@article {Bucknall1359, author = {Vittoria Bucknall and Suendoss Burwaiss and Deborah MacDonald and Kathy Charles and Rhys Clement}, title = {Mirror mirror on the ward, who{\textquoteright}s the most narcissistic of them all? Pathologic personality traits in health care}, volume = {187}, number = {18}, pages = {1359--1363}, year = {2015}, doi = {10.1503/cmaj.151135}, publisher = {CMAJ}, abstract = {Background: Stereotypes in medicine have become exaggerated for the purpose of workplace amusement. Our objective was to assess the levels of {\textquotedblleft}dark triad{\textquotedblright} personality traits expressed by individuals working in different health care specialties in comparison with the general population.Methods: 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 {\textemdash} narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy {\textemdash} through the validated self-reported personality questionnaires Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), MACH-IV and the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP), respectively.Results: 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).Interpretation: 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.}, issn = {0820-3946}, URL = {https://www.cmaj.ca/content/187/18/1359}, eprint = {https://www.cmaj.ca/content/187/18/1359.full.pdf}, journal = {CMAJ} }