What's in a blush? Physiological blushing reveals narcissistic children's social‐evaluative concerns

Abstract

Physiological responses can reveal emotional states that individuals are unwilling to admit to others. Here, we studied what blushing reveals about the emotional states of narcissistic children. Narcissistic children (i.e., those high on the personality trait of narcissism) have a pervasive sense of grandiosity. We theorized that narcissistic children are so invested in their sense of grandiosity that even modest praise can make them feel depreciated. Because narcissistic children may not admit this feeling to others, we measured their physiological blushing: an involuntary reddening of the face that occurs when individuals anticipate being depreciated. Unlike other emotional expressions, blushing cannot be faked. Children (N = 105, ages 7-12) completed the Childhood Narcissism Scale and were then invited to sing a song on stage. They were randomly assigned to receive inflated praise (e.g., "You sang incredibly well!"), modest praise ("You sang well!"), or no praise for their performance. Blushing was recorded using photoplethysmography and temperature sensing. Afterward, children were asked how much they thought they had blushed. As predicted, narcissistic children-unlike nonnarcissistic children-blushed when they received modest praise, not when they received inflated praise. Specifically, they showed increased blood volume pulse (i.e., fast changes in blood volume with each heartbeat). Strikingly, when asked, narcissistic children denied blushing, perhaps to hide their vulnerabilities. Thus, blushing revealed social-evaluative concerns that narcissistic children wished to keep private.

The “Why” and “How” of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit

“…Indeed, frustration of status motivation tends to elicit shame (Shariff, Tracy, & Markusoff, 2012) and anger (Berkowitz, 1989). When narcissists are rejected by popular others, fail in the eyes of others, or do not receive the praise they expect, they might feel embarrassed or ashamed (Brummelman, Nikolić, & Bögels, 2018). In response, narcissists might turn the feeling of shame into anger (Thomaes, Stegge, Olthof, Bushman, & Nezlek, 2011), a phenomenon described as "humiliated fury" (Lewis, 1971) or "narcissistic rage" (Kohut, 1971).…”

Affective contingencies of narcissism.

“…AFFECTIVE CONTINGENCIES OF NARCISSISM revealed, for example, that narcissists tend to show increased stress when under social evaluation (Brummelman, Nikolić, et al, 2018;Reinhard et al, 2012); are prone to experiencing shame, anger, and aggression in the face of failure (Denissen et al, 2018;Kjaervik & Bushman, 2021;-but see Kirkpatrick et al, 2002; and show bouts of vulnerability (Edershile & Wright, 2020) and fluctuations in self-esteem based on the power they have in their daily lives (Geukes, Nestler, et al, 2017;. Our findings suggest that narcissists' affect might oscillate depending on which of their social motives becomes satisfied or frustrated.…”

Raising Children With High Self‐Esteem (But Not Narcissism)

“…According to attribution theory, narcissistic children are inclined to make stable and global self-attributions of both successes and failures, causing them to oscillate between hubris and shame (Lewis, 1992;Tracy et al, 2009). For example, when narcissistic children receive negative feedback, they feel disappointed in themselves and may even blush-a hallmark of shame (Brummelman, Nikoli c, & B€ ogels, 2018). In response to shame, narcissistic children may lash out angrily or aggressively (Donnellan et al, 2005).…”