| Title |
Mirror mirror on the ward, who’s the most narcissistic of them all? Pathologic personality traits in health care
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Canadian Medical Association Journal, December 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1503/cmaj.151135 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Vittoria Bucknall, Suendoss Burwaiss, Deborah MacDonald, Kathy Charles, Rhys Clement |
| Abstract |
Stereotypes in medicine have become exaggerated for the purpose of workplace amusement. Our objective was to assess the levels of "dark triad" personality traits expressed by individuals working in different health care specialties in comparison with the general population. We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional study within multiple departments of a UK secondary care teaching hospital. A total of 248 health care professionals participated, and 159 members of the general population were recruited as a comparison group. We measured 3 personality traits - narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy - through the validated self-reported personality questionnaires Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), MACH-IV and the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP), respectively. Health care professionals scored significantly lower on narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy (mean scores 12.0, 53.0 and 44.7, respectively) than the general population (p < 0.001). Nursing professionals exhibited a significantly higher level of secondary psychopathy than medical professionals (p = 0.04, mean LSRP score 20.3). Within the cohort of medical professionals, surgeons expressed significantly higher levels of narcissism (p = 0.03, mean NPI score 15.0). Health care professionals expressed low levels of dark triad personality traits. The suggestion that health care professionals are avaricious and untrustworthy may be refuted, even for surgeons. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 209 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 27 | 13% |
| United States | 20 | 10% |
| Australia | 19 | 9% |
| Canada | 13 | 6% |
| France | 8 | 4% |
| Chile | 8 | 4% |
| Spain | 7 | 3% |
| Ireland | 5 | 2% |
| Comoros | 3 | 1% |
| Other | 21 | 10% |
| Unknown | 78 | 37% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 135 | 65% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 48 | 23% |
| Scientists | 21 | 10% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 5 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 100 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 99 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 14 | 14% |
| Student > Master | 12 | 12% |
| Other | 9 | 9% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 9 | 9% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 7 | 7% |
| Other | 20 | 20% |
| Unknown | 29 | 29% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 36 | 36% |
| Psychology | 20 | 20% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 3 | 3% |
| Neuroscience | 2 | 2% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 2 | 2% |
| Other | 3 | 3% |
| Unknown | 34 | 34% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 164. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 March 2024.
All research outputs
#253,479
of 25,789,020 outputs
Outputs from Canadian Medical Association Journal
#454
of 9,557 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,869
of 397,694 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Canadian Medical Association Journal
#7
of 102 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,789,020 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 9,557 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 34.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 102 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.