4 - (SYM 25) the Effect of Narcissism on the Socio-emotional Processes in Daily Life

Research has found that narcissism is associated with greater antagonistic or hostile behavior in response to perceived status threats. However, much of this research is limited to laboratory studies that are either imaginal, lack ecological validity, or are ambiguous about the features the individual is responding to. Wright and colleagues (2017 - Journal of Abnormal Psychology) addressed these issues by testing the effect of narcissism on links between, perception, emotions, and behavior in social interactions in daily life. Results showed that individuals high in narcissism were more likely to respond to perceptions of dominance with hostility in social situations, and that this association could be accounted for by the higher increase in negative emotions in response to others’ dominance. However, Wright and colleagues relied on legacy DSM features and not contemporary models of narcissism, which typically differentiate between grandiosity and vulnerability. Additionally, it was only one sample, and these findings bear replication. In this project, we replicate and extend the prior study by using modern measures of narcissism in 3 samples of clinical, community, and student participants. Participants reported on their social interactions of 5 minutes or longer over the course of 1-3 weeks. We then tested whether narcissistic grandiosity or vulnerability amplified the links between perceptions of other’s dominance, negative affect, and hostile behavior. Results generally supported the role of vulnerability in amplifying the links between perceptions of dominance and hostility. These findings support the contention that hostile behavior in individuals high in narcissism reflects an effort to regulate themselves and their emotions following a perceived challenge to their status. The findings also point to clear areas of intervention in disrupting the perception to emotion link as opposed to the emotion to behavior link among those high in narcissism.