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).  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 child abuse as well as increase the likelihood 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.

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).

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.

Rationale

Narcissism might, at least partly, explain parental abuse as well.  That is, narcissistic parents might be unduly sensitive to circumstances in which one of their children threaten their perception of themselves.  To illustrate, parents might feel their status may diminish after their children fail on some task.  Or parents might feel their status as an authority figure is jeopardised when their children are defiant. Consequently, in response to this threat to their status, narcissistic parents may often react emotionally and aggressively towards their children, manifesting as emotional abuse or even physical abuse (Wiehe, 2003).

Evidence

Wiehe (2003), an academic from the University of Kentucky, conducted a study that was designed to explore this possibility.  Specifically, this study compared 52 emotionally or physically abusive parents, as identified by child protective services, and a control group of 101 foster parents.  These parents completed a survey that included

• the Narcissistic Personality Inventory to gauge various facets of grandiose or overt narcissism,
• the Hypersensitivity Narcissism Scale to gauge vulnerable or covert narcissism,
• the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983), designed to measure empathy.

Overall, compared to the foster parents, the abusive parents reported higher levels of narcissism and lower levels of empathy. Specifically, the following facets of narcissism and empathy differed between these abusive parents and foster parents:

• authority, encompassing a sense of dominance,
• exhibitionism, encompassing the need to attract attention and seek excitement,
• superiority, encompassing the motivation to be perceived as significant and powerful,
• exploitation, encompassing the tendency to be hostile and uncaring of other people,
• self-sufficiency, encompassing the need to be independent and assertive,
• vanity, encompassing the need to be perceived as physically attractive,
• vulnerable narcissism,
• perspective taking—or the tendency and capacity of individuals to adopt the perspective of other people,
• empathic concern—or warm and compassionate feelings towards other people
• low personal distress—or a limited tendency to become preoccupied with personal anxieties.