New research has found that when given the option of a pay raise or a new job title, most people would take the money.
In one experiment, workers were much more willing to work harder for a pay raise than for a prestigious new title with no extra money or authority.
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In the study, researchers found that most people prefer private rewards, but those who showed more narcissistic tendencies were more motivated by public rewards and were more likely to accept a job with a better title rather than higher pay.
When researchers compared public and private versions of the same reward in Study 2, participants generally preferred private versions of seven rewards, including bonuses, promotions and praise. But higher narcissism scores were associated with a stronger preference for the public versions. The relationship appeared in six of the seven rewards tested.
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Researchers stress that those traits are not the same as a clinical diagnosis.
