Grandiose Exhibitionism Research Articles

The Dark Five: A reconsideration of the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4)

The measurement of ‘dark’ personality traits has been shown to be susceptible to error. In particular, the Dark Tetrad is theorized to fit poorly to the 4-factor structure within the SD4 (Paulhus et al., 2021). The present study examined the structural validity of the SD4 by using a dataset of internet users (n = 604). A robust approach to confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the 4-factor model proposed by Paulhus et al. (2021) did not appropriately reflect the data. Alternatively, an exploratory 5-factor model (The Dark Five; including coalition-building, grandiose exhibitionism, psychopathy, violent voyeurism, and indirect sadism) resulted in better statistical fit than the 4-factor model. Moreover, the Dark Five allowed the successful discrimination of psychopathy and sadism and explained more variance in attachment orientation than had the 4-factor model. Future research using the SD4 to measure ‘dark’ personalities or to explore differences between psychopathy and sadism may therefore benefit by testing the 5-factor model or opting for a different measure of the Dark Tetrad.

Neural rhythms of narcissism: Facets of narcissism are associated with different neural sources in resting-state EEG.

Trait narcissism is characterized by significant heterogeneity across individuals. Despite advances in the conceptualization of narcissism, including the increasing recognition that narcissism is a multidimensional construct, the sources of this heterogeneity remain poorly understood. Here, we used a neural trait approach to help better understand "how," and shed light on "why," individuals vary in facets of trait narcissism. Participants (N= 58) first completed personality measures, including the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), and then in a second session sat passively while resting-state electroencephalography (rs-EEG) was recorded. We then regressed source-localized rs-EEG activity on the distinct facets of narcissism: Grandiose Exhibitionism (GE), Entitlement/Exploitativeness (EE), and Leadership/Authority (LA). Results revealed that each facet was associated with different (though sometimes overlapping) neural sources. Specifically, GE was associated with reduced activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC). EE was associated with reduced activation in the DMPFC and right lateral PFC. LA was associated with increased activation in the left anterior temporal cortex. These findings support the idea that trait narcissism is a multidimensional construct undergirded by individual differences in neural regions related to social cognition (the DMPFC), self-regulation (right lateral PFC), and self-referential processing (left anterior temporal cortex).

Are individualistic societies really more narcissistic than collectivistic ones? A five-world region cross-cultural re-examination of narcissism and its facets

People from societies with increased individualism are assumed to be more narcissistic, yet previous research has produced highly contradictory results. Using a large international convenience sample (N = 2754) of English-speaking adults and taking measurement invariance into account, we examined latent mean differences in the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and its facets across five different world regions. Results revealed that two out of three NPI facets, Leadership/Authority and Grandiose Exhibitionism, were invariant across cultures (while Entitlement/Exploitativeness was not). Crucially, we found that individuals from more collectivistic cultures (i.e., Asia and Africa) reported higher levels in these facets than individuals from more individualistic cultures (i.e., USA, Europe, and Australia/Oceania). Together, results challenge the common view that narcissism is a central feature of Western societies.

The narcissism network and centrality of narcissism features

The aim of this research was to explore the underlying structural organization and centrality of narcissism features by using network analysis. The research was conducted on a sample from the general population using subscales of four narcissism instruments (Narcissism Personality Inventory, Grandiose Narcissism Scale, Pathological Narcissism Inventory, Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory Short Form). The results revealed detection of four communities, one of which was interpreted as vulnerable narcissism, while the remaining three were interpreted as aspects of grandiose narcissism (grandiose exhibitionism, narcissistic antagonism, and authority). The results suggested that although features of grandiose narcissism (grandiose exhibitionism and leadership/authority) show consistent higher strength centrality across networks, entitlement/exploitativeness, followed by grandiose fantasy, has a central role in bringing together maladaptive grandiose and vulnerable aspects of narcissism. In addition, leadership/authority brings together various aspects of grandiose narcissism. The results support the role of entitlement features as the core of narcissism.

Is Narcissism a Slow Life History Strategy Indicator?: The Answer Depends on the LHS Instrument.

The dark triad (DT) traits are differentially related to psychometrically assessed life history strategy (LHS), such that psychopathy is strongly associated with a faster LHS, whereas narcissism appears to be, if anything, a slow LHS indicator. However, the research supporting these generalizations has been based largely on undergraduate samples in which LHS has been measured using the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB; or its short version the Mini-K), an instrument that arguably lacks adequate coverage of low-extroversion content linked to a slower LHS. In this study, 929 U.S. MTurk workers completed a set of DT instruments, a 10-item Big Five Inventory, a 42-item version of the ALHB (K-SF-42), and the life history rating form (LHRF), which is less weighted toward high extroversion content than the ALHB. Factor analysis of the DT instruments yielded factors corresponding to callousness, secondary psychopathy, and socially adaptive narcissism (leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism). Callousness and secondary psychopathy were fast LHS indicators with respect to both LHS instruments. Socially adaptive narcissism appeared as a slow LHS indicator with respect to the K-SF-42 but as a fast LHS indicator with respect to the LHRF. Variation in extroversion accounted entirely for the K-SF-42's positive association with socially adaptive narcissism. This study suggests that narcissism's apparent status as a slow LHS indicator may be more a matter of measurement than of substance.

Narcissistic grandiosity and risky health behaviors in college students

Objective This study explored associations between narcissistic grandiosity (including its component traits) and reported risky health behaviors in college students. Participants: College men and women (N = 122) participated between December 2015 and January 2016. Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of grandiosity, alcohol consumption, number of sex partners, and condom use. Results: Grandiosity was positively associated with alcohol consumption. Gender interacted with grandiose traits, driving associations with reported sexual behaviors. College men high in entitlement/exploitativeness reported more sex partners. Grandiose exhibitionism was associated with condom use among women but not men, such that college women higher in grandiose exhibitionism were more likely to report not using a condom with their most recent partner. Conclusions: Grandiosity (and grandiose traits) may influence health behavior and/or the reporting of health behavior in college students, but associations may differ for men and women.

Exploring anger as a moderator of narcissism and antisocial behaviour on tinder

In an attempt to address inconsistency in the literature regarding narcissism and online antisocial behaviour, we applied the theory of threatened egotism and aggression to examine whether anger moderates the relationship between narcissism and antisocial behaviour on Tinder. Specifically, we explored anger moderating the relationship between narcissistic subtypes of Grandiose Exhibitionism and Entitlement Exploitative and perpetration of antisocial behaviour (aggression and harassment) on Tinder. Tinder users (N = 1,001; 46.3% men and 53.7% women) with an average age of 22.42 years (SD = 4.31) completed an anonymous online questionnaire. Anger was a significant moderator of all relationships between narcissism and antisocial behaviour. Specifically, at average and high levels of anger there were positive, significant relationships between both facets of narcissism, and aggression and harassment on Tinder. These results indicate that trait narcissism alone may not explain perpetration of antisocial behaviour on Tinder, and to adequately explore this relationship future research should consider the role of threatened egotism.

Career success in the University setting: Examining the role of narcissism facets

The purpose of this research is to examine the association of narcissism facets with subjective and objective career success, as well as the impact of the professional field. Data from 282 employees of a German university – both scientists and administrative staff – who completed an online survey were analysed. Results showed a significant negative relationship between vulnerable narcissism and career success. The associations of the grandiose narcissism subfacets: grandiose exhibitionism and entitlement/exploitativeness, as well as vulnerable narcissism with subjective career success were affected by professional field. However, leadership/authority, the remaining subfacet of grandiose narcissism, was not associated with career success.

Born to be successful: Start-up patenting activity determinants

Patenting is fundamental to start-up survival and growth. Research indicates that patenting enables start-ups to protect their ideas from competitors, profit from their inventions, and signal their value to stakeholders. Drawing on the resource-based theory, the paper shows that start-ups' patenting activity is related to both external and internal conditions. Relying on a sample consisting of 195 start-ups, located in Italy and France, the market scenario, that is, market dynamism and concentration, is found to affect start-ups' patenting activity. Also, the paper shows that start-ups' age is negatively related to patenting, and that entrepreneur narcissism has different impacts based on its prevailing characteristics: entitlement/exploitativeness is positively related to patenting, grandiose exhibitionism is negatively related to it, while leadership/authority shows no connection with this activity.

IPhone as a proxy indicator of adaptive narcissism: An empirical investigation

AbstractIn a consumeristic society, brands have become a signal to the identity and personality of the users. Apple Incorporate has been one of the most successful marketers, of modern times, with its iconic range of “i” devices that have a cult‐like following. The growth of “individualistic” society has also been credited with, as an important reason, for the success of the brand. Societies and people high in terms of individualism also tend to be more narcissistic. This study is an attempt to ascertain whether the use of the Apple iPhone is an indication of Narcissism. The results indicate an overall higher narcissistic score among users and aspirers of iPhone. However, iPhone users exhibit higher scores only in adaptive narcissism—indicative of leadership and authority and not in maladaptive narcissism—indicative of Entitlement Exploitativeness and Grandiose Exhibitionism; in comparison to nonusers. The results of the study have various managerial implications that may range from personality assessment to designing marketing messages and improving employee leadership and authority.

Grandiosity on display: Social media behaviors and dimensions of narcissism

This study examined the relationship between dimensions of narcissism and selfie posting/sending frequency and other self-promoting behaviors on social media. Participants (N = 124) completed an online survey of narcissistic traits and social media use. Global narcissism was significantly correlated with numerous social media behaviors, including frequency of selfie posting, perceived attractiveness of selfies, tag/comment/like behaviors, as well as variables specific to individual social media platforms. Among narcissism dimensions, Grandiose Exhibitionism exhibited the most consistent association with social media behaviors. The Leadership/Authority dimension generally demonstrated the weakest correlations with selfie posting/sending frequency and other social media behaviors. Additionally, PROCESS analyses revealed that traits reflecting global narcissism, Grandiose Exhibitionism, and Entitlement/Exploitativeness were associated with selfie posting/sending frequency through a motivation for others to show interest and admiration. Implications for this research and future directions are discussed.

Cross-cultural invariance of NPI-13: Entitlement as culturally specific, leadership and grandiosity as culturally universal.

The current study explores the problem with the lack of measurement invariance for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) by addressing two issues: conceptual heterogeneity of narcissism and methodological issues related to the binary character of data. We examine the measurement invariance of the 13-item version of the NPI in three populations in Japan, Poland and the UK. Analyses revealed that leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism dimensions of the NPI were cross-culturally invariant, while entitlement/exploitativeness was culturally specific. Therefore, we proposed NPI-9 as indicating scalar invariance, and we examined the pattern of correlations between NPI-9 and other variables across three countries. The results suggest that NPI-9 is valid brief scale measuring general levels of narcissism in cross-cultural studies, while the NPI-13 remains suitable for research within specific countries.

THE ROLE OF NARCISSISM FACETS AS PREDICTORS OF FACEBOOK ADDICTION AMONG MILLENNIALS

The use of social networking sites (SNS) particularly Facebook has increased exponentially over the past few years. Majority of Facebook users consists of the younger generation which is the Millennials. This generation has been constantly branded as ‘Generation Me’ as they are believed to be more narcissistic, egoistical, entitled and self-centred compared to young adults of previous generations. In relation to that, this paper presents a research framework proposing that various facets of narcissism have an impact on Millennial technology users’ addiction towards Facebook. In particular, it is proposed that three facets of narcissism namely leadership/authority, grandiose exhibitionism and entitlement/exploitativeness contribute to Millennials’ Facebook addiction. This proposed framework is both timely and important because it investigates the link between technological users’ psychobiological characteristics and problematic usage of social media at a time when the Internet has risen to occupy an indispensable role in modern living. Insights gained from the application of the proposed framework can be used to assist the government and relevant authorities in formulating new policies or measures that can help to prevent the prevalence of Facebook addiction.

A Comparison of Unidimensionality and Measurement Precision of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire.

The current study compares the closeness to unidimensionality (CU) and measurement precision (MP) of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)-with either a pairwise forced-choice or 5-point Likert-type scale response format-to the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ). Minimum rank factor analysis and item information curves from item response models were utilized. The results mainly confirmed our expectations that NPI subscales are lower in CU and MP compared with NARQ subscales when the NPI was administered with its traditional forced-choice response format. When the NPI was administered with a 5-point Likert-type scale response format, the NPI subscale Leadership/Authority and NPI Grandiose Exhibitionism showed similarly high levels of CU and MP as the two NARQ subscales. While the NPI subscale Entitlement/Exploitativeness had a higher CU than the NARQ subscales it showed considerably lower levels of MP.

Narcissism, intrinsic and extrinsic romantic ideals, and relationship satisfaction

Narcissists are attracted to highly positive, rather than communal, romantic partners, but the literature has not examined how obtaining these desired traits affects relationship satisfaction. A total of 206 participants completed a survey assessing narcissism and ideal partner standards. A subset of 143 romantically involved participants completed assessments of their current partners and relationships. Narcissism was positively associated with extrinsic (attractive and successful) ideal standards and was negatively associated with intrinsic standards (warmth and intimacy) when controlling for extrinsic ideals. Relationships meeting extrinsic ideals were more satisfying for narcissists, but not non-narcissists. Relationships meeting intrinsic ideals were more satisfying for all participants, especially those low in narcissism. The effect for extrinsic traits was driven by Entitlement/Exploitativeness and Grandiose Exhibitionism, and the effect for intrinsic traits was driven by Entitlement/Exploitativeness.

The role of narcissism in self-promotion on Instagram

Instagram, the rising photo-sharing social networking site, has gained an enormous amount of global popularity. This study examined the relationship between narcissism and Instagram users' self-promoting behavior. A total of 212 active Instagram users in Korea completed an online survey. The results showed that individuals higher in narcissism tended to post selfies and self-presented photos, update their profile picture more often, and spend more time on Instagram, as compared to their counterparts. They also rated their Instagram profile pictures as more physically attractive. Additionally, the results showed that Grandiose Exhibitionism positively predicted and Leadership/Authority negatively predicted the frequency of selfie postings and profile picture updates, as well as profile picture evaluations. However, Entitlement/Exploitativeness exhibited no effect on any of the self-promotion behaviors on Instagram.

#Me: Narcissism and its facets as predictors of selfie-posting frequency

“Selfies” are amateur photographs people take of themselves, usually with a smartphone. Sharing selfies on social media has become a popular activity, prompting questions about its psychological meaning and dispositionally-relevant motives. This study was performed to examine the association between narcissism, a personality trait characterized by inflated self-views and attempts to seek attention and admiration from others, and frequency of posting selfies on social networking sites. In addition, the association between posting selfies and three facets of narcissism (i.e., Leadership/Authority, Grandiose Exhibitionism, Entitlement/Exploitativeness) was explored. These questions were addressed in a nationally representative sample of 1204 men and women who completed an online survey. Results showed that narcissism, as well as the Leadership/Authority and Grandiose Exhibitionism facets, but not Entitlement/Exploitativeness, exhibited positive and significant associations with selfie-posting frequency. Age did not moderate the predictive effects of narcissism or any of its three dimensions, indicating that the relationship between narcissism, its facets, and posting selfies is not age dependent. However, the more adaptive Leadership/Authority facet emerged as a stronger predictor of selfie posting among women than men, whereas the maladaptive Entitlement/Exploitativeness facet predicted selfie posting among men, but not women. Interpretations and implications of these findings are discussed.

The many faces of narcissism: Narcissism factors and their predictive utility

Previous research has often portrayed narcissism as a unitary construct, however more recent research suggests it may be multidimensional. This study was conducted to examine the utility of two measures of narcissism – the Narcissistic Pathological Inventory and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory, in jointly assessing a broader range of narcissism content. The sample consisted of 220 undergraduate students. Eight factors were extracted from an exploratory analysis labeled: Contingent Self-Esteem, Grandiose Fantasy, Leadership/Authority, Devaluing the Self, Grandiose Exhibitionism, Manipulative, Entitlement, and Superiority. It was found that these narcissism factors had differing relationships with self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and stress. Although a higher-order factor structure did not have satisfactory fit, it is maintained that these eight factors reflect the two higher order dimensions of adaptive and maladaptive narcissism. It is recommended that future researchers construct their studies based on a multidimensional conceptualisation of narcissism, and use multiple narcissism measures.

“Hey, Look at My Body!”

This article considers the phenomenon of online body display by users of social networking sites in Hong Kong. A survey of 392 young adults was conducted to investigate the relationships between narcissism, grandiose exhibitionism, body image satisfaction, perceived privacy risks, and online body display. A Body Display Index was developed to measure the perceived level of sexual explicitness of photographs shared by Facebook users. Grandiose exhibitionism, a sub-trait of narcissism, was found to be a stronger predictor of online body display than narcissism. The relationship between body image satisfaction and online body display was not significant, and no relationship was found between such displays and perceived privacy risks, thus implying a lack of social media-related privacy concerns among the respondents.

Narcissism in Romantic Relationships: A Dyadic Perspective

Previous literature has associated narcissism with interpersonal difficulties. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the impact of narcissism within romantic dyads. The current study extended the literature by examining relations between narcissism and conflict behaviors in both members of a romantic dyad. Participants in the study were 190 college-student couples, who completed questionnaire measures of their narcissism, conflict within their relationship, and a behavioral measure of aggression toward their partners. The results indicated a tendency towards homogamy for narcissism. A person's narcissism was related to their use of aggression and the partner's use of aggression. Several interactions between male and female narcissism were observed. For total NPI scores, the combination of high male and female narcissism was related to greater aggression. Grandiose Exhibitionism was only related to aggressive behavior when partner Grandiose Exhibitionism was lower; when partner Grandiose Exhibi...