MENSO - Moderators of the Effects of Narcissism on Social Outcomes

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Dufner
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 380954476

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

This research program aimed at a better understanding of the intrapersonal and social consequences of narcissism. It did so by focusing on certain potentially moderating factors that might play a role in this context. We considered two classes of such moderating factors, narcissists’ objective qualities (Subproject 1) and situational factors (Subproject 2). In Subproject I we tested the hypothesis that narcissists’ success in attaining desired social outcomes depends on whether or not they possess objective qualities that are beneficial for reaching these outcomes. In particular, in three studies we examined whether narcissists succeed in attaining wealth if they are intelligent, in gaining social influence if they possess socioemotional abilities and in attracting mates if they are physically attractive. The results of our analyses indicated that the narcissistic need for admiration is especially strongly positively linked to income and occupational prestige if verbal intelligence is also high. Thus, the combination of high narcissism and a high verbal IQ seems to be particularly beneficial in work settings. In Subproject II, which dealt with the moderating role of situational factors, we investigated competitive intergroup settings and tested whether narcissists are evaluated more positively by members of their ingroup than by members of a competing outgroup. We conducted a large pre-registered round robin study and found that this was not the case. We also used the data to comprehensively analyze attributions in this setting and found that persons high on the narcissistic need for admiration exhibited various forms of self-serving attributions. Finally, we tested the associations between narcissism and prosociality in six studies. The results of these studies indicate that narcissists’ self-reported and objectively observed prosocial behavior often diverge. Taken together, these results shed new light on the intra- and interpersonal dynamics associated with trait narcissism.

Publications

• Narzisstisch und attraktiv, die unschlagbare Kombi beim Dating? [Poster Presentation]. Quantel Social Sciene Poster Night. Leipzig, Germany, November 8 th, 2018.
  Kraft, L. & Dufner, M.
  
• Can other-derogation be beneficial? Seeing others as low in agency can lead to an agentic reputation in newly formed face-to-face groups.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(1), 201-227.
  Rau, Richard; Nestler, Steffen; Geukes, Katharina; Back, Mitja D. & Dufner, Michael
  
• Narcissistic and attractive, the unbeatable combination for dating [Poster Presentation]. 15th convention oft the Fachgruppe Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Psychologische Diagnostik, September 16.–18.09.2019, Dresden, Germany.
  Kraft, L., Geukes, K., Back, M. & Dufner, M.
  
• Personality and Friendships. Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 1-9. Springer International Publishing.
  Doroszuk, Marta; Kupis, Marta & Czarna, Anna Z.
  
• Reducing the Overlap Between Machiavellianism and Subclinical Psychopathy: The M7 and P7 Scales. Collabra: Psychology, 6(1).
  Grosz, Michael P.; Harms, Peter D.; Dufner, Michael; Kraft, Livia & Wetzel, Eunike
  
• Communal narcissism and beliefs about obedience levels in Milgram-paradigm study [Poster Presentation]. ECP, 12-15.07, Madrid, Spain. (2022)
  Zdunek, R. & Czarna, A. Z.
  
• Grandiose narcissism predicts intact signal but increased noise detection in emotion recognition. Poster at The Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, 16-19.02, San Francisco, CA, USA. (2022)
  Czarna, A.Z., Mauersberger, H., Zdunek, R., Kastendieck, T., Sedikides, C. & Hess, U.
  
• Higher heart rate variability predicts better affective interaction quality in non‐intimate social interactions. Psychophysiology, 59(11).
  Mauersberger, Heidi; Tune, Jennifer L.; Kastendieck, Till; Czarna, Anna Z. & Hess, Ursula
  
• I feel positive and you feel negative: Grandiose and vulnerable narcissists experience different types of emotions during social interactions [Talk]. ECP, 12-15.07, Madrid, Spain. (2022)
  Mauersberger, H., Czarna, A.Z., Kastendieck, T. & Hess, U.
  
• Motive-spezifische affektive Kontingenzen und deren Relevanz für Persönlichkeit und motiviertes Verhalten [Presentation]. 52th convention of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, September 10.-15.09.2022, Hildesheim, Germany.
  Dufner, M., Wieg, F., Kraft, L., Grapsas, S. & Hagemeyer B.
  
• Narcissism and emotion recognition: Agentic and communal narcissism predict noise, but not signal perception [Poster Presentation]. Annual Convention of APA, 26-29.05, Chicago, IL, USA. (2022)
  Zdunek, R.R., Czarna, A.Z., Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., Sedikides, C.C. & Hess, U.
  
• Narcissism and partner enhancement at different relationship stages [Poster Presentation]. European Congress of Personality (ECP), 12-15.07 Madrid, Spain. (2022)
  Czarna, A.Z., Śmieja, M. , Dufner, M. & Sedikides, C.
  
• Narcissism and partner-enhancement at different relationship stages. Journal of Research in Personality, 98, 104212.
  Czarna, Anna Z.; Śmieja, Magdalena; Wider, Maria; Dufner, Michael & Sedikides, Constantine
  
• Narcissism and partner-enhancement at different relationship stages. Poster at Annual Convention of Association of Psychological Science (APA), 26-29.05, Chicago, IL, USA. (2022)
  Czarna, A.Z., Śmieja, M., Dufner, M. & Sedikides, C.C.
  
• Narcissism and partner-enhancement at different relationship stages. Talk at the Between Narcissism and Entitlement: Self-Enhancement in Cross-Cultural Perspective Conference, 12-14.05, Warszawa.
  Czarna, A.Z.; Śmieja, M.; Dufner, M. & Sedikides, C.C.
  
• Narcissism moderates the association between basal testosterone and generosity in men. Hormones and Behavior, 146, 105265.
  Czarna, Anna Z.; Ziemiańska, Magdalena; Pawlicki, Piotr; Carré, Justin M. & Sedikides, Constantine
  
• Narcyzm a rozpoznawanie emocji: Sprawczy i wspólnotowy narcyzm jako predyktory percepcji szumu, lecz nie detekcji sygnału [Narcissism and emotion recognition: Agentic and communal narcissism as predictors of noise perception but not sgnal detection; Talk]. 17. Convention of Polish Social Psychology Society, 15-18.09, Gdańsk, Poland. (2022)
  Czarna, A.Z., Mauersberger, H., Zdunek, R., Kastendieck, T., Sedikides, C. & Hess, U.
  
• Affective contingencies and their relevance for motivation [Guest post]. The blog of the European Journal of Personality. (2023)
  Dufner, M.
  
• An EMG-based approach toward the assessment of implicit self-esteem. Acta Psychologica, 234, 103868.
  Schliebener, Melanie; Kraft, Livia & Dufner, Michael
  
• Motive-Specific Affective Contingencies and Their Relevance for Personality and Motivated Behavior [Presentation]. ECP, 12-15.07, Madrid, Spain.
  Dufner, Michael; Wieg, Franziska; Kraft, Livia; Grapsas, Stathis & Hagemeyer, Birk
  
• Motive-Specific Affective Contingencies and Their Relevance for Personality and Motivated Behavior. European Journal of Personality, 38(2), 225-240.
  Dufner, Michael; Wieg, Franziska; Kraft, Livia; Grapsas, Stathis & Hagemeyer, Birk
  
• Unser Narzisst versus euer Narzisst: Wie werden narzisstische Personen aus der Perspektive der Eigengruppe und aus der Perspektive einer konkurrierenden Fremdgruppe bewertet? [Presentation]. 16th convention of the Fachgruppe Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Psychologische Diagnostik, September 24.– 27.09.2023, Salzburg, Austria. (2023)
  Dufner, M., Zimmermann, Kraft, L., Czarna, A.Z., Sekerdej, M. & Schmukle, S.C.
  
• Wer bekommt die Anerkennung für den Erfolg und die Schuld für das Scheitern? Über die Zusammenhänge zwischen Narzissmus und Attribtionen in einem kompetitiven Intergruppen-Setting [Presentation]. 16th convention of the Fachgruppe Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Psychologische Diagnostik, September 24.–27.09.2023, Salzburg, Austria.
  Kraft, L., Zimmermann, J., Schmukle, S.C., Czarna, A.Z., Sekerdej, M. & Dufner, M.
  
• Who Gets the Credit for Success and the Blame for Failure? On the Links Between Narcissism and Self- and Group-Serving Biases. European Journal of Personality, 38(3), 476-493.
  Kraft, Livia; Zimmermann, Johannes; Schmukle, Stefan C.; Czarna, Anna Z.; Sekerdej, Maciej & Dufner, Michael
  
• Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions, 1197-1217. Oxford University Press.
  Z., Czarna Anna; Wróbel, Monika; F., Folger Logan; Holtzman, Nicholas S.; Daley, Jennifer R. & D., Foster Joshua
  
• Our versus their narcissist: Are narcissistic persons more popular in their ingroup than in a competing outgroup?. Personality Science, 5.
  Dufner, Michael; Zimmermann, Johannes; Kraft, Livia; Czarna, Anna Z.; Maciej, Sekerdej & Schmukle, Stefan C.