Induced narcissism increases self-assessed intelligence: implications for academic goal-pursuit, expected academic achievement, and psychological well-being

•We examined the causal direction of the relation between narcissism and self-assessed intelligence (SAI).•Induced narcissism increased SAI.•SAI mediated the effect of narcissism on achievement and wellbeing. We examine the causal direction of the relation between (grandiose agentic) narcissism and self-assessed intelligence (SAI). We manipulated narcissism with a validated procedure. In Studies 1–2, high (vs low) narcissism increased SAI. In Study 2, SAI mediated the effect of narcissism on academic goal-pursuit, expected academic achievement, and psychological wellbeing. The findings have implications for the nature of SAI and for gender differences on narcissism and SAI.