It was the most amazing cocktail party you could ever imagine. Former Vice President Joe Biden was going on and on about his favorite ice cream shop on the Delaware shore, when in walked Robert De Niro.

"How's that screenplay coming, Scott," he asked.

Before I could respond, Beyonce sauntered by.

OK, that is total fiction. There was no cocktail party, there is no screenplay, and while it is true that I was on a flight with Beyonce once, she sat way up in front.

That is an extreme example of name dropping, where we try to seem important by associating ourselves with well-known people. But before you roll your eyes, take note: We all do it, according to University of Georgia psychology professor W. Keith Campbell, an expert on narcissism.

"You're throwing a name out there in order to show your own status by knowing the person," Campbell told CNBC's "Deadly Rich." "It's a way to look good and to gain social status."

To some extent, name dropping is a function of basic human interaction — finding common ground with the person you are speaking with by identifying acquaintances that you share.

"It's a way to establish relationships," Campbell said. "This is totally normal. This is how you find out people's social networks and go 'Hey, we both know Susie in Key West.'"

"The name dropping is when Susie is Bill Gates, and that's the first thing that comes up in a conversation," he said. "You're doing this as a way to manipulate people."

Name dropping can become especially problematic when the name dropper lies or embellishes his experience. After all, these days, verifying a name dropper's story can be as simple as a Google search.

Perhaps the most extreme and horrifying example is the man best known as Clark Rockefeller, supposedly an heir to the iconic family fortune, who kidnapped his daughter in a custody battle, and eventually was convicted in the grisly murder of an acquaintance years earlier.

In fact, Rockefeller was German immigrant Christian Gerhartsreiter, a serial imposter who moved up the social strata for decades using at least five fake identities and lots of name dropping. In Gerhartsreiter's case, not only was he dropping famous names — from members of English nobility, to director Alfred Hitchcock, to the Rockefeller family — but he was falsely inserting himself into their stories. And he appeared to show little regard for anyone but himself.

"Clark Rockefeller was able to carry on different personas. And along the way, he just kept upgrading his name," retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Delores Scott told "Deadly Rich." "He was a chameleon. He was all over the United States taking on different personas, fooling different people."

The scheme turned deadly with the murder of Jonathan Sohus, whom investigators believe may have simply gotten in the way of Gerhartsreiter's grandiose plans. Sohus' remains were eventually found buried beneath a house where Gerhartsreiter was staying. Sohus' wife, Linda, had disappeared at the same time. Her whereabouts are unknown.