Abstract
We examined the association between two types of narcissism, grandiose and vulnerable, and self-reported as well as ability emotional intelligence (EI). Grandiose narcissism is characterized by high self–esteem, interpersonal dominance and a tendency to overestimate one’s capabilities, whereas vulnerable narcissism presents defensive, avoidant and hypersensitive attitude in interpersonal relations. In the current study (n = 249) we found that vulnerable narcissism was significantly and negatively associated with trait (self-reported) EI; however, it did not correlate with ability (performance) EI. Grandiose narcissism was significantly positively connected with trait EI. Moreover, when the two EI scores were analyzed together in a single model, they were associated with grandiose narcissism in opposite directions. Specifically, trait EI showed a positive relation with grandiose narcissism, while ability EI negatively predicted this type of narcissism. The latter results are consistent with previous findings showing that individuals with high level of grandiose narcissism tend to overestimate their abilities. Vulnerable narcissism is probably connected with more realistic self-perception of emotional abilities.
Highlights
Nowadays, an increasing tendency to describe narcissism as a non–clinical personality trait is being observed among psychologists (e.g., Paulhus and Williams, 2002)
Neither grandiose (−0.11, p = 0.077) nor vulnerable narcissism (−0.12, p = 0.068) were significantly related to the general score of the ability emotional intelligence (EI); they did correlate with the TIE subscales
We examined the relationship between narcissism and EI
Summary
An increasing tendency to describe narcissism as a non–clinical personality trait is being observed among psychologists (e.g., Paulhus and Williams, 2002). Several studies explored the relationship between narcissism and constructs related to emotional functioning, such as empathy and emotional intelligence (EI). In some cases narcissism was positively associated with EI (Petrides et al, 2011; Veselka et al, 2012; Nagler et al, 2014; Zhang et al, 2015), while in other studies this relationship was close to zero or even negative (Vonk et al, 2013; Austin et al, 2014; Czarna et al, 2016; Jauk et al, 2016). A careful analysis of prior work presented below reveals that the ambiguous findings might be related to the fact that both
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