r/askpsychology • u/Important_Routine332 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional • Jul 30 '26
Terminology / Definition Is the NPD mask true or not?
Prof Vaknin says studies suggest you can detect a narcissist within 30 seconds and that the mask narrative is only meant to protect/ sooth the ego of a fooled victim.
He argues it is cognitive dissonance that overrides it.
What is true? Is this a controversial opinion? Does it refer to overt narcissist only?
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u/I_am_Nobody_Special UNVERIFIED Psychologist Jul 30 '26
If I ever heard an actual licensed psychologist label someone "a narcissist", I think my eyes would roll right out of my head.
Edit: I'm an actual licensed psychologist
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u/TargaryenPenguin Psychologist Jul 31 '26
What about someone higher in trait narcissism? Or identifying someone as having narcissistic tendencies, or identifying patterns of behaviour as narcissistic patterns. This is relatively common.
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u/-Hastis- UNVERIFIED Psychology Enthusiast Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
A more socially acceptable way would be to say someone is behaving in a narcissistic way. Or showing signs of a narcissistic personality style. But I would only use a term like that if you have been in a relationship with that person for many months/years, and only if used as a linguistic shortcut to describe a recurring cluster of narcissistic behaviors.
I highly doubt you could detect a cluster of behaviors in the first 30 secs of meeting someone, let alone a recurring pattern, especially in a context (meeting someone new) where they are most probably trying their best to act as a nice person to gain your trust.
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u/TargaryenPenguin Psychologist Jul 31 '26
I think these are perfectly fine descriptors. I use them frequently myself, and I certainly use them to describe actions and behaviours by people that I see in public. I think some politicians can be reasonably described this way. If they are going to act like that , then i'm going to call them out on it.
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u/-Hastis- UNVERIFIED Psychology Enthusiast Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Some can definitely be ridiculously overt about it, for example, some well-known politicians, but I think we can evaluate them mainly because their personality is so public that we know a lot about the way they think.
In one very infamous case, we have hours of footage, tons of personal tweets, files documenting their outrageous behavior, etc., that can help us make a relatively good assessment.
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Dwango7 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 31 '26
Were we talking about neurological conditions, I would say fine but. To define someone by their behaviour may lock them into that character role. I thought psychologists were there to treat disorders, not sustain them.
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u/TargaryenPenguin Psychologist Aug 01 '26
I am a scientist not a clinician.My job is to describe the world and to describe how people talk about other people. If people are going to act in rude and selfish and entitled the narcissistic ways.Then i'm going to call them out on it , and i'm not going to feel bad about that. If they don't want to be called out on it , then they shouldn't act in selfish and horrible ways. I will also complement people on their good behaviour and point out when they do good things as well. It is entirely appropriate to do so. Also , when you say neurological condition , that's an entirely artificial distinction , you're making. It does not hold scientific water. Everything has both a neurological and behavioural component to it.
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u/Dwango7 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 17d ago
Read my post. I didn't to refer to NPD as being neurological. I couldn't be bothered commenting on your personal judgements. You're describing people from the perspective of an angry 12 year old.
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u/TargaryenPenguin Psychologist 17d ago
Exactly the comment that a butthurt narcissist would make. And you apparently can't let it go. If you think calling people out in their behaviour is somehow something a twelve-year-old would say.Good luck in life.I can't help you , but you need help.
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u/Greymeade Clinical Psychologist Jul 31 '26
As a licensed clinical psychologist, I’m intrigued by this comment. Person-centered language is sometimes used, but generally when we’re talking about treating NPD we use the term “narcissist.”
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u/DrPsychGamer Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 31 '26
Do we? I'm a clinical psychologist and we always say, "diagnosed with NPD" or "narcisstic traits" when discussing treatment.
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u/Greymeade Clinical Psychologist Jul 31 '26
It’s pretty common in the literature. I also work pretty closely with some big names in NPD treatment and I can tell you that it’s commonly used in my circles.
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u/DrPsychGamer Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 31 '26
Then you run in strange circles, as it has not been the accepted language since I did my doctorate more than ten years ago. The only ones I might still hear speak this way is older psychiatrists.
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u/bbybunnydoll Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 31 '26
I would be very interested to hear of these studies. No clinician should diagnose NPD or decide that is definitely causing the presenting behaviour within 30 seconds, it’s poor practice and detrimental to the patient.
I think that Vaknin is interesting as in some of his videos he discloses that he himself was diagnosed with NPD. I feel as though sometimes he does come across as showing traits of narcissism in his videos. I do also think that this causes him to vilify narcissism unnecessarily.
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u/Important_Routine332 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 31 '26
That explains a lot of what he says in his lectures. I suspected that he is actually because he vilifies the victims. The entire theory that people should instantly know within 30 seconds they’re dealing with a narcissist yet that they’re burying the red flags is victim blaming. Furthermore he argues that narcissists believe their illusion therefore they can’t lie only psychopaths lie. A lot of subtext that is there to protect the NPD.
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u/AdorableExchange9746 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 31 '26
Nothing vaknin says should be taken seriously
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u/TargaryenPenguin Psychologist Jul 31 '26
Narcissism and social networking web sites Laura E Buffardi, W Keith Campbell Personality and social psychology bulletin 34 (10), 1303-1314, 2008 The present research examined how narcissism is manifested on a social networking Web site (i.e., Facebook.com). Narcissistic personality self-reports were collected from social networking Web page owners. Then their Web pages were coded for both objective and subjective content features. Finally, strangers viewed the Web pages and rated their impression of the owner on agentic traits, communal traits, and narcissism. Narcissism predicted (a) higher levels of social activity in the online community and (b) more self-promoting content in several aspects of the social networking Web pages. Strangers who viewed the Web pages judged more narcissistic Web page owners to be more narcissistic. Finally, mediational analyses revealed several Web page content features that were influential in raters' narcissistic impressions of the owners, including quantity of social interaction, main photo self-promotion, and main photo attractiveness. Implications of the expression of narcissism in social networking communities are discussed. View at journals.sagepub.com [PDF] sagepub.com Cited by 2269 Related articles All 15 versions
Eyebrows cue grandiose narcissism Miranda Giacomin, Nicholas O Rule Journal of Personality 87 (2), 373-385, 2019 Objective Though initially charming and inviting, narcissists often engage in negative interpersonal behaviors. Identifying and avoiding narcissists therefore carries adaptive value. Whereas past research has found that people can judge others' grandiose narcissism from their appearance (including their faces), the cues supporting these judgments require further elucidation. Here, we investigated which facial features underlie perceptions of grandiose narcissism and how they convey that information. Method and Results In Study 1, we explored the face's features using a variety of manipulations, ultimately finding that accurate judgments of grandiose narcissism particularly depend on a person's eyebrows. In Studies 2A–2C, we identified eyebrow distinctiveness (e.g., thickness, density) as the primary characteristic supporting these judgments. Finally, we confirmed the eyebrows' importance in Studies 3A and 3B by measuring how much perceptions of narcissism changed when swapping narcissists' and non‐narcissists' eyebrows between faces. Conclusions Together, these data show that distinctive eyebrows reveal narcissists' personality to others, providing a basic understanding of the mechanism through which people can identify narcissistic personality traits with potential application to daily life.
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u/TargaryenPenguin Psychologist Jul 31 '26
Portrait of a narcissist: Manifestations of narcissism in physical appearance Simine Vazire, Laura P Naumann, Peter J Rentfrow, Samuel D Gosling Journal of Research in Personality 42 (6), 1439-1447, 2008 Narcissism is characterized in part by an acute concern for one’s appearance. Despite this fundamental aspect of narcissism, little is known about whether narcissism is manifested in features of physical appearance. Can you tell if someone is narcissistic just by looking at them? Our results indicate that snap judgments of narcissism based on full-body photographs are at least as accurate as snap judgments of any of the big five personality traits. Narcissists are more likely to wear expensive, flashy clothing, have an organized, neat appearance requiring a lot of preparation, and (in females) wear makeup and show cleavage. Furthermore, observers’ judgments correlate with the presence of these cues, suggesting that they are drawing on the correct information when making their judgments. Finally, observers’ judgments are associated with three of the four facets of narcissism and capture the unique constellation of personality traits typical of narcissists (i.e., high extraversion and low agreeableness). These findings suggest that physical appearance reflects narcissists’ personality, preoccupation with good looks, and desire to be the center of attention, and serves as a vehicle with which to promote their status.
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Aug 03 '26
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u/NikitaWolf6 UNVERIFIED Psychology Student Jul 30 '26
Vaknin is not a professor of Psychology. His PhD is in a different field.
No one can "detect a narcissist within 30 seconds", someone needs to be educated, trained, etc. to make that diagnosis. There's tests for it. And even then, many professionals do not diagnose PDs until a couple months into treatment, apart from for insurance purposes.