Professor Marcin Zajenkowski from the University of Warsaw has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in psychology for his research on the impact of feedback about intelligence levels on temporary feelings of narcissism. His research has been supported by the NCN for many years.
Professor Zajenkowski received the award jointly with Gilles Gignak from the University of Western Australia. They were recognised for their publication titled “Telling people they are intelligent is correlated with a sense of narcissistic uniqueness,” which appeared in the journal Intelligence. The researchers’ study shows that praise regarding a person’s IQ can boost self-esteem and feelings of uniqueness, while negative comments tend to lower these aspects.
The research by Prof. Zajenkowski was carried out with the support of the National Science Centre under the OPUS 12 grant. He is currently continuing his work, in part thanks to two additional OPUS grants.
The Ig Nobel Prize is a humorous counterpart to the Nobel Prize, aimed at highlighting unusual aspects of scientific work and promoting science. The awards are given to research that may seem amusing at first glance, but above all encourages deeper reflection. Importantly, all awarded studies have genuine scientific value and are published in peer-reviewed, prestigious journals. This year, Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded, among others, to researchers studying lizards’ pizza preferences, the effect of a mother eating garlic on the sensations of a breastfed child, whether cows painted with zebra-like stripes can avoid fly bites, and the impact of alcohol consumption on the ability to speak a foreign language.