Narcissists are not always risk-takers.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

Maybe narcissists are not always such big risk-takers after all, suggests a study in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. Many studies have found that narcissists often make volatile and risky decisions, possibly because they tend to have inflated views of their own abilities and achievements.

However, in a series of three experiments, researchers found that people who scored higher on measures of narcissism were no more likely than others to make risky choices in lab-based tasks. The results surprised lead author Amy Brunell, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University, Mansfield. "I thought that narcissists, given that they are impulsive and have high opinions of themselves, would take bigger risks. That's what other research would have suggested, but any association between narcissism and risk-taking that we found was very small and essentially meaningless."

One explanation for the discrepancy may be the fact that many of the studies linking narcissism and risk-taking were based on self-reports--essentially, narcissists saying that they took risks in certain situations. Self-reports, ventures Brunell, may not be the best way to measure risk-taking for this group. "When they're asked...