The moderating effects of humility
Introduction
Many people assume that narcissism is entirely undesirable. But the consequences of narcissism are multifaceted, contradictory, and nuanced. To illustrate, when people exhibit narcissism, they strive to inflate their perception of themselves, called the self-enhancement motive, and thus overestimate the degree to which they are accomplished, competent, and powerful. Yet, people who inflate their perception of themselves
- tend to experience great wellbeing, such as positive mood, satisfaction with life, and happiness rather than depression,
- but are often disliked by the individuals with whom they interact frequently (for a meta-analysis, see Dufner et al., 2019).
Thus, narcissism may coincide with both desirable and undesirable consequences. However, these consequences seem to depend on the variants of this narcissism. Grandiose narcissism, for example, is more likely to be associated with wellbeing than is vulnerable narcissism. The key question, therefore, becomes how to diminish any unfavourable consequences of narcissism.
The moderating role of humility in the relationship between narcissism and entitlement
According to some research, humility may offset some of the detrimental effects of narcissism. To illustrate, when people are narcissistic and tend to inflate their capabilities, they often seem entitled. That is, they believe they deserve special treatment. Consequently, they may seem haughty, dismiss the needs of other individuals, blame other people, behave aggressively, especially if criticised, disregard personal boundaries, and exploit their friends or partners. These behaviours will compromise their relationships, reputation, and life.
However, some narcissistic people can also learn humility. They can, for example, deliberately acknowledge their limitations honestly or respect divergent opinions. Consequently, they can temper their belief they are special, diminishing entitlement.
In a pivotal study, conducted at the University of Nevada, Rong and Hu (2023) corroborated this possibility. That is, these researchers demonstrated that narcissism, when coupled with humility, does not necessarily promote entitled behaviour. In this study, over 450 business students completed a survey. The survey included three key measures:
- a shortened version of the narcissistic personality inventory, to assess grandiose narcissism,
- the honest-humility scale from the HEXACO personality assessment,
- a measure of psychological entitlement, such as “I honestly feel I am just more deserving than others”.
The hypotheses were supposed. Specifically, when humility was low, narcissism was positively associated with entitlement. However, when humility was high, narcissism did not seem to be significantly associated with entitlement. That is, humility seemed to offset the deleterious effect of narcissism on at least one behaviour.
The moderating role of humility in the relationship between team narcissism and team learning
Typically, teams that comprise many narcissistic individuals do not tend to learn effectively from one another. That is, when narcissism pervades a team, the individuals are especially motivated to outshine one another and to boost their status or rank over their colleagues. Consequently, when these colleagues succeed or thrive, they are particularly susceptible to envy. Because of this envy, team members are not as inclined to seek advice from one another, to learn from one another, or to collaborate to solve challenges and extend their capabilities. Fortunately, when leaders are humble and thus willing to learn from staff and respect diverse perspectives
- team members, including narcissistic individuals, recognise that learning is deemed as valuable in the workplace rather than a sign of limited status,
- hence, these individuals are more inclined to perceive the success of team members as opportunities to learn and not as threats to their status.
In short, leadership humility could moderate, and even offset, the inverse association between team narcissism and team learning. To explore this possibility, Zhong, Jiao, et al. (2026) conducted a study of 70 teams, comprising 301 staff members, of one Chinese company. At one time, the staff completed several measures including
- 16 items, such as “I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so”, derived from a variant of the Narcissism Personality Inventory (Ames et al., 2006), to gauge their level of grandiose narcissism,
- 9 items, such as “Our immediate leader actively seeks feedback, even if it is critical”, to measure the degree to which the supervisors of these staff demonstrate humility (cf., Owens et al., 2013).
At a later time, these staff completed a measure that is designed to recognise signs of envy in staff, exemplified by items like “My supervisor values the efforts of my other team members, more than she/ he values my efforts” (see Vecchio, 2000). Finally, at a subsequent time, the staff completed a scale that gauges team learning, typified by items like “Team members learn a lot from each other” (see Harvey et al., 2019). As hypothesised,
- in teams in which levels of narcissism were high on average, learning tended to be limited,
- significant envy within teams mediate this association between team narcissism and limited team learning,
- fortunately, when supervisors were humble, team narcissism was not as likely to coincide with envy or limited time learning,
- thus, the humility of leaders tends to mitigate the adverse impact of team narcissism on learning.
