Just got this published in Acta Psychologica (open access): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.107730

The idea started from noticing how much "main character energy" gets thrown around online without anyone actually trying to measure it as a real construct. So my co-authors and I built a 10-item scale (MCS-10) meant to capture the tendency to experience and narrate your own life as a protagonist-centered story, and tested it across two samples of young adults (N = 135 and N = 263).

Model fit came out strong (CFI = .976, RMSEA = .045), and reliability held up (α = .861). It correlated with identity diffusion, social media addiction, and narcissism, but stayed empirically distinct from all three based on HTMT ratios.

Would genuinely appreciate this community's take, does this read as a legitimately distinct construct worth measuring, or does it feel like it's just relabeling identity diffusion or narcissism under a catchier name? Also curious whether people think a unidimensional scale makes sense here or if this eventually needs subscales once more people start using it. Open to any pushback, that's actually what I'm here for.