The Narcissism Puzzle: Counting Squares and Self-Reflection

The Puzzle Everyone Thinks They’ll Ace

The classic “count the squares” puzzle appears everywhere—from school worksheets to social media posts. The task seems easy enough: count every square you can find, large and small.

Yet the results are rarely the same.

Some people count only the obvious squares. Others notice the overlapping ones. A few go further, spotting shapes created by combinations of smaller squares. The final tally often surprises even the most confident participants.

Where Narcissism Enters the Picture

Psychologists often use puzzles like this to explore cognitive bias—especially overconfidence. When someone assumes the first answer they find must be correct, they may stop looking too soon.

This is sometimes referred to as the narcissism puzzle effect:

• Overestimating one’s accuracy
• Dismissing alternative answers too quickly
• Feeling defensive when corrected

The puzzle quietly reveals how comfortable we are with being wrong.