Affective contingencies of narcissism.

Abstract

Several theories propose that narcissism is rooted in affective contingencies. Given narcissists’ focus on power, these contingencies should be strong in the power domain but not in the affiliation domain. We systematically investigated narcissists’ contingencies and explored whether these contingencies might link narcissism to social behavior. In a multimethod longitudinal study, we assessed unidimensional narcissism levels as well as two main narcissistic strategies: Admiration and rivalry. We measured 209 participants’ affective contingencies (i.e., affective responses to satisfying and frustrating experiences of power and affiliation) via self-reports (n = 207) and facial electromyography (fEMG, n = 201). In a 1-year follow-up, we observed participants’ power- and affiliation-related behaviors in the laboratory (valid n = 123). Results indicated that narcissism was linked to increased affective reactivity to power, and this pattern was present for both admiration and rivalry. Narcissism was unrelated to affective reactivity to affiliation, with an important exception: Individuals with higher levels of narcissistic rivalry exhibited decreased reactivity toward satisfactions and increased reactivity toward frustrations of affiliation. Results were more robust for self-reported than for fEMG-indexed reactivity. Although overall narcissism and narcissistic admiration were related to power-related behaviors 1 year later, affective contingencies did not generally account for these links. These findings inform why narcissists have a relatively strong power motive and why some narcissists high in rivalry have a relatively weak affiliation motive. More broadly, these findings provide insight into the affective contingencies underlying personality traits and call for research on the contexts in which these contingencies guide behavior.

Motive-Specific Affective Contingencies and Their Relevance for Personality and Motivated Behavior

“…Narcissistic rivalry and vulnerable narcissism were, in contrast, negatively related to affiliation-specific PACs, yet this pattern was only present for the PAC Rat scale. The findings thus indicate that grandiose narcissists’ pronounced tendency to seek power and their attenuated need for affiliation, which are well documented in the literature, might indeed go back to characteristic underlying motive-specific PACs (Grapsas et al, 2020, 2022). They also provide a first insight into the affective contingencies of vulnerable narcissism—namely, that vulnerable narcissists are characterized by attenuated affiliation-specific PACs—which could partly explain vulnerable narcissists’ tendency toward social isolation (Rogoza et al, 2021).…”

“…The model thus suggests that narcissistic admiration should go along with pronounced power-specific PACs and that narcissistic rivalry should be linked with attenuated affiliation-specific PACs. In partial support of these assumptions, Grapsas et al (2022) assessed motive-specific PACs via selfreports and experimental (EMG) assessments and found that narcissistic admiration and rivalry were both positively linked to self-reported power-specific PACs. The evidence based on the PAC EMG assessments did not uniformly support the predictions.…”

Narcissistic Status Pursuit in Everyday Social Life: A Within-Person Process Approach to the Behavioral and Emotional Dynamics of Narcissism

“…In a rigged video-game tournament, individuals with high narcissism tended to display more status-enhancing behaviors (rank buying) in response to victories and more combative behaviors (point stealing) in response to defeat (Szücs et al, 2022). On an emotional level, more narcissistic individuals displayed greater increases in positive affect after status satisfaction and greater increases in negative affect after status frustration (Grapsas et al, 2021(Grapsas et al, , 2022.…”

Narcissistic status pursuit in everyday social life: A within-person process approach to the behavioral and emotional dynamics of narcissism.

“…In a rigged video-game tournament, individuals with high narcissism tended to display more status-enhancing behaviors (rank buying) in response to victories and more combative behaviors (point stealing) in response to defeat (Szücs et al, 2022). On an emotional level, more narcissistic individuals displayed greater increases in positive affect after status satisfaction and greater increases in negative affect after status frustration (Grapsas et al, 2021, 2022).…”