<p>Another fairly frequent sub-topic in the popsci press (besides correlation with sadism) in relation to narcissism is <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/23-signs-youe28099re-secretly-a-narcissist-masquerading-as-a-sensitive-introvert/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">covert narcissism</a>. To some extent that article confuses the covert aspect/presentation with the better studied "vulnerable" narcissism, but this can probably be forgiven because the DSM-IV itself wasn't terribly clear on this, although the <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/per0000023" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DSM-5 makes more of an effort to distinguish between the two dimensions</a>. (And of course calling it "covert" makes it sound much more ominous, so it makes better click-bait, even if you're mostly talking about "vulnerable" narcissism.)</p>

<p>Of course, any studies of anything covert are probably going to underestimate it if the subjects are really good at covering it, but nonetheless, just what percentage of narcissists are generally known to be of this kind? Furthermore, is there a different mixture of vulnerable/grandiose in the covert group vs the overt one? I'm hoping some empirical studies exist on this.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-19T20:34:15.980Z
Looks like this one is going to be a pain to answer because a lot of prior research doesn't use the overt/corvert terms with the same meaning as the DSM-5, e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805785/
got trolled too much this week
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2018-01-01T18:47:41.960Z
The terms grandiose/vulnerable and overt/cover narcissism are interchangeable since [Wink (1991)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1960651/), though he advocates using only grandiose/vulnerable, which is confirmed and further elaborated in [Pincus & Lukowitsky (2010).](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20001728/)
zoagli
<personality>
Proportion of covert narcissists (and their structure)
got trolled too much this week
# Proportion of covert narcissists (and their structure)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-19)

Another fairly frequent sub-topic in the popsci press (besides correlation with sadism) in relation to narcissism is [covert narcissism](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/23-signs-youe28099re-secretly-a-narcissist-masquerading-as-a-sensitive-introvert/). To some extent that article confuses the covert aspect/presentation with the better studied "vulnerable" narcissism, but this can probably be forgiven because the DSM-IV itself wasn't terribly clear on this, although the [DSM-5 makes more of an effort to distinguish between the two dimensions](http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/per0000023). (And of course calling it "covert" makes it sound much more ominous, so it makes better click-bait, even if you're mostly talking about "vulnerable" narcissism.)

Of course, any studies of anything covert are probably going to underestimate it if the subjects are really good at covering it, but nonetheless, just what percentage of narcissists are generally known to be of this kind? Furthermore, is there a different mixture of vulnerable/grandiose in the covert group vs the overt one? I'm hoping some empirical studies exist on this.

**Tags:** personality

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Looks like this one is going to be a pain to answer because a lot of prior research doesn't use the overt/corvert terms with the same meaning as the DSM-5, e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805785/  
> **username_1**: The terms grandiose/vulnerable and overt/cover narcissism are interchangeable since [Wink (1991)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1960651/), though he advocates using only grandiose/vulnerable, which is confirmed and further elaborated in [Pincus & Lukowitsky (2010).](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20001728/)  

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