How local and global metacognition relate to overt and covert narcissism in adolescents

Narcissism, a personality trait characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, is often associated with overconfident behaviors, reflecting distorted metacognitive functioning. Previous research mainly relies on self-report measures to claim that narcissists are blindly overconfidence. However, whether narcissism is linked to actual impairments in metacognitive ability is still unclear. This study systematically explored the associations between overt/covert narcissism and metacognition at both local and global levels in a large adolescent sample (N = 873). Participants completed a perceptual judgment task with confidence ratings, along with the narcissism and self-esteem questionnaires. The results revealed a clear dissociation: overt narcissism was positively correlated with metacognition at both the local level and the global level, whereas covert narcissism showed no such correlations. Critically, overt narcissism negatively moderated the dynamic translation of prospective global confidence into trial-level local confidence, while covert narcissism exerted no moderation. Moreover, self-esteem emerged as the key psychological mechanism accounting for the differential relationships between narcissistic subtypes and metacognition. These findings challenge the traditional view of narcissists as blindly overconfident. Instead, overt narcissists with high self-esteem exhibit adaptive metacognition, with their confidence reflecting calibrated self-monitoring rather than mere bias.