearer picture: The more individuals tended to
self-promote, the more they wanted to stimulate their imagination
and improve their real-life abilities through gaming. This falls in line
with their preferences for simulation and unclassified games. Higher ad-
miration was further linked to acting as a team leader when playing in
the multiplayer mode. By contrast, the more individuals engaged in
self-defense and in the devaluation of others, the higher the significance
of video gaming in their lives tended to be: They spent more time and
money on video games and played in order to distract themselves and
to improve the power of their game characters. They showed a prefer-
ence for action games and the role of a lone fighter in multiplayer
settings.

The presented results are generally in line with previous work (Kim
et al., 2008) that illustrated a link between narcissism and video gaming.
Our study moved beyond prior research by providing in-depth analyses
of both narcissism (including its dimensions admiration and rivalry)
and video gaming (including the significance of and reasons for playing
and the preferred game genre and role). The findings again emphasize
the importance of distinguishing between narcissistic admiration and
rivalry when studying the correlates of narcissism (Back et al., 2013;
Dufner et al., 2013, 2015; Fatfouta et al., 2015; Leckelt, Küfner, Nestler,
& Back, in press).

Why is it important to understand how the distinct dimensions of
narcissism are related to video gamers’ habits and preferences? Narcis-
sistic admiration and rivalry are conceptualized as the bright and dark
sides of narcissism that go along with beneficial and unfavorable conse-
quences, respectively (Back et al., 2013). Might this classification be
mirrored in narcissists’ differential video-gaming behavior? Prior
research has suggested that the exposure to video games can result in
a broad range of improvements (Latham, Patston, & Tippett, 2013) as
well as negative outcomes (Barlett, Anderson, & Swing, 2009). For in-
stance, acting in multiplayer settings can foster the diversity of commu-
nication partners, leading to increased social competence and decreased
loneliness (Visser et al., 2013), but it can also lead to reduced helping
behavior within games (Kozlov & Johansen, 2010) and in the real
world (Stenico & Greitemeyer, 2014). The specificity of benefits from
playing video games thus seems to be a function of the game genre
played and the actions performed within the game (Dobrowolski,
Hanusz, Sobczyk, Skorko, & Wiatrow, 2015). In line with this idea, we
found rather beneficial patterns of video-game use for individuals
high on narcissistic admiration. That narcissism had no connection
with the frequency of video gaming may suggest that these individuals
see playing video games as only one of many possible ways to get atten-
tion from others, supported by findings on the narcissist’s engagement
in OSN activities (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008; Ryan & Xenos, 2011;

Stopfer, Egloff, Nestler, & Back, 2013) and on stage (Dufner et al.,
2015). Rather maleficent patterns of use were instead detected for indi-
viduals high on rivalry—they preferred action games and acting as lone
fighters, both related to violent content (Dietz, 1998) and its potentially
negative effects (Anderson et al., 2010; Barlett et al., 2009; Möller &
Krahé, 2009). In addition, rivalry was linked to the frequency of playing.
High levels of rivalry could have caused problems in interpersonal rela-
tions in offline environments (Back et al., 2013), leading individuals to
plunge into the virtual world and to distract themselves from their actu-
al problems (this selection effect was found for aggressiveness and the
use of violent video games; von Salisch, Vogelgesang, Kristen, & Oppl,
2011). We thus recommend that personality variables such as (the
dimensions of) narcissism be taken into account when exploring the
effects of video gaming because these may determine game usage pat-
terns and thus predict the concrete adaptive or maladaptive outcomes
of video gaming.

7.1. Limitations and future directions

The present study aimed to uncover the association between narcis-
sism and video gaming. Our approach was cross-sectional and thus war-
rants interpretative caution. Correlations cannot determine the
direction of causation because (a) high levels of narcissism could have
caused individuals to play video games in order to trumpet their
achievements and to avoid close offline relationships, or (b) playing
video games could have caused an increase in narcissistic tendencies
because of feedback from the game such as being the center of the
(virtual) world. Also, (c) third variables may have influenced both the
level of narcissism and the video-gaming activities. Thus, longitudinal
studies that seek to identify the causal pathway of the narcissism–
gaming link may provide a promising avenue for future research.

All variables were measured with self-reports, which is a plausible
way to assess such inner affairs as preferences and people’s own reasons
for their behaviors but may be subject to biases in the case of reported
frequencies of acts (Gosling, John, Craik, & Robins, 1998). Our work re-
flects only a first approach to the topic, and future work should addi-
tionally collect in-game behavioral data from the players (Billieux
et al., 2012; McCreery, Krach, Schrader, & Boone, 2012) to more objec-
tively investigate how personality translates into actual behavior
(Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2009) in video-game and other virtual
settings (Stopfer, Egloff, Nestler, & Back, 2014).

Finally, some of the effects reported in our paper were rather modest
in size. This is not surprising considering the complexity and multiple
determinants of human behavior. In our analyses, we thoroughly con-
trolled for the influence of a number of parameters known to be related
to narcissism (e.g., sex, age, extraversion, agreeableness) and still found
evidence that the dimensions of narcissism were differentially related to
a variety of video-gaming variables. Future research could reveal
whether the shown associations of narcissism dimensions and video
gaming are pronounced in gaming addicts.

7.2. Conclusion

The current study adds to our knowledge on the narcissism–gaming
link by uncovering the specific relations between distinct dimensions of
narcissism and various video-game actions. Whereas narcissists high on
rivalry play video games for distraction and prefer action games and
acting as lone fighters, narcissists high on admiration use video games
to stimulate their imagination and prefer the role of team leader. To
conclude: Yes, Narcissus does play video games—but only certain roles
in specific games for special reasons.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.08.011.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.08.011

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.08.011

217J.M. Stopfer et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 87 (2015) 212–218

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Narcissus plays video games
1. The importance of studying narcissism
2. The importance of studying video gaming
3. Prior research on narcissism and video gaming
4. The present research
5. Method
5.1. Participants11The data were gathered as part of a larger project (Braun et al., submitted for publication). However, t…
5.2. Procedure and instruments22Further measures were applied, but they were not relevant to the present research question …
5.2.1. Narcissism
5.2.2. Control variables
5.2.3. Video-gaming behavior
5.3. Analyses
6. Results
6.1. Narcissism and video-gaming behavior
6.2. Narcissism and reasons for playing video games
6.3. Narcissism and video-game genre
6.4. Narcissism and video-game roles
7. Discussion
7.1. Limitations and future directions
7.2. Conclusion
Appendix A. Supplementary data
References