The moderating effects of humility
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 benefits of humility
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.
