People have been fascinated with the figure of the narcissistic star at least since Norma Desmond announced that she was ready for her close-up in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. Norma is not alone—new research shows that celebrities of all types are significantly more vain than other people.
Two University of Southern California researchers conducted the study. One of them, Drew Pinsky, appears on a syndicated radio show called Loveline, in which visiting celebrities give relationship advice to callers. Together with his colleague S. Mark Young, Pinsky recruited 200 of his guests to fill out personality assessments.
These famous subjects scored about 15 percent higher for narcissism than the general population>—they were more conceited, had a greater sense of entitlement and superiority, and were more exhibitionistic. Ironically, the “ordinary people” who have become well known through reality TV shows scored the highest in overall narcissism, followed by comedians, actors and finally musicians, who scored only a little higher than nonfamous people.
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It could be that celebrity turns people into narcissists, but Young thinks it is the other way around, because narcissism was not affected by how long the celebrities had been famous. “What they hope is that they will get noticed and stroked,” he says. “What better place to get that than the entertainment industry?”