Grandiosity, vulnerability, and narcissistic fluctuation: Examining reliability, measurement invariance, and construct validity of four brief narcissism measures

Decoding the Narcissistic Brain

There is a substantial knowledge gap in the narcissism literature: Less than 1% of the nearly 12,000 articles on narcissism have addressed its neural basis. To help fill this gap, we asked whether the multifacetedness of narcissism could be decoded from spontaneous neural oscillations. We attempted to do so by applying a machine learning approach (multivariate pattern analysis) to the resting-state EEG data of 162 participants who also completed a comprehensive battery of narcissism scales assessing agentic, admirative, rivalrous, communal, and vulnerable forms. Consistent with the agency-communion model of narcissism, agentic and communal forms of grandiose narcissism were reflected in distinct, non-overlapping patterns of spontaneous neural oscillations. Furthermore, consistent with a narcissistic admiration and rivalry concept model of narcissism, we observed largely non-overlapping patterns of spontaneous neural oscillations for admirative and rivalrous forms of narcissism. Vulnerable narcissism was negatively associated with power across fast and slow wave frequency bands. Taken together, the results suggest that the diverse forms of narcissism can be reliably predicted from spontaneous neural oscillations. The findings contribute to the burgeoning field of personality neuroscience.

'Wired up about self' - narcissistic traits predict elevated physiological arousal during self-disclosure in conversation

Individuals vary in their self-disclosure motivations and physiological responses. It is unclear, however, whether the content of a person's self-view accounts for this variation. In this paper we explore the impact of self-disclosure on autonomic nervous system activity in participants with high and low levels of grandiose narcissistic traits. Three conversational experiments were conducted to simulate different contexts of self-disclosure: getting acquainted (Experiment 1), talking about emotional life experiences (Experiment 2), and telling emotional stories with varying self-relevance (Experiment 3). The experiments were conducted on the same sample of 22 dyads (n = 44) measured in a single session. While Experiment 1 did not confirm the anticipated heightened sympathetic arousal in participants with high grandiose narcissism (N+), Experiment 2, focusing on telling about positive and negative life experiences, supported the hypothesis of increased skin conductance among the N+ individuals. Experiment 3, with more specific topics that varied in self-relevance, further supported the notion that narcissism is associated with elevated physiological arousal during self-disclosure. Notably, the skin conductance of the N+ individuals was particularly heightened when telling about being admired by others. Exploratory analyses showed that tellers' (whether N+ or N-) skin conductance was even more pronounced when they were discussing with an N+ co-participant.

The Dynamics of Narcissus: Exploring the Covariation of Narcissistic States in Daily Life

Advanced empirical research and clinical theory suggest that narcissistic personality states fluctuate over time. However, these fluctuations are poorly understood. To address this, we recruited 88 undergraduates to complete baseline measures and respond to smartphone prompts assessing narcissistic states and emotions in daily life seven times a day for 10 days. Narcissistic states were assessed using a state-adapted version of the Super Brief Pathological Narcissism Inventory (SB-PNI). Findings showed that within-person covariation of narcissistic states ranged from -.55 to .52 and was negatively associated with trait grandiosity, guilt, and mood activation. In addition, there was a significant quadratic relationship between narcissistic covariation and trait vulnerability and between narcissistic covariation and mean state vulnerability, self-esteem, pleasant and activated mood, and shame across 10 days. These findings suggest a potential state-based dynamic taxonomy of narcissistic presentations and highlight the importance of understanding distinctions between co-occurring, contrasting, and dissociated narcissistic states.

Putting self at stake by telling a story: Storyteller's narcissistic traits modulate physiological emotional reactions to recipient's disengagement

Telling a story to a disengaged recipient induces stress and threatens positive self-image. In this study, we investigated whether storytellers with overly positive and fragile self-images (e.g., individuals with grandiose and vulnerable narcissism) would show heightened behavioral, emotional, and psychophysiological reactivity to recipient disengagement.Building on Bavelas, Coates, and Johnson [1] we conducted a conversational experiment instructing the participants to tell about a "close call" experience to a previously unknown co-participant. We modified the co-participant's level of interactional engagement by asking them either to listen to the story carefully or to simultaneously carry out a counting task that distracted them from the content of the story. We found that the distraction condition was unrelated to the storytellers' narration performance, but a significant positive association was found between the story-recipients' observed lack of affiliation and the tellers' narration performance. The distraction of recipients was also associated with increased self-reported arousal in the tellers, indicating disengagement-induced stress in the tellers. Moreover, tellers higher in grandiose narcissism reacted with higher skin conductance response to disengagement, and vulnerable narcissism was associated with higher heart rate during narration in general. Our experiment thus showed that grandiose narcissists are emotionally sensitive to their co-participants' disengagement.

Shame in social interaction: Descriptions of experiences of shame by participants with high or low levels of narcissistic traits

In this study, we investigate how personal experiences about shameful events are described in face-to-face social interaction, and how these stories differ between participants who have either high or low levels of narcissistic personality traits. The dataset consists of 22 dyadic conversations where the participants describe events where they felt ashamed of themselves. We found the narratives to vary in terms of five dimensions. With narcissistic individuals, the default narrative tended to exhibit a cluster of characteristics that gather at one end of these dimensions: (1) weak expressions of shame; (2) located in the story-world; (3) low level of reflexivity as well as; (4) responsibility of the described event; and (5) a general level of description. We discuss the findings in relation to sociological and psychological theories of shame and suggest that individuals with narcissistic personality traits are more inclined to use suppressive conversational practices in their treatment of shame, thus providing a "window" to these interactional practices.

Chairman Narcissism and Social Responsibility Choices: The Moderating Role of Analyst Coverage

Chairman narcissism has received extensive attention in social psychology and organizational behavior, but the relationship between chairman narcissism and social responsibility has not yet received much attention. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of chairman narcissism on various dimensions of CSR and the moderating roles of analyst coverages. Based on upper echelons theory and stakeholder theory, we distinguished internal corporate social responsibility (internal CSR) and external corporate social responsibility (external CSR) according to whether there was a formal contractual relationship. This study used a narcissism index of chairmen of Chinese listed companies to examine the relationship between chairman narcissism and internal CSR, external CSR, and the data were analyzed using Stata16.0. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between chairman narcissism and external CSR, and there was a negative correlation between chairman narcissism and internal CSR. That is, the higher the Chairman’s narcissism degree is, the more external CSR and less internal CSR the firm makes. Further research showed that analyst coverage has weakened the impact of chairman narcissism on internal and external CSR. This paper enriches and expands the research on chairman narcissism and CSR and provides new ideas for selecting corporate managers and improving corporate governance.