Narcissus’ belief about his body : Aspects of narcissism, body image, and eating disorder symptoms

Journal article

Szymczak, Piotr, Talbot, Daniel, Gritti, Emanuela S. and Jonason, Peter K.. (2023). Narcissus’ belief about his body : Aspects of narcissism, body image, and eating disorder symptoms. PLoS ONE. 18, p. Article e0293578. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293578
AuthorsSzymczak, Piotr, Talbot, Daniel, Gritti, Emanuela S. and Jonason, Peter K.
Abstract

Objective
Narcissism may play a role in shaping body image concerns. Here we examined the relationships between narcissism (i.e., agentic extraversion, antagonism, narcissistic neuroticism, leadership/authority, exhibitionism/entitlement) and body image concerns and disturbances (i.e., drive for thinness, drive for muscularity, eating disorder symptoms, body mass index, current/desired fat, and current/desired muscularity).

Methods
Mechanical Turk workers from the USA (N = 430; 64% male) completed the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Drive for Muscularity Scale, the Drive for Thinness Scale, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire–Short, and the Sex-Specific Somatomorphic Matrixes.

Results
All narcissistic factors were associated with a greater drive for thinness (except for leadership/authority) and for muscularity, more eating disorder symptoms, a greater desired body fat (except for leadership/authority), and a greater current muscularity. Greater agentic extraversion and exhibitionism/entitlement were associated with lower levels of current body fat, and greater antagonism was associated with a greater desired muscularity.

Discussion
Notably, individual differences in narcissism appeared to be important in understanding body image concerns, broadly speaking. We found that narcissism may be associated with body image concerns among both sexes differently, and especially that drive for thinness was more related to narcissism in men. Our results emphasize the importance of narcissism in formulating and treating body image-related disorders for both men and women. Ultimately, narcissistic features of personality may be risk factors for developing and perpetuating body image concerns, and therefore should be considered in assessment, formulation, diagnosis, and treatment of eating disorders.

Year2023
JournalPLoS ONE
Journal citation18, p. Article e0293578
PublisherPublic Library of Science
ISSN1932-6203
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293578
PubMed ID37943826
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85176468037
PubMed Central IDPMC10635534
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Page range1-13
FunderNational Science Centre of Poland
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online09 Nov 2023
Publication process dates
Accepted16 Oct 2023
Deposited23 May 2025
Grant ID2019/35/B/HS6/00682
Additional information

© 2023 Szymczak et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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