Can self-affirmation reduce narcissistic hypervigilance to self-threat?

Abstract

Previous research has shown that narcissists demonstrate hypervigilance to self-threatening words. This research experimentally investigated whether a self-affirmation intervention, designed to reduce the psychological impact of self-threat, moderated this hypervigilance in grandiose or vulnerable narcissists. Participants (N = 188) were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group and asked to complete an implicit self-affirmation procedure, a computer-based lexical decision task, and measures of narcissism and of self-esteem. Results showed self-affirmation (1) caused a delay in the onset of hypervigilance to self-threatening words in participants with grandiose narcissism, and (2) revealed a novel finding: hypovigilance (i.e., reduced sensitivity/reactivity) to self-threatening words among participants with vulnerable narcissism. Self-affirmation (3) strengthened positive associations between self-esteem and grandiose narcissism and (4) reduced negative associations between self-esteem and vulnerable narcissism. The results show that self-affirmation moderates hypervigilance to self-threat in both grandiose and vulnerable narcissists, but in different ways.