How do narcissists get what they want from their romantic partners? The connections that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry have with influence strategies

Abstract

Narcissism is often associated with interpersonal difficulties. The purpose of the present studies was to examine the connections between narcissistic personality features and the strategies that individuals use to influence their romantic partners. More specifically, we were interested in the possibility that narcissistic admiration (an agentic form of narcissism) and narcissistic rivalry (an antagonistic form of narcissism) may have divergent associations with influence strategies. Study 1 examined basic associations that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had with the use of influence strategies in a sample of 351 undergraduates. Study 2 sought to replicate the results of Study 1 in a more diverse sample of 302 community members. Study 3 examined the associations that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had with influence strategies for both members of 77 romantic dyads. The results of these studies indicate that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry often had similar positive associations with manipulation, whereas narcissistic rivalry also had positive associations with supplication, bullying, autocracy, and disengagement as well as a negative association with bargaining. Discussion will focus on the implications of these results for understanding the connections that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry have with romantic relationship functioning.