Social consequences of individual narcissism

Many studies have explored the relationship between narcissism and intimate partner violence, often informally called domestic violence.  In general,

• vulnerable narcissism is moderately associated with intimate partner violence, with correlations approaching about .25,
• in contrast, grandiose narcissism is not as strongly associated with intimate partner violence, with correlations closer to only .11.

Specifically, these results were derived from a meta-analysis, published by Oliver et al. (2024) in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse.  This meta-analysis uncovered 22 studies, comprising over 11 500 participants, that explored both narcissism and intimate partner violence.  Many other terms were utilised to uncover these publications, including domestic abuse, spousal violence, intimate assault, and so forth.   These studies examined many variants of intimate partner violence, including cyberstalking, psychological abuse, and physical violence.  As a random effects meta-analysis revealed,

• narcissism was more strongly associated with cyberviolence and psychological violence than physical violence,
• intimate partner violence was more strongly associated with vulnerable narcissism than grandiose narcissism,
• the association between narcissism and intimate partner violence did not significantly depend on whether the perpetrator was male or female.

Vulnerable narcissism and grandiose narcissism differ not only on the level of association with intimate partner violence but also with the events that incite this violence.  For example, as two academics at Edinburgh Napier University, Ava Green and Kathy Charles, revealed in 2019, people who exhibit vulnerable narcissism tend to explode with rage in response to hints their partner might leave the relationship, regardless of whether these hints are accurate or misguided.  In contrast, people who exhibit grandiose narcissism are more likely to respond violently to comments or events that threaten their self-esteem, authority, status, or competence. 

Although the AXIS tool indicated the studies were generally high in quality, Oliver et al. (2024) did acknowledge some limitations in past research on this topic.  For example, the measures were usually self-report scales.  When completing these measures, participants are often unwilling to concede they perpetrated intimate partner violence, potentially diminishing statistical power and thus obscuring some of the relationships.   

Other determinants of domestic violence

Narcissism may also exacerbate many other characteristics or circumstances that elicit intimate partner violence.  Therefore, to appreciate the potential effects of narcissism on such domestic violence, researchers need to consider other determinants of these acts (for reviews, see Capaldi et al., 2012; Chiesa et al., 2018; Clare et al., 2021; Spencer et al., 2019; Spencer et al., 2022; Spencer et al., 2024).  For example,

• when men do not feel they fulfill masculine stereotypes—such as earn more than does their partner—they are more inclined to compensate and perpetrate intimate partner violence (Reidy et al., 2014),
• individuals who had been victims of physical abuse, physical neglect, or emotional abuse are more likely to be perpetrators of physical intimate partner violence (McClure & Parmenter, 2020),
• men who had been physically abused by one of their parents are more likely to experience hostility, in which they feel bitter and cynical about people, and this hostility tends to promote intimate partner violence (Elmquist et al., 2016),
• although some research has shown that children who observe violence between parents at home may be more likely to perpetrate this violence to their partner during their teenage years (Makin-Byrd et al., 2013; Temple et al., 2013), whether such exposure to violence at home predicts similar acts later in life remains contentious and uncertain (e.g., Menard et al., 2014),
• some of these effects of family life could be ascribed to mental health concerns; for instance, individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and to a lesser extent depression are more likely to perpetrate domestic violence (Spencer et al., 2019),
• if members of communities are likely to assist one another, such as intervene if children are fighting or vandalising property, the likelihood of intimate partner violence diminishes (Paat et al., 2017), indicating that a cohesive neighbourhood may impede these acts,
• in neighbourhoods in which many outlets sell alcohol, women are more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence; alcohol use, however, does not mediate this relationship (Iritani et al., 2013).

Narcissism may amplify some, if not most, of these antecedents to domestic violence.  To illustrate, narcissistic parents are more likely than other parents to be unduly punitive or permissive rather than empathic and responsive to the needs of their children (Hart et al., 2017).  These narcissistic parents, therefore, may be more likely to be abusive—a possibility that Wiehe (2003) confirmed.  Future researchers should assess whether child abuse as well as the possibility that men feel unable to fulfill masculine stereotypes mediates the association between narcissism and domestic violence.

Narcissistic reactance theory

According to narcissistic reactance theory, sexual coercion, and even rape, may often emanate from a blend of reactance—a defensive response that individuals experience whenever their sense of autonomy is infringed—and narcissism.  To formulate and to justify this theory, Baumeister, Catenese, et al. (2002) proposed several reasons to explain why narcissism might increase the likelihood of sexual coercion:

• Narcissistic people often believe they should be treated as extraordinary and thus feel entitled to special treatment, including sexual favours.
• Narcissistic people, although often able to experience compassion and empathy, are not as sensitive to these emotions if these feelings deviate from their personal interests.  Consequently, they be relatively insensitive to the suffering of their victims.
• Narcissistic people overestimate their qualities, such as their appeal or appearance, and thus assume the other person is receptive to sexual interactions.
• Narcissistic people like to boast about their achievements including their sexual conquests.

The state of reactance may exacerbate this tendency of narcissistic individuals, and especially narcissistic men, to perpetrate sexual coercion.  Specifically, when individuals experience a threat to their autonomy or freedom—such as when they are prohibited from pursuing a yearning or desire—they experience an unpleasant state called reactance.  To alleviate this state, individuals strive to reassert their autonomy, pursue the prohibited course of action, or respond defensively and aggressively towards the source of impediment. To illustrate, if the sexual advances of a man are rebuffed, the man could experience reactance and thus pursue this sexual goal regardless or behave aggressively.  This reactance may be more pronounced in narcissistic people, because these individuals believe their needs and goals should be respected (e.g., Frank et al., 1998; Joubert, 1992).

Evidence of narcissism reactance theory

To validate these premises, Bushman et al. (2003) conducted three studies. In the first study, 403 men, enrolled in a college, completed the

• Narcissistic Personality Inventory to measure grandiose narcissism,
• the Rape Empathy Scale (Deitz et al., 1982) to assess the degree to which individuals feel empathy or compassion towards rape victims, such as “In general, I feel that rape is an act that is provoked by the rape victim” (reverse scored), and
• the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Burt, 1980) to gauge the extent to which participants adopt beliefs and assumptions that have been shown to incite rape, such as “A woman who goes to the home or apartment of a man on their first date implies that she is willing to have sex”.

As hypothesised, people who reported elevated levels of narcissism were not as likely to experience feelings of empathy towards rape victims and were more inclined to adopt beliefs and assumptions that often encourage rape (Bushman et al., 2003).  This study, however, did assess the reactions or behaviour of these individuals in a real scenario.  To address this shortfall, the second study examined the reactions of 300 male college students in response to a video that depicts rape, distilled from two R-rated movies: The Accused and Higher Learning. In both clips, a woman consents to some affection but then expresses pain and disgust while raped soon afterwards.  Some participants, however, only watched the consent or the rape but not both scenes. 

Before watching the movie, participants had completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.  After watching the movie, participants also indicated the degree to which they rated the scene as enjoyable, entertaining, sexually arousing, and violent as well as the extent to which they identified with each actor.  As the findings reveal

• compared to other men, narcissistic men were more likely to enjoy the film, perceive the film as entertaining, and experience sexual arousal—but only if the film depicted both the consent and rape,
• narcissistic men were more likely to identify with the male too,
• taken together, as this pattern of results shows, narcissistic men seemed to assume that consent implies the following sexual activity was consensual rather than rape; hence, they accepted the scenes that depicted consent before apparent rape.
• accordingly, narcissistic men are more likely to espouse beliefs that may justify sexual coercion or rape—such as the assumption that some consensual affection justifies sex.

The final study attempted to simulate a circumstance that may prime sexual rejection.  Specifically, 120 men at university who had previously completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, were informed they would participate in a study about pornographic material.  A female actor began to read pornographic material, partly to elicit the expectation of sexual enjoyment.  However, in one condition, the female actor stopped midway, implying she was reluctant to continue.  Finally, participants indicated the money they believed this female actor should be paid.

The results were telling.  Compared to other participants, narcissistic men believed the female actor should be paid less, but only if she did not read all the material. Broadly, these findings are compatible with narcissistic reactance theory.  That is, these results show that narcissistic men experience greater reactance—and thus more resentment—after their sexual expectations are thwarted.

Variations across the facets of narcissism

Narcissism comprises many distinct facets or tendencies—and individuals often exhibit only a subset of these inclinations. Not all these facets increase the likelihood of aggressive sexual behaviours, such as coercion or rape.  Yet some of these facets, such as a sense of entitlement and a willingness to exploit other people, are more likely to provoke sexual aggression (Zeigler-Hill et al., 2013).

To investigate this matter, in 2013, Zeigler-Hill and colleagues, from Oakland University, administered a survey to 170 male undergraduate students. The survey included two instruments to measure narcissism.  First, participants completed the variant of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory that comprises 40 items and assesses grandiose narcissism. According to Ackerman et al. (2010), these items can be divided into three main clusters or factors:

• leadership and authority, including “If I ruled the world it would be a much better place”,
• grandiose exhibitionism, including “I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so”, and
• entitlement and the tendency to exploit other people, including “I find it easy to manipulate people”.

Second, participants completed the Pathological Narcissism Inventory to assess more severe features of both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism.  Finally, to measure sexual aggression, participants completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss & Oros, 1982).  This measure assesses whether individuals have engaged in consensual sexual acts as well as perpetrated 10 acts that are sexually aggressive and can be divided into one of three categories:

• sexual coercion, such as “Had sexual intercourse with a woman even though she did not really want to because she felt pressured by your continual arguments”,
• attempted rape, such as “Been in a situation where you used some degree of physical force, twisting her arm, such as holding her down, to try to get a woman to have sexual intercourse with you when she didn’t want to, but for various reasons sexual intercourse did not occur”, and
• rape, such as “Had sexual intercourse with a woman when she didn’t want to because you used some degree of physical force, such as twisting her arm or holding her down”.

To measure sexual aggression, participants are assigned a score that indicates their most severe level of sexual aggression.  For example, they are assigned a 1 if they perpetrated sexual coercion and a 3 if they perpetrated rape.

All three facets of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory—leadership and authority, grandiose exhibitionism, as well as entitlement and exploitation—were positively associated with sexual aggression.  The measure of vulnerable narcissism, but not grandiose narcissism, embedded in the Pathological Narcissism Inventory, was also positively associated with sexual aggression.  When all these subscales were entered, however, only entitlement and exploitation as well as vulnerable narcissism were positively associated with sexual aggression.  Grandiose narcissism was inversely associated with sexual aggression.

As these results indicate, if individual perceive themselves as special and tend to exploit other people, they may believe they deserve sexual favours. They are also more willing to manipulate individuals to receive these favours. Furthermore, if individuals experience vulnerable narcissism, they are more inclined to be sensitive to criticism and blame other people when frustrated.  Therefore, in these individuals, sexual aggression may culminate from resentment or frustration.  Grandiose narcissism may have been negatively related to sexual aggression because the unique features of this measure, after controlling the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, may represent

• extraversion or other traits that can benefit social interactions
• self-enhancement biases and, therefore, the tendency to be unwilling to acknowledge faults.

Sexual infidelity refers to instances in which a person, committed to a monogamous relationship with someone, participates in sexual acts with another individual.  This infidelity is not uncommon—sometimes estimated to exceed 25% in married men and 20% in married women (e.g., Atkins et al., 2001)—and can devastate families (Allen et al., 2005). To illustrate, after people discover their partner had perpetrated sexual infidelity

• their self-esteem often plummets (Shackelford, 2001),
• they are more likely to experience major depressive episodes (Cano & O’Leary, 2000),
• they often demonstrate the symptoms of trauma (Lonergan et al., 2021)—such as an inability to concentrate, a limited appetite, insomnia, as well as many other symptoms, like breathing problems, when they recall the incident (Roos et al., 2019),
• they are more prone to suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviour (for a review, see Kazan et al., 2016).

For a range of reasons, narcissism may increase the likelihood of this infidelity (for evidence, see McNulty & Widman, 2014).  To illustrate

• narcissistic individuals tend to perceive themselves as special and thus entitled to breach social conventions, such as monogamy,
• narcissistic people are not as inclined to experience compassion or empathy, diminishing the guilt they anticipate after an illicit affair,
• narcissistic people often perceive other individuals as objects they can manipulate to fulfill their desires.

Illustration

As a few studies have revealed, narcissism does tend to increase the likelihood of infidelity. For example, in one of the first studies to explore this possibility, Buss and Shackelford (1997) administered a survey to 107 couples.  The survey included questions that assess

• the likelihood these participants would commit six variants of infidelity, such as flirting, passionate kissing, romantic dates, one-night stands, a brief affair, or a serious affair,
• the perceived likelihood their partner would commit these acts,
• narcissism, derived from the narcissistic act report (Buss & Chiodo, 1991), comprising items like “I talked about myself, but did not listen to anyone else”
• several other characteristics of the individuals, such as extraversion, and characteristics of the relationship, such as quality of the marriage.

Furthermore, each individual participated in an interview, designed to measure these characteristics from the perspective of an impartial observer.  As the findings revealed, 

• narcissistic people were more inclined to believe they would perpetrate acts of infidelity,
• for example, narcissistic women believed they would be especially likely to flirt, date other men, or consider a brief affair,
• narcissistic men believed they would be especially likely to flirt, kiss another woman, or consider a brief affair.

Other characteristics also increased the likelihood of infidelity.  For example, people who were low in conscientiousness, high in psychoticism, and perceived their partner as jealous were more likely to believe they were susceptible to infidelity. 

Narcissism and infidelity online

Likewise, research has suggested that narcissism may promote online behaviour in social networks that could be regarded as infidelity.  In a study that Pourmohseni-Koluri et al. (2024) published in the International Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, Iranian residents completed a survey that includes

• a variant of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, comprising 16 items, to measure grandiose narcissism,
• the Social Media Infidelity-Related Behaviour Inventory, designed to measure the frequency with which individuals perpetrated online behaviours that epitomise infidelity, such as sharing nude photographs,
• a measure of attachment style and sexual satisfaction.

Narcissism was positively associated with online infidelity, even after controlling attachment style and sexual satisfaction.  Furthermore, anxious attachment, in which people are sensitive to rejection, and avoidance attachment, in which people shun emotional intimacy, were also positively related to online infidelity.mple, people who were low in conscientiousness, high in psychoticism, and perceived their partner as jealous were more likely to believe they were susceptible to infidelity. 

Grandiose narcissism vs vulnerable narcissism

Some research has also explored which facets of narcissism may promote infidelity.  For example, Gewirtz-Meydan et al. (2023) investigated whether attitudes to infidelity were related to

• grandiose narcissism or the degree to which individuals overtly display, and often inflate, their achievements and qualities,
• vulnerable narcissism or the degree to which individuals are preoccupied with themselves and tend to feel offended or ashamed.

The sample comprised 135 married couples.  To assess infidelity, both partners separately completed the Attitudes Toward Infidelity Scale (Whatley, 2008).  Specifically, these participants indicated the degree to which they agree to statements like “Being unfaithful never hurt anyone” and “I would have an affair if I knew my significant other would never find out”.  In addition, these participants completed the Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory (Schoenleber et al., 2015) to gauge both

• grandiose narcissism, typified by items like “I often fantasise about performing heroic deeds”,
• vulnerable narcissism, typified by items like “When people don’t notice me, I start to feel bad about myself”.

After controlling relationship duration and relationship intimacy,

• women who reported grandiose narcissism or vulnerable narcissism were more likely to perceive infidelity as acceptable,
• men who reported vulnerable narcissism were more likely to perceive infidelity as acceptable (Gewirtz-Meydan et al., 2023).

Furthermore, if women exhibited vulnerable narcissism, their partners were more inclined to regard infidelity as acceptable.  In contrast, if men exhibited grandiose narcissism, their partners were less inclined to regard infidelity as acceptable. 

Other studies have also corroborated some of these findings.  To illustrate, as Ogwuche et al. (2024) revealed, Nigerians who reported vulnerable narcissism, as gauged by the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, were also more inclined to consider infidelity. 

Implications for relationships

As Altınok and Kılıç (2020) revealed, this association between narcissism and infidelity may explain why narcissistic individuals are often dissatisfied with their relationships. Specifically, 184 university students, all involved in an ongoing relationship, completed a series of measures including

• a variant of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, comprising 16 items, to measure grandiose narcissism,
• the Intentions towards Infidelity Scale 3 (Jones et al., 2011), comprising 7 items like “How likely are you to be unfaithful to a partner if you knew you wouldn’t get caught”,
• the Relationship Assessment Scale (Hendrick, 1998), entailing 7 items like “In general, how satisfied are you with your relationship?”,
• a measure of attachment style.

As hypothesised, the grandiose narcissism of individuals was inversely related to their satisfaction in relationships.  Importantly, the intention to perpetrate infidelity fully mediated this relationship.  As Altınok and Kılıç (2020) suggested, narcissistic individuals often feel special and entitled—and thus feel the license to perpetrate infidelity.  This feeling diminishes their commitment to the relationship.  When their commitment wanes, these individuals become more attuned to problems in the relationship, potentially diminishing satisfaction. corroborated some of these findings.  To illustrate, as Ogwuche et al. (2024) revealed, Nigerians who reported vulnerable narcissism, as gauged by the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, were also more inclined to consider infidelity. 

Non-significant associations

Not all studies have uncovered significant associations between narcissism and infidelity.  For instance

• surprisingly, as Wiederman and Hurd (1999) revealed, two facets of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, entitlement and exploitation, were not significantly related to infidelity,
• as Jones and Weister (2014) showed, the positive association between narcissism and infidelity dissipated after psychopathy and Machiavellianism was controlled statistically,
• as Altgelt et al. (2018) demonstrated, the positive association between narcissism in husbands and their infidelity evaporated after controlling satisfaction with the relationship.

According to McNulty and Widman (2014), these discrepancies across studies could partly be ascribed to variability in the measures and facets of narcissism that researchers examine.  Accordingly, McNulty and Widman proposed, and then verified, that one facet of narcissism in particular is especially associated with infidelity: sexual narcissism—as defined by the sexual narcissism scale.  Sexual narcissism is defined as manifestations of narcissism during sexual interactions and includes

• exploiting people, such as deceiving these individuals, to entice sexual behaviour,
• the belief they are entitled to sex,
• the belief their sexual capabilities are advanced and special,
• limited empathy to the feelings of their sexual partner.

As McNulty and Widman (2014) revealed across two studies, all these features of sexual narcissism were positively associated with infidelity, even after controlling grandiose narcissism and satisfaction with the partner.

Stalking and narcissism

Introduction

Stalking refers to unwanted, and often threatening, behaviours in which an individual pursues someone else, often repeatedly. Stalking is prevalent: according to some estimates, 20% of women and 10% of men will become victims of stalking during their lives, at least in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2020). Stalking is also consequential: Even the children of individuals who had been stalked may exhibit symptoms of PTSD (Elklit et al. 2019). The victims are current or ex-partners in around 50% of cases.  However, stalkers may also be friends, acquaintances, or even strangers of the victim (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2007).  

Relative to other individuals, narcissistic people may also be more inclined to perpetrate stalking, including cyberstalking. Arguably

• grandiose narcissists, who like to display their dominance, may perpetrate stalking to establish their authority and superiority, incited by feelings of rage, often because their supremacy had not been respected (see Wilson et al., 2016)
• vulnerable narcissists, who are sensitive to criticism and preoccupied with their needs, might experience the urge to maintain affiliations with people but also the need to conceal their shame, often culminating in clandestine behaviours such as stalking (see Wilson et al., 2016).

Indeed, many studies have explored whether the dark triad, comprising narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, predict traditional stalking and cyberstalking.  Branković et al. (2023), for example, published a typical study on this topic.  In their study, 232 Serbian adults completed Serbian translations of several measures online, including

• a measure of cyberstalking, comprising 10 items like “I prefer to form relationships with people I can investigate on social media” and “I lose track of time while searching for information about my acquaintances online” (Branković, 2021), developed at the University of Novi Sad,
• the Stalking Behavior Scale, comprising nine items, to measure aggravated stalking (e.g., “sneaking around someone’s house”), intrusive stalking (e.g., “sending unwanted mail”), or surveillance stalking (e.g., “using devices to track and spying on someone”),
• a Serbian version of the Short Dark Triad (Dinić et al., 2018), designed to measure narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism,
• the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (for a discussion, see Dinić et al., 2020) to gauge sadism—or the inclination to enjoy cruelty to other people. Researchers often refer to the dark triad, when coupled with sadism, as the dark tetrad. 

As the correlation matrix revealed, narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism were all positively associated with all variants of stalking: cyberstalking, aggravated stalking, intrusive stalking, and surveillance stalking.  However, when gender and the other dark tetrad traits were controlled in a multiple regression analysis,

• both narcissism and Machiavellianism were positively related to only cyberstalking and surveillance stalking
• that is, the facets of narcissism that are not observed in psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism coincided with some, but not all, variants of stalking,
• psychopathy and sadism were positively related to cyberstalking and aggravated stalking.

Comprehensive measures of the dark triad

Many past studies on this topic explored unidimensional measures of the dark triad.  However, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism all comprise several distinct facets.  Blais et al. (2025) conducted a study that explored which of these facets are related to cyberstalking.  In this study, 1724 Canadians completed an online survey.  The survey included

• the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale and the Narcissistic Vulnerability Scale to measure grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism, respectively,
• a shortened version of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale that comprises 29 items (Paulhus et al., 2016) that measures interpersonal manipulation (e.g., “‘I have pretended to be someone else in order to get something”), callous affect (e.g., “Most people are wimps”), erratic lifestyle (e.g., “I’ve often done something dangerous just for the thrill of it”), and antisocial tendencies (e.g., “I have broken into a building or vehicle in order to steal something or vandalize”),
• the Five-Factor Machiavellianism Inventory to gauge three facets of Machiavellianism: antagonism (e.g., “I view others as tools to be used and manipulated”), agency (e.g., “I aspire for greatness”), and planful (e.g., “I like to carefully consider the consequences before making a decision”),
• a measure of cyberstalking (Reyns et al., 2012), in which participants indicate whether they have perpetrated various acts online, such as “repeatedly attempted to contact someone after they told you to stop”.

The researchers examined each dark trait separately.  The findings revealed that

• grandiose narcissism, but not vulnerable narcissism, was positively associated with cyberstalking,
• antisocial tendencies, but not the other facets of psychopathy, were positively associated with cyberstalking,
• no facets of Machiavellianism were significantly associated with cyberstalking (Blais et al., 2025). 

These results, arguably, imply that cyberstalking may be ascribed to a need to assert power and dominance.

Comparisons between stalkers and other criminals

Many studies have shown that narcissism is associated with stalking behaviour.  However, rather than promote stalking behaviour in particular, narcissism might simply foster inappropriate or criminal behaviour in general.  To explore whether facets of narcissism are related specifically to stalking, Dearn et al. (2025) compared levels of narcissism in 99 men who had been convicted of stalking and imprisoned with 100 men who had been convicted of other crimes but received comparable sentences.  Specifically, these men completed

• the narcissistic vulnerability scale, designed to measure vulnerable narcissism or the degree to which individuals are sensitive to criticism and preoccupied with their own needs,
• the brief variant of the pathological narcissism inventory to measure four facets of grandiose narcissism—entitlement rage, exploitative, grandiose fantasy, and self-sacrificing self-enhancement—as well as four facets of vulnerable narcissism—contingent self-esteem, hiding the self, and devaluing,
• the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (Fraley et al., 2000) to measure attachment style: the degree to which individuals exhibit anxious attachment or sensitivity to rejection as well the extent to which individuals exhibit avoidant attachment or discomfort with intimacy.

The data revealed that only facets of vulnerable narcissism, rather than grandiose narcissism, were higher in stalkers relative to other prisoners.  That is, the participants convicted of stalking exhibited high levels of

• contingent self-esteem or the need to seek validation from other people,
• hiding the self in which individuals feel too ashamed to disclose their personal feelings or thoughts,
• devaluing in which individuals subtly mock someone else,
• anxious attachment or sensitivity to rejection (Dearn et al., 2025).

As these findings imply, individuals who exhibit vulnerable narcissism or anxious attachment, in general, greatly depend on other people to perceive themselves as worthy or important.  Yet, they also feel ashamed about themselves and thus concerned they will be rejected.  Consequently, they experience a tension between the need to establish affiliations with other people and the need to conceal their thoughts and feelings, concerned they will be rebuffed.  Stalking may fulfill these two motives to some extent.

Indeed, a study that Duffy et al. (2023) published, in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, generated results that are compatible with this possibility.  In this study

• 782 individuals completed online measures of vulnerable narcissism, rejection sensitivity, borderline personality traits, and cyberstalking of intimate partners,
• vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with cyberstalking of intimate partners—and rejection sensitivity mediated this association (Duffy et al., 2023),
• borderline personality was also associated with cyberstalking of intimate partners, but mainly in women,
• these findings are compatible with the assumption that people who crave intimacy, but are concerned they will be rejected because of their qualities, may gravitate to cyberstalking.

The moderating effects of demographics

Some demographic characteristics, such as gender, may affect the association between the dark tetrad and stalking.  To illustrate, in one study, conducted by March et al. (2020), 405 participants completed a series of measures online including

• the variant of the Narcissism Personality Inventory that comprises 16 items to gauge various facets of grandiose narcissism,
• the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale to measure vulnerable narcissism, exemplified by questions like “My feelings are easily hurt by ridicule or the slighting remarks of others”,
• the Mach-IV to gauge Machiavellianism, typified by questions like “Never tell anyone the real reason you did something unless it is useful”,
• the Psychopathy Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale 4 (Paulhus et al, 2017) to measure primary psychopathy—entailing interpersonal manipulation and callous affect—and secondary psychopathy—entailing an unstable, criminal, and antisocial lifestyle,
• the Comprehensive Assessment of Sadistic Tendencies (Buckels & Paulhus, 2014) to gauge verbal, physical, and vicarious sadism, comprising items like “I enjoy physically hurting people”,
• the Intimate Partner Cyberstalking-Scale (Smoker & March, 2017), typified by items like “I try to monitor my partner’s behaviours through social media”,
• the Revised Controlling Behaviours Scale (Graham-Kevan & Archer, 2005), exemplified by items like “I try to make the other feel jealous”.

The determinants of cyberstalking an intimate partner differed between the genders.  When the perpetrators were women, vulnerable narcissism and physical sadism were positively associated with the inclination of individuals to cyberstalk their partner.  When the perpetrators were men, only secondary psychopathy was positively associated with the inclination to cyberstalk a partner.  Accordingly, in women, the need to maintain intimacy but prevent rejection could motivate cyberstalking.  In men, the need to experience a sense of thrill, combined with an inability to control these motives, could motivate cyberstalking (March et al., 2020).

Heterogeneity of stalkers

Many studies have examined the association between the dark triad, including narcissism, and stalking.  However, these studies generally combine all variants of stalking together or examine only cyberstalking.  Yet, stalking behaviours and motivations vary considerably (for a discussion of four distinct configurations, see Wilson et al., 2006). For example, researchers often divide people who stalk into five clusters (Mullen et al., 1999): intimacy seeker, incompetent suitor, rejected, resentful, and predatory. Arguably, which facets predict stalking may vary across these clusters or other classifications of stalking. 

Indeed, Wheatley et al. (2020) conducted a systematic literature review to explore which psychopathologies predict stalking.   Overall, this review indicated that

• the association between personality disorders and stalking varied considerably across studies,
• this variation could be ascribed to the observation that studies explored diverse settings and varieties of stalking,
• thus, future research is warranted to clarify how narcissism and other personality disorders are related to the various dimensions of stalking. 

Sexism, misogyny, and narcissism

Narcissism often coincides with offensive or aggressive behaviour towards the other sex, often but not always perpetrated by men, such as domestic violence. Sexist attitudes, such as misogyny, may enable or incite these offensive or aggressive behaviours.  Indeed, various facets of narcissism may also be associated with sexist attitudes.

Psychological entitlement and sexism

Grubbs et al. (2014) conducted one pioneering study on this topic, exploring the relationship between psychological entitlement, a facet of narcissism, on sexism.  The researchers administered an online survey to two samples: 333 undergraduate psychology students and 437 American adults, recruited using MTurk.  The survey included several measures:

• the Psychological Entitlement Scale (Campbell et al. 2004), comprising nine items like “People like me deserve an extra break every now and then”,
• the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), designed to measure both hostile attitudes towards women, exemplified by items like “Women are too easily offended”, as well as benevolent, paternalistic, or patronising attitudes towards women, exemplified by items like “Women should be cherished and protected by men”,
• the Marlowe-Crowne Socially Desirability Scale (Reynolds, 1982), designed to control the tendency of some people to bias their answer towards the socially desirable response,
• the Openness subscale of the Big Five Inventory (John et al. 1991), comprising items like “Do you agree that you are someone who is curious about many things”—included because openness is inversely associated with both entitlement and sexism. 

As hypothesised, psychological entitlement was positively associated with sexism, even after controlling openness and social desirability bias. Generally, in men, psychological entitlement was positively related to hostile sexism towards women (Grubbs et al., 2014).  However, in women, psychological entitlement was positively related to benevolent sexism towards women. Presumably,

• entitled men like to believe they are special—and hence their gender is special too—and, therefore, may often adopt hostile attitudes towards women,
• entitled women like to believe they are special and, hence, feel their gender should be treated as special too.

Narcissism and sexism

Other studies have revealed that grandiose narcissism overall, rather than psychological entitlement in particular, is associated with sexism.  For example, Scott Keiller (2010), an academic at Kent State University in Ohio, examined whether grandiose narcissists who are heterosexual males are especially likely to develop hostile attitudes towards heterosexual women rather than homosexual individuals.  In this study, 104 heterosexual undergraduate male students completed a survey that included

• the variants of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory that comprises 16 items to measure grandiose narcissism,
• the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) to assess hostile sexism and benevolent sexism towards women as well as a modified version of this instrument to assess hostile sexism and benevolent sexism towards men (Glick & Fiske, 1999),
• the Attitudes Toward Gay Men Scale, Revised (Herek, 1988), comprising five items like “Male homosexuality is a perversion”, and a modified version to gauge attitudes towards Lesbian women. 

As the data revealed, grandiose narcissism in men was positively and highly associated with hostile attitudes towards heterosexual women, with a correlations of .43. Indeed, when all the measures of sexism were included in the same regression, only the association between grandiose narcissism and hostile attitudes towards heterosexual women was significant (Keiller, 2010). 

Thus, narcissistic men, despite hostile attitudes towards heterosexual women, did not report hostile attitudes towards homosexual women or homosexual men.  The correlation between grandiose narcissism and hostile attitudes towards homosexual women was even negative, r = -.24.  As a possible explanation of these findings

• narcissistic men like to maintain their status and power,
• however, heterosexual women can withhold gratification from these men in romantic relationships and can thus nullify this status and power,
• so, to maintain their status and power, these men often adopt the belief that women should be subservient to men in romantic relationships,
• to uphold this belief, they may perceive women as inferior, manifesting as hostile attitudes towards females,
• however, to these narcissistic men, Lesbian women may be objects of sexual fantasy but cannot withhold gratification from these men, eliciting more favourable attitudes.

Narcissism may moderate the effects of misogyny

Rather than only increase sexism or misogyny, some variants of narcissism, such as collective narcissism, could amplify the impact of this sexism or misogyny on aggression as well as other behaviours.  To illustrate, in one study, conducted by Rottweiler et al. (2025), 1500 participants, recruited from the Prolific website, completed an online questionnaire that comprised a variety of measures, including

• a scale that assesses three facets of misogyny: the belief that women are manipulative and exploitative (e.g., “Women exploit men for their own agendas”), distrust of women (e.g., “It is generally safer not to trust women too much”), and devaluation of women (e.g., “Sometimes women bother me by just being around”),
• the Collective Narcissism Scale, designed to assess the degree to which individuals perceive their group, such as their community or demographic, as special and superior, epitomised by items like “I will never be satisfied until my group gets the recognition it deserves”,
• three questions that assess whether participants endorse violence against women, such as “It is ok for a man to use violence against a woman if she misbehaves”,
• the Revenge Planning subscale of the Displaced Aggression Questionnaire (Denson et al., 2006) to assess the propensity of individuals to seek revenge, exemplified by items like “When someone makes me angry, I can’t stop thinking about how to get back at this person”.

As hypothesised, misogyny was positively associated with the endorsement of violence against women—and revenge planning mediated this relationship.  More importantly, collective narcissism moderated the association between misogyny and revenge planning.  That is, if individuals perceived their group as superior, their misogyny was more likely to elicit feelings of revenge and ultimately the support of violence against women. 

Arguably, when men experience collective narcissism, they want to perceive their gender as superior.  They may, therefore, perceive women as a threat to this superiority especially if their attitudes towards women are unfavourable.  Consequently, a blend of collective narcissism in men and misogyny may elicit the urge to counteract this threat, manifesting as revenge and endorsement of violence.

Murder and narcissism

Serial kills and narcissism: Background

As research has revealed, various facets of narcissism are prevalent in serial killers and may, at least partly, explain their behaviour.  Serial killers, defined as people who have unlawfully killed multiple victims in separate events, are sometimes divided into several distinct clusters (Holmes et al., 1988):

• visionary killers who experience delusions or hallucinations that inspire these individuals to kill,
• mission-oriented killers who feel the compulsion to eliminate a specific race, profession, or other classification of people,
• thrill killers who derive pleasure or excitement when perpetrating murder,
• power and control killers who experience satisfaction when they dominate victims,
• lust killers who experience sexual urges, often related to paraphilias, that motivate these individuals to kill (see Aggrawal, 2010; Stein et al., 2010).

Whereas visionary killing and mission-oriented killing can often be ascribed to delusions, thrill killing, power and control killing, and lust killing are often ascribed to sexual motives—especially sexual motives that revolve around domination and aggression (Holmes & Holmes, 2009). A variety of studies have revealed that serial killers, provoked by sexual motives, tend to exhibit the hallmarks of narcissism (for interesting case studies, see Hazelwood & Michaud, 2001; Marko & Leibetseder, 2023).  For example

• in a study of 70 serial killers, from North America or the UK, an analysis of court documents, police interrogations, psychiatric reports, diaries, media interviews, and other sources revealed that such individuals often exhibited grandiose narcissism as well as a tendency to experience relief from trauma, anxiety, or isolation after they murder (Reid et al., 2019),
• an Honours thesis, submitted to the University of South Dakota, analysed the childhood trauma, psychological traits, and behavioural tendencies of renowned serial killers, such as Dennis Rader and Ted Bundy, revealing how these individuals often exhibited the signs of narcissism, such as boastfulness and limited empathy (Booth, 2021).  

Serial kills and narcissism: Evidence

Ioannidi et al. (2025) published one of the most comprehensive studies on this topic.  Specifically, in contrast to previous research, this study explored which facets of narcissism characterise serial killers.  Specifically, the researchers analysed 45 male serial killers, derived from the Radford FGCU serial killer database, who had acted independently, at least partly urged by sexual motives.  To ascertain which facets of narcissism were prevalent in these individuals

• the researchers collated extensive material about each person from the relevant agencies, such as the FBI, California Criminalistics Institute, and US Department of Justice Criminal Division,
• this material included confessions, interrogations, and court documents,
• the researchers then analysed the answers in which the serial killers discussed their reasons, methods, and childhood experiences,
• the researchers identified answers that correspond to four distinct manifestations of narcissism: narcissistic admiration and rivalry as well as vulnerable isolation and enmity,
• to assess the reliability of this coding procedure, two researchers analysed the data independently, generating a promising Kappa of 0.85.

This study revealed that narcissism was a prevailing feature of these serial killers. For example, 76% of these individuals exhibited grandiose admiration or the inclination to inflate their achievements, capabilities, and importance.  Furthermore, 84% exhibited vulnerable enmity or the inclination to perceive other people as rivals who need to be defeated. 

As these results demonstrate, these serial killers applied strategies that typify both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism. Arguably, serial killers may often strive to magnify their dominance—a feature of grandiose narcissism—to cope with isolation, inadequacy, and vulnerability, often because of childhood trauma—a feature of vulnerable narcissism.      

Shootings at schools and narcissism: Evidence

Gun violence and shootings at schools are profoundly disconcerting. Yet, because shooters seldom complete psychological tests, and the number of convicted shooters who survive is limited, researchers are not certain of which traits or conditions predict this violence.  To illustrate, only few studies have investigated the prevalence of narcissism in school shooters—and the number of participants in these studies is limited. 

To illustrate, Bondü and Scheithauer (2015) published a study in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology that examined whether school shooters exhibit narcissistic personality disorder.  Specifically,

• these researchers analysed the police investigation files of seven school shootings that had been perpetrated in Germany
• four of these files contained psychological evaluations that psychologists or psychiatrists had prepared
• other files contained the reports of witnesses, the private writings of offenders, and other information that could enable the researchers to diagnose narcissism,
• the researchers then coded whether each piece of information fulfills one of the nine diagnostic criteria of narcissistic personality disorder. 

The results, however, were not especially definitive. One offender fulfilled five of the diagnostic criteria, sufficient to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (Bondü & Scheithauer, 2015).  Four of the other offenders showed between one and three symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder—not sufficient for a diagnosis but suggestive of subclinical narcissism. Furthermore, six of the offenders reported or displayed low self-esteem (Bondü & Scheithauer, 2015), perhaps more consistent with vulnerable narcissism rather than grandiose narcissism.   

Other studies also suggest that school shooters exhibit the hallmarks of narcissism:

• In one analysis of 10 school shooters, at least two exhibit pronounced features of narcissism (Langman, 2009).
• Peter et al. (2019) revealed that narcissism and other personality disorders are prevalent in mass murderers, including school shooters.  However, the analysis did not separate school shooters from other mass murderers—obscuring the implications of these findings.  

Shootings at schools and narcissism: Rationale

McKenney (2025), in a doctoral dissertation, published at California Southern University, collated evidence to suggest that school shooters often appear to demonstrate the hallmarks of vulnerable narcissism and entitlement.  To illustrate

• school shooters often acknowledge their compulsion to be recognised and be perceived as important, perhaps manifesting a sense they feel invisible or isolated now, typical of vulnerable narcissism (Rogoza et al.,2022),
• school shooters often feel they had not received the respect they deserved and instead felt disrespected, reminiscent of vulnerable narcissism,
• these individuals may perpetrate school shootings to attract the respect, attention, and status they believe they deserve. 

Workplace Bullying

Bullying tends to be defined as repeated acts towards other people that are damaging or demeaning (Rai & Agarwal, 2018).  Research has revealed that narcissism, together with other undesirable personality traits, sometimes called the dark triad or dark tetrad, increases the likelihood that someone will perpetrate bullying in the workplace.  To illustrate, in one study, conducted by Fernández-del-Río et al. (2021), 613 employees, from a range of Spanish organisations, completed a questionnaire.  The questionnaire included the following scales to measure narcissism, the other dark traits, other personality traits, as well as bullying:

• the Dark Tetrad at Work Scale (Thibault & Kelloway, 2020), designed to measure narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism, including items such as “I am much more valuable than my coworkers”,
• the NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 2008) to measure the key factors of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience,
• the Negative-Acts-Questionnaire-Perpetrators to assess the degree to which these participants have perpetrated bullying—as well as another measure to assess the degree to which these participants have been the targets of bullying.

As hierarchical regression analysis revealed, people who reported elevated levels of narcissism and sadism were more likely to perpetrate acts of bullying.  These relationships were observed after controlling the other dark traits, the five personality traits, gender, age, and years in the job.  Arguably, some narcissist individuals, especially if they exhibit vulnerable narcissism, may feel compelled to denigrate, and thus bully, other people to maintain or to boost their own status.  Other narcissistic individuals, especially if they exhibit grandiose narcissism, may become hostile towards anyone who challenges their capabilities or questions their authority; this hostility might evolve into bullying over time. 

Adolescent bullying

Many studies have explored the association between narcissism and bullying in adolescents.  A meta-analysis, conducted and published by Schunck et al. (2025) for example, revealed that, in general, narcissistic adolescents are more likely to perpetrate bullying acts, although the effect size is not especially pronounced.

Specifically, to conduct this meta-analysis, the researchers unearthed studies that examine bullying, narcissism, and adolescence.  Publications were included if the participants were aged between 12 and 18, if the researchers had collected the data, if the article was written in English, and if the paper had been peer-reviewed.  This search uncovered 24 research studies. To measure narcissism, most but not all studies utilised

• the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children-Revised (Ang & Raine, 2009), such as “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place”,
• the Childhood Narcissism Scale (Thomaes et al., 2008),
• the Dirty Dozen Scale to measure the dark triad (Jonason & Webster, 2010), or
• the Antisocial Process Screening Device.

The studies assessed many variants of bullying, such as beliefs about aggression, cyberbullying, ringleader bullying, and general bullying.  The meta-analysis, coupled with a narrative synthesis, revealed that

• the correlation between narcissism and bullying is, on average, about 0.2—suggesting that many other characteristics and circumstances also shape the incidence of bullying, such as the culture of a school or setting,
• grandiose narcissism, in which individuals tend to inflate their capabilities, achievements, and authority, increases the likelihood that adolescents may assume the role of a bully,
• vulnerable narcissism, in which individuals tend to depict themselves as victims and undermine other people, increases the likelihood that adolescents may participate in cyber-bullying or even be the target of bullying—although few studies differentiated grandiose and vulnerable narcissism (for an exception, see Fan et al., 2019).

Introduction to cyberbullying and cyber-trolling

In addition to traditional bullying, cyberbullying and a similar activity, cyber-trolling, can devastate the lives of many individuals.  Cyberbullying includes all recurring online behaviours that are designed to inflict harm on particular individuals or groups.  Cyber-trolling includes all online behaviours that are designed to provoke conflict or discord, often intended to humiliate or disempower victims.  Cyberbullying or cyber-trolling may severely impair the wellbeing of their victims. To illustrate

• children and adolescents who have been victims of cyberbullying are more likely to contemplate suicide; indeed, cyberbullying is more likely than traditional bullying to provoke suicidal ideation (Van Geel et al., 2014),
• to confirm the direction of causality, in experimental studies in which one person is excluded during an online game—an experience that simulates cyberbullying—the victim tends to experience severe levels of stress and strong negative emotions (e.g., Alhujailli et al., 2020),
• in experimental studies in which one person is verbally harassed during an online game, receiving comments like “I find you despicable and disgusting”, the victim again experiences severe levels of distress (Alhujailli et al., 2020),
• students who have been victims of cyber-trolling are not as able to establish friendships at school or to socialise effectively with peers (Denwigwe et al., 2019).

Presumably, the inclination of individuals to instigate cyberbullying and cyber-trolling may emanate from specific personality characteristics, especially characteristics in which individuals prefer to harm rather than help other people.  These characteristics are often called dark traits and include narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.

An illustration: Evidence in young adults

To explore whether cyberbullying, and cyber-trolling are related to these dark traits, Alavi et al. (2023) conducted a study in which 323 Malaysian adults, aged between 18 and 26, completed an online questionnaire.  The questionnaire included several measures:

• the Revised Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (Griezel et al., 2012) to assess cyberbullying, comprising visual images, such as “Used a mobile phone to forward a video to a student I knew they wouldn’t like”, and text, such as “Sent a student an email with a message I knew would hurt their feelings”,
• the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling (Buckels et al., 2014) to assess cyber-trolling, epitomised by questions like “I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites”,
• the Short Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) to measure narcissism (e.g., “Many group activities tend to be dull without me”), psychopathy (e.g., “People who mess with me always regret it”), and Machiavellianism (e.g., “I like to use clever manipulation to get my way”),
• the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (O’Meara et al., 2011) to gauge sadism, comprising items like “I have hurt people because I could”.

As structural equation modelling revealed, narcissism was positively associated with cyberbullying but not significantly associated with cyber-trolling (Alavi et al., 2023).  In contrast, psychopathy and sadism were positively associated with both cyberbullying and cyber-trolling.  Finally, Machiavellianism was not significantly associated with either cyberbullying or cyber-trolling.  As Alavi et al. (2023) underscored

• the finding that narcissism is positively associated with cyberbullying is consistent with the results of past studies on this topic (e.g., Baughman et al., 2012; Goodboy & Martin, 2015; see also Van Geel et al., 2017),
• the finding that narcissism is not significantly associated with cyber-trolling is also consistent with past studies (e.g., Craker & March, 2016; Lopes & Yu, 2017; March et al., 2017)—and compatible with the notion that narcissistic people are primarily motivated to inflate their status rather than merely disrupt or hurt other people.o harm rather than help other people. 

Evidence in children and adolescents

Other studies have explored whether these dark traits also promote cyberbullying and cyber-trolling in adolescents.  Alavi et al. (2025) replicated the study that Alavi et al. (2023) conducted, except

• the participants were adolescents
• the participants also completed the measure of life satisfaction that Seligson et al. (2003) constructed, designed to measure satisfaction with family, friends, school, themselves, and their living environment,
• the participants completed a different measure of cyberbullying (Buelga et al., 2020)—a measure that is more applicable to adolescents and include both direct bullying, such as threatening messages, and indirect bullying, such as spreading rumours.

An analysis of the correlations revealed that all four dark traits— narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism—were positively associated with cyberbullying.  Similarly, all traits besides Machiavellianism were positively associated with cyber-trolling.  When these traits were included in the same regression analysis, however, only psychopathy and sadism were positively related to both cyberbullying and cyber-trolling (Alavi et al., 2025).  Neither time spent on line nor life satisfaction moderated these relationships.cissism is positively associated with cyberbullying is consistent with the results of past studies on this topic (e.g., Baughman et al., 2012; Goodboy & Martin, 2015; Van Geel et al., 2017),

As many studies have revealed, when people exhibit the signs of narcissism, they are more likely to communicate dishonestly. That is, narcissistic people often lie (Azizli et al., 2016; Baughman et al., 2014)—as well as believe they can lie successfully.

Evidence

In 2018, Liva Zvi and Eitan Elaad, both academics at Ariel University, conducted an innovative study to explore this association between narcissism and lying.  Specifically, 125 undergraduate students, all of whom were male, completed a series of measures:

• First, to assess the degree to which participants felt they could lie successfully or convey the truth convincingly, these individuals completed the Lie–Truth Ability Assessment Scale, derived from Elaad (2009) and Elaad (2015).  For example, on a 100-point scale, participants indicated, in comparison to other people, their capacity to lie to overcome troubles.
• Second, participants indicated how often they lied in the last week, the number of people to whom they lied, and how frequently they lied for person gain, for enjoyment, or to prevent offence.  These questions were derived from Jonason et al. (2014).
• Third, to measure grandiose narcissism, participants completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, in which they rated 40 statements, such as “I am an extraordinary person”, on a 5-point scale.

As the findings revealed,

• relative to the other participants, individuals who exhibited high levels of grandiose narcissism were more likely to believe they can lie successfully, detect lies in other people, as well as convey the truth convincingly
• all facets of grandiose narcissism, such as a preference to be a leader, a need to attract attention, and the belief they should be treated as special, were positively associated with these perceived capabilities,
• furthermore, all facets of grandiose narcissism were positively associated with the frequency of lying but not the motivation to lie,
• individuals who believed they could lie successfully did indeed tend to lie more frequently. 

In short, many facets of grandiose narcissism tend to encourage dishonest communication.  To some extent, the belief they can lie successfully may also amplify this dishonesty in narcissistic individuals.

Theoretical framework

Campbell and Siedor (2016) proposed a framework, called the SAC model, to characterise the circumstances or conditions that are especially likely to incite dishonesty in narcissistic people.  SAC is an acronym, representing self-enhancing, adaptive, and callous.

First, according to this model, narcissistic people often lie or act dishonestly to self-enhance—that is, to boost their status, rank, self-esteem, or reputation.  For example, narcissistic individuals may be more inclined to exaggerate their knowledge and achievements when attempting to establish a relationship with a person of prestige.  

Second, according to this model, narcissistic people are more likely to communicate or to behave dishonestly when this behaviour could attract more immediate, rather than delayed, benefits—and is thus adaptive, at least transiently.  That is, this principle implies that narcissistic individuals do not necessarily lie impulsively or compulsively but instead deliberately behave dishonestly to earn some reward or benefit.  However, they tend to be more concerned about immediate benefits over future goals.  To illustrate, they might inflate their capabilities in a job interview to secure the job immediately, not especially concerned that perhaps this exaggeration may compromise their credibility in the future when they are unable to fulfill their duties.   

Finally, in contrast to other people, narcissistic people are more likely to communicate or to behave dishonestly when this behaviour may hurt another person, demonstrating a callous attitude.  For instance, if someone criticises their behaviour, narcissistic people may be inclined to disseminate vicious rumours about this person.  Nevertheless, according to Campbell and Siedor (2016), narcissistic people may not be especially motivated to hurt someone.  However, relative to other people, narcissistic individuals may not be concerned about lies that could offend another person.

The dark-ego vehicle principle

According to the dark-ego vehicle principle (Bertrams & Krispenz, 2024; Krispenz & Bertrams, 2024; Krispenz & Bertrams, 2025), individuals who have developed narcissism or other traits that are deemed as socially undesirable—such as psychopathy or Machiavellianism—may participate in activism or embrace ideologies primarily to fulfill egocentric or selfish needs.  For example,

• narcissistic individuals may gravitate to political activities primarily to boost their status, to be perceived as superior, to dominate other people, or to immerse themselves in conflict,
• likewise, narcissistic individuals may also gravitate to political activities, such as environmental activism, because they like to demonstrate aggression towards the elite (Zacher, 2024).

Accordingly, these individuals may not always embrace activism merely to assist other people or communities.  Therefore, despite their participation in these activities, some of the choices or behaviours of these individuals may be detrimental, rather than beneficial, to society.    

Evidence: Narcissism and participation in activism against sexual assault

Recent studies have generated evidence that corroborate this principle. One study was published by Bertrams and Krispenz (2024) in Current Psychology.  Over 300 US adults completed an online questionnaire at two times, separated by a few weeks.  On the first occasion, these participants completed

• the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory-Short Form—an instrument that generates measures of antagonistic narcissism (e.g., “It’s fine to take advantage of persons to get ahead”), extraverted narcissism (e.g., “I often fantasize about someday being famous”), and neurotic narcissism (e.g., “When I realize I have failed at something, I feel humiliated”),
• the Self-Report Altruism Scale (Rushton et al., 1981) that comprises 20 items like “I have given money to a charity”,
• and questions that assess demographics, such as gender.

On the second occasion, participants completed

• the Anti-Sexual Assault Activism Scale (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2021), comprising 20 items, such as “I participate in anti-sexual assault demonstrations, boycotts, marches, rallies, protests, and/or sit-ins”,
• the Illinois Sexual Harassment Myth Acceptance Scale (Lonsway et al., 2008), consisting of 20 questions that gauge scepticism towards sexual harassment allegations, like “Sometimes women make up allegations of sexual harassment to extort money from their employer”,
• questions that assess whether they have been a victim of sexual assault.

The findings partly confirmed the hypotheses.  Specifically, in female participants, narcissism, and especially extraverted narcissism, was positively associated with participation in activism against sexual assault. This relationship persisted even after controlling altruism, scepticism towards sexual harassment allegations, history of sexual assault, age, and gender.  In male participants, however, this relationship was not significant. 

As another publication revealed, however, the association between narcissism and activism may be observed in both males and females.  Specifically, Krispenz and Bertrams (2024) explored the association between pathological grandiose narcissism and activism around feminist issues, including demonstrations, boycotts, and rallies (to access the scale, see Szymanski, 2004). Even after controlling age, gender, altruism, and identification with feminism, grandiose narcissism was positively associated with participation in feminist activism.  This relationship was observed regardless of whether participants were male or female.  

Evidence: Narcissism and participation in activism around gender diversity

Similarly, as Krispenz and Bertrams (2025) revealed, individuals who exhibit pathological grandiose narcissism, as gauged by the Pathological Narcissism Inventory, are more likely than other people to participate in activism, such as demonstrations, to support LGBQ communities or transgender identity.  In addition, this study also explored the motivations that may underpin or mediate these associations.  As this study revealed, the association between pathological grandiose narcissism and activism was mediated by

• virtue signalling (Aquino & Reed, 2002), as gauged by items like “I often wear clothes that identify me as (caring, compassionate, and fair)”, and
• a dominant style (Cheng et al., 2010), as measured by items like “I am willing to use aggressive tactics to get my way”.

As these results imply, people who are narcissistic may participate in activism even if they do not want to assist these communities.  Instead, they may participate in activism to demonstrate their morality, called virtue signalling, or because they like to feel dominant and aggressive.    

Evidence: Narcissism and participation in politics

As Fazekas and Hatemi (2021) revealed, narcissism does not only affect the likelihood that individuals will participate in activities but also affects the likelihood that individuals will participate in political movements in general, such as contact politicians, sign petitions, join demonstrations, and donate money.  However, this relationship varies across the facets of narcissism. 

Specifically, in this study, the researchers collected data from various pools of participants, such as a nationally representative sample of Danish citizens, a nationally representative sample of US citizens, and an online study.  First, these participants completed a series of eight questions, derived from the book written by Verba et al. (1995), to assess their participation in political activities, such as whether they have attended political meetings or contacted politicians.  Next, participants completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.  As confirmed by a confirmatory factor analysis, this inventory generates scores on various facets of narcissism, such as

• authority or the preference to be designated as an authority,
• exhibitionism or a need to attract the attention of people,
• superiority or a feeling they are better than other people,
• a willingness to exploit other people,
• entitlement or the sense they deserve special treatment,
• vanity or an obsession with physical appearance,
• self-sufficiency or a preference to complete tasks alone.

Overall, if participants exhibited narcissism, they were generally more likely to participate in political activity—such as contact politicians—but not more inclined to vote at general elections (Fazekas & Hatemi, 2021).  Some facets of narcissism in particular, such as the preference to be designated as an authority and a feeling they are better than other people, were positively associated with political engagement.  In contrast, self-sufficiency, or a preference to complete tasks alone, was inversely associated with political engagement.

Rogoza et al. (2022) extended these findings, exploring other dark traits as well as the motivations that underpin these associations.  In a sample of 448 Polish adults and another sample of 476 British adults, they discovered that

• narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism were all positively associated with participation in political activities, such as joining boycotts, attending demonstrations, and blocking streets,
• to a significant degree, the association between narcissism and participation in political activities was mediated by the inclination of these individuals to boost their ego—epitomised by items like “I engage in politics because I’m changing the world for the better”,
• in contrast, the association between psychopathy and participation in political activities was mediated by the inclination of these individuals to generate chaos, epitomised by items like “I engage in politics because this way I can spread confusion in my country”.

Implications of the dark-ego vehicle principle

The finding that narcissistic people may participate in activism and politics to fulfill their egocentric needs may not, at first glance, seem too disconcerting.  After all, activism and political engagement can facilitate improvements to social policy and ultimately society. 

Unfortunately, according to the intergroup helping as status-relations model, when people help other individuals and communities merely to boost their status, their actions are often unhelpful (Nadler, 2002; Nadler & Halabi, 2006; Nadler et al., 2009).  Rather than benefit society, people motivated to boost their status tend to increase the degree to which the targets of their support are dependent on this assistance. 

The inclination of individuals to help other people or communities, merely as a means to boost their status or to reinforce their identity, is called defensive helping.  According to Nadler and Halabi (2006), three features characterise defensive helping. 

• First, defensive helping will usually be directed towards the community that threatens the status or social identity of individuals.
• Second, defensive helping will not always be contingent upon the needs or concerns of the recipient.  That is, if individuals merely offer help to improve their own, they are not concerned about whether this assistance is indeed helpful or sought.
• Third, defensive helping will often foster dependency rather than facilitate autonomy. That is, individuals want to maintain their status and position as a source of assistance.  They do not want this recipient to become more autonomous or skilled. 

Nadler et al. (2009) conducted some research that demonstrates these premises.  In the first study, participants were divided into two distinct groups, called the global perceivers and specific perceivers, ostensibly as a consequence of a questionnaire they completed previously.  Second, some of the participants were exposed to a threat to their social identity—in which they were informed their group had not performed as well as their rivals on some task.  

Finally, all participants completed another task, in which they were granted the opportunity to help a member of the other group.  Four individuals, located remotely from one another, two from each group, completed a task over computer.  The task involved locating specific patterns, embedded with a morass of other lines and shapes. Participants were informed that members of the other group could not complete a specific set of questions. They were then invited to offer help, by shifting the cursor to the location in which the target pattern was located.  Generally, participants assisted members of the other group only if, previously, their social identity had been threatened. 

In their final study, participants were granted an opportunity to offer two distinct forms of helping.  Individuals completed a series of analogies, like “Grass is to green as sky is to what?” Participants could either impart the entire solution to a problem or they could offer hints, enabling individuals in the other groups to complete the other question themselves.  When social identity had been threatened, participants were more inclined to impart the entire solution rather than merely offer hints. This finding aligns with the premise that such assistance, called defensive helping, is intended to promote dependence rather than foster autonomy.

Some individuals receive significantly more power, respect, and money than other individuals.  These inequalities or variations across people, although universal and inevitable, are especially pronounced in specific nations, states, or organisations. Often, this inequality is detrimental.  To illustrate,

• as Oishi et al (2011) revealed, during the years when inequality in income diminished in America, citizens were more likely to experience happiness and to perceive other Americans as trustworthy,
• as Cozzolino (2011) showed, when individuals believe that income varies markedly across their neighbourhood, town, or state, the degree to which they trust and assist members of this community subsides,
• as Filippi et al. (2025) showed, at organisations in which salaries vary markedly across levels of management, staff feel the leaders do not care about their welfare, diminishing job satisfaction,
• in states (Walasek & Brown, 2015) or organisations (Muggleton et al., 2022) in which the inequality of income is pronounced, people are more preoccupied with their status, called the social rank hypothesis—and, for example, are more inclined to purchase or to Google brands that epitomise status, such as Ralph Lauren.

Yet, despite these concerns around inequality, narcissistic people generally prefer nations, states, or organisations in which this variability is pronounced.  To illustrate, in one study, conducted by Zitek and Jordan (2016), 201 participants completed a series of measures including

• the Narcissistic Personality Inventory,
• a scale that gauges the belief that existing disparities in wealth and resources should be retained (Jost & Thompson, 2000), comprising items like “Equal distribution of resources is unnatural”,
• a measure of social dominance orientation (Pratto et al., 1994)—or the degree to which participants assume that some people or groups are superior—typified by items like “‘Some groups of people are simply inferior to other group”,
• a question that gauges their perceived socioeconomic status.

As the findings revealed, the participants who reported elevated levels of narcissism endorsed the existing disparities in wealth and resources and tended to assume that some people are inherently superior. Likewise, the other studies that Zitek and Jordan (2016) reported show that

• narcissistic individuals tend to believe that businesses should be hierarchical (for the measure, see Friesen et al., 2014) and, for example, should grant managers the liberty to reach the final decision,
• narcissistic individuals tend to espouse this inequality and hierarchy, especially if they believe they have attained an elevated rank or will attain an elevated rank in the future.

In short, as this research demonstrates, narcissistic people often assume they have attained, or will attain, an elevated rank.  Consequently, they prefer an unequal hierarchy so they can exploit this elevated rank or power in the future.

Rationale

Narcissistic people are more inclined to perpetrate acts of aggression or violence, especially in response to criticism, rejection, or other events that may threaten their perception of themselves (for a review, see Lambe et al., 2018).  These responses are consistent with several theories that delineate the causes of aggression and violence.  Specifically, narcissism emanates from a profound motivation to establish status immediately.  When this status is threatened, such as when these individuals receive unfavourable feedback, they are especially likely to experience humiliation or shame (Besser & Zeigler-Hill, 2010; Robins et al., 2001).  This humiliation tends to provoke aggressive or violent reactions.

Indeed, several theories position humiliation or shame as the foundation of violence. For example, according to Gilligan (1996), when people feel humiliated, they feel as if they have been punished by another person—like they have been attacked.  Because people like to perceive the world as fair, they feel the need to seek justice in response to this punishment. Violent behaviour can be conceptualised as a means to establish this justice.  Similarly, according to Beck (1999), when individuals feel offended or humiliated, they believe the perpetrator deserves to be punished, manifesting as violence or aggression, especially if they feel the offence was unjustified, intentional, and characteristic of this individual.  Likewise, Walker and Bright (2009) propose that some people develop the core belief that individuals need to mask their vulnerability—and, hence, when they feel vulnerable or humiliated, they need to demonstrate confidence and power, sometimes culminating in aggression or violence.

Pioneering studies

Consistent with these premises, many studies have indeed shown that narcissistic people tend to respond more aggressively in response to threats to their perception of themselves.  To illustrate, Vaillancourt (2013) conducted a study to explore which students respond aggressively after they receive unfavourable grades. The participants, comprising 176 university students, were invited to

• complete a measure of self-esteem and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory to assess grandiose narcissism, such as “Everybody likes to hear my stories”,
• write about their attitudes towards Euthanasia.

Next, their professor graded these essays. Participants received either a high grade and positive feedback, such as “No suggestions, great essay”, or a low grade and unfavourable feedback, such as “This is one of the worst essays I have ever read”.  Finally, purportedly unrelated to this study, participants evaluated the marking ability, fairness, helpfulness, and competence of their professors, on a 7-point scale.  They also could submit written evaluations of these professors. 

As predicted, participants who received unfavourable feedback were more inclined to evaluate the teachers harshly.  More importantly, this tendency to evaluate teachers harshly was more pronounced when participants also reported high levels of narcissism and a high self-esteem.  Presumably, when individuals experience narcissism, their self-esteem is fragile.  They can thus feel especially humiliated in response to unfavourable feedback.

Harsh evaluations, however, may not represent aggression.  Other studies, in contrast, have explored whether narcissism coincides with physical aggression in response to rejections or other threats.  In one study, conducted by Twenge and Campbell (2003), 31 undergraduate students first completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a measure of self-esteem, and the revised Janis-Field Feelings of Inadequacy Scale (Fleming & Courtney, 1984; Janis & Field, 1959).  Next,

• participants were granted 15 minutes to interact socially with three to five other people and could then nominate two people with whom they would like to interact further,
• then, participants were informed they had been rejected by all the other individuals.

Finally, to measure aggression, participants completed a computer task in which they competed with one of the other individuals.  If they won a trial, the other person would hear white noise.  Participants could set the intensity and duration of this noise blast—a subtle measure of aggression.  Compared to other participants, narcissistic individuals were more likely to choose a loud and long blast of noise, suggesting they were more aggressive in response to their rejection. As a subsequent study revealed, when the participants had not been rejected, narcissism was not associated with aggression.

Clinical samples

Some research has explored whether narcissism predicts aggression in clinical samples.  To illustrate, Svindseth et al. (2008) conducted a study at the Aalesund Hospital in Norway.  Individuals who were admitted to the closed psychiatric wards of this hospital, either voluntarily or involuntarily, were invited to participate in this study.  The final sample of 186 patients completed

• the Narcissistic Personality Inventory—an instrument that gauges four facets of grandiose narcissism,
• the Rosenburg measure of self-esteem, and
• the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983).

Furthermore, the degree to which these patients had displayed violence on ward was derived from the medical records.  Participants were divided into three categories: no violence, mild to moderate violence, including threats, and severe violence. Clinicians also evaluated other psychopathologies. As the analyses revealed, narcissism was positively associated with severe violence, after controlling gender, age, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and other measures.

Systematic review

Lambe et al. (2018) conducted a systematic literature review to assess the association between narcissism and aggression.  This review uncovered 25 separate studies, across 20 articles that had explored this association.  A systematic analysis of these studies revealed that

• in clinical or forensic samples, narcissism tends to increase the likelihood of violence by between 1.2 and 11 times,
• to explain this variation, narcissism was a stronger predictor of severe violence, such as homicide, than mild or moderate levels of violence,
• in studies in which participants were university students, narcissism tended to predict aggression, especially after individuals were rejected or criticised,
• as six out of seven studies revealed, after individuals received positive feedback, narcissism was no longer significantly associated with aggression,
• some research also indicates this aggression is not only directed to the perpetrator but also to innocent bystanders, called displaced aggression.

Illustration

Some people experience chronic stress. That is, they are continually exposed to challenges, such as conflicts with family or limited money, with few opportunities to recover emotionally.  As Yu et al. (2025) revealed, this chronic stress can affect the degree to which narcissism culminates in interpersonal problems, such as aggression. 

Specifically, 451 Chinese adolescents and one of their caregivers, aged between 12 and 17, participated in this study.  The adolescents first completed a questionnaire that included

• the Narcissism Scale for Children (Derry et al., 2019)—an instrument that assesses both grandiose narcissism (e.g., “I have always known I am more special than most kids”) and vulnerable narcissism (e.g., “I would rather be alone than not get what I want”),
• the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) to measure physical aggression and verbal aggression, as well as
• measures of self-esteem and negative affectivity.

In addition, the parents completed a questionnaire that measures the degree to which their adolescent children initiate prosocial behaviour, such as the frequency which they offer help to other people or consider the feelings of other individuals.  Finally, the researchers assessed the adolescents on a range of physiological measures that are indicative of chronic stress, called allostatic load (for a review, see Whelan et al., 2021).  Specifically, the researchers assessed

• levels of cortisol in the urine, in which high levels indicate activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenocortical or HPA axis,
• levels of DHEA, an adrenal hormone, in the urine in which low levels indicate activation of the HPA axis,
• levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine in the urine, in which high levels indicate activation of the sympathetic nervous system,
• heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure,
• and body mass index.

As the results indicated, these physiological measures, emblematic of chronic stress in adolescents (Hoffman et al., 2024; Ren et al., 2024), moderated the associations between narcissism, aggression, and prosocial behaviour.  In particular

• grandiose narcissism was positively associated with aggression, but only when chronic stress was elevated,
• vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with prosocial behaviour when chronic stress was elevated and inversely associated with prosocial behaviour when chronic stress was limited.

Furthermore, regardless of whether chronic stress was elevated, grandiose narcissism was positively associated with prosocial behaviours and vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with aggression. 

Explanation

To explain the association between narcissism and aggression as well as the moderating effect of chronic stress, Yu et al. (2025) proposed several arguments:

• individuals who exhibit grandiose narcissism often behave aggressively to manipulate other people and to boost their status or dominance,
• however, these individuals experience this urge to boost their status only in stressful circumstances, explaining the moderating effect of chronic stress,
• individuals who exhibit vulnerable narcissism often behave aggressively to undermine other people when they feel their perception of themselves has been threatened,
• yet, because vulnerable narcissism tends to coincide with neuroticism, these individuals perennially feel threatened, even when their life is not stressful.    

To explain the association between narcissism and prosocial behaviour as well as the moderating effect of chronic stress, Yu et al. (2025) suggested that

• grandiose narcissists may initiate prosocial behaviour, such as assist other individuals, to reinforce their social standing—that is, to depict themselves as important; this behaviour is especially appropriate in collectivist cultures,
• vulnerable narcissists may initiate prosocial behaviour only to fulfill their need to belong: a need that is activated during stressful circumstances.