Abstract
Face recognition plays an essential role in our social interactions with others. To this end, understanding individual differences that relate to our face recognition ability is one facet of understanding the factors that play a role in face recognition deficits. In a recent study, Giacomin, Brinton, and Rule (2021) found that narcissistic individuals exhibited poorer facial recognition when asked to recall social and non-social stimuli compared to non-narcissistic individuals. They reasoned that narcissistic individuals exhibit visual recognition memory deficits due to an inflated self-focus, limiting their processing of the external environment. In an attempt to replicate this novel finding, 125 healthy participants completed the Cambridge Face Memory Task and completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-16) to quantify narcissistic personality traits. We found no relationship between face recognition ability on the CFMT and narcissism score on the NPI-16 (r = -0.08, p = 0.37). The CFMT is a well-validated tool for assessing the recognition of novel faces, and differed from the old/new face recognition test used by Giacomin et al. Therefore, differences in results may have stemmed from differences in the face recognition tool used. In future research, we hope to additionally examine the relationship between face recognition and non-face object recognition.