How to Identify a Hidden Narcissist

Identifying people who are high in narcissism might seem like a pretty obvious process. The grandiose type, who lets everyone know about how great they are, provides plenty of clues to their need for attention and special treatment. The vulnerable type, whose narcissism reflects more of an anxious desire for approval, can be more difficult to detect, at least until they become angered and revengeful.

However, given that narcissism is such an undesirable quality, especially in group settings where people must work together, people high in this personality trait may put on a façade to achieve their goals of recognition and status. Instead of pushing their way ahead of everyone, they put on a guise of false modesty as they seek surreptitious ways to accomplish their goals. You can’t call them out on their behavior, because it's not apparent.

The Implicit Narcissist

Recognizing that narcissism can take this “implicit” form, in which its overt qualities are hidden, Ramzi Fatfouta and Dominik Schwarzinger of Berlin’s University of Applied Sciences (2024) note that: “distinguishing explicit and implicit narcissism is important because they have different underlying mechanisms and may have different effects on behavior.” In the workplace, which is the focus of their study, narcissism can have important detrimental effects, referred to as “counterproductive work behaviors” or “CWB.”

Perhaps you worked with a colleague who seemed friendly and cooperative but also tended to dominate and occasionally derail meetings. One day, much to everyone’s surprise, this person announced they were taking a position elsewhere. The fact that they were leaving wasn’t as bad as the fact that the announcement came at the end of a staff meeting in which this person gave an elaborate presentation about a project they were running. Why would they wait until this very moment to do so? Now the rest of you are left scrambling to try to fill their shoes.

CWBs can also take the form of stealing, coming to work late, working at an unduly slow pace, and insulting people. You may be suspicious of explicit narcissists, especially if they insult people openly. But the implicit narcissist, like your coworker, may go undetected until something big happens and they are exposed.

Testing a Model of Implicit vs. Explicit Narcissism

Because personality measures that tap into explicit narcissism are typically self-reported, you might wonder how the research team would be able to identify implicit narcissists—those who don’t openly admit to their egocentric personalities. Their solution was to use what is known as the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al., 1998). Fatfouta and Schwarzinger believed it was a perfect way to add to the ability of explicit narcissism scales to predict CWB.

Designed to overcome biases due to self-report and social desirability (trying to look good), the IAT is measured by tracking how long it takes people to categorize words such as “selfish” and “modest” according to whether they represent “me” versus “not-me” and “narcissistic” versus “not-narcissistic.” People high in implicit narcissism respond more quickly when categorizing words such as selfish into the combination of “me” and “narcissistic” than they do to “me” and “not narcissistic.” This is not a test you can do at home, although various versions of the IAT are available online.

The study’s sample consisted of 512 German employees recruited through various professional networks (e.g., LinkedIn) who had an average of nearly nine years of employment in white-collar and managerial positions. To measure explicit narcissism, the authors used the “self-centered work approach scale,” which measures an exaggeration of self-worth with respect to one’s own significance, leadership skills, and impact at work, as well as the pleasure in exercising authority over colleagues. Items on this scale include “Very few of my colleagues measure up to me.”

Using both the IAT and explicit narcissism self-report scores as predictors of CWBs, the authors found that a combination of the two measures produced the best fit to the data. As IAT scores increased, so did the relationship between explicit narcissism and CWBs. In other words, implicit narcissism fueled the prediction equation, making the secret narcissist more likely to show both explicit forms of the trait and negative behaviors at work. However, the two forms of narcissism were only weakly related, supporting the idea that narcissists may be highly motivated to keep their personalities under wraps.

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Detecting the Implicit Narcissist in Your Life

Given that you clearly are not able to administer the IAT to every person you meet, how would you translate these results into your own life? What subtle signs do you need to look for? As the authors noted, their ability to predict CWBs only became possible when they considered the combination of the IAT and self-centered work scale scores. If there was a mismatch, the effect disappeared. Explicit narcissists were only slightly more likely to engage in CWBs if their implicit narcissism scores were low.

Taking people at face value, then, may not be enough to determine whether their narcissism is going to bounce back and hurt you. The implicit narcissist is far more likely to engage in subtle self-aggrandizing behaviors that escape your immediate attention, but as you can see from the findings, they will feel free to act in ways that undermine the efforts of other people. They may not brag about their tendency to cheat and cut corners, but they will do so nevertheless.

Before people drop bombshells on you, such as that coworker with their sudden pronouncement, see what they do when given a chance to engage in those CWBs. The study findings show that an ordinary, explicit, narcissist will do so only if there is an underlying layer of implicit narcissism. This is the person to worry about more than the one who brags about their greatness.

To sum up, narcissism in whatever form can be toxic, especially when it affects the well-being of other people. Knowing that it exists in two layers can help prevent their toxicity from destroying your well-being.

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