Are narcissists sexy? Zeroing in on the effect of narcissism on short-term mate appeal

This research was aimed to provide a comprehensive test of the classic notion that narcissistic individuals are appealing as short-term romantic or sexual partners. In three studies, we tested the hypotheses that narcissism exerts a positive effect on an individual’s mate appeal and that this effect is mediated by high physical attractiveness and high social boldness. We implemented a multimethod approach and used ratings of opposite sex persons (Study 1), ratings of friends (Study 2), and records of courtship outcomes in naturalistic interactions (Study 3) as indicators of mate appeal. In all cases, narcissism had a positive effect on mate appeal, which was mainly due to the agentic self-enhancement aspects of narcissism (rather than narcissists’ lacking communion). As predicted, physical attractiveness and social boldness mediated the positive effect of narcissism on mate appeal. Findings further indicated that narcissism was more strongly linked to mate appeal than to friend appeal. Keywords: narcissism, mating, attractiveness, boldness, popularit

Communal collective narcissism

Objectives: we aimed to introduce, validate, and showcase the utility of a new construct: communal collective narcissism.Method: we conducted four studies, in which we developed a new scale for communal collective narcissism (Study 1, N = 856), tested the construct’s unique predictions (Study 2, N = 276), examined its social relevance (Study 3, N = 250), and assessed its implications for intergroup outcomes (Study 4, N = 664). Results: in Study 1, we verified the structural soundness of the Communal Collective Narcissism Inventory. In Study 2, we obtained evidence for a defining feature of communal collective narcissism, namely that it predicts communal, but not agentic, ingroup-enhancement. In Study 3, we illustrated the social relevance of communal collective narcissism. Communal collective narcissists derogated outgroup members, if those outgroups threatened the ingroup and the threat targeted the ingroup’s communion. Finally, in Study 4, we showed that communal collective narcissism predicts intergroup outcomes in the communal domain (e.g., humanitarian aid) better than agentic collective narcissism does, whereas agentic collective narcissism predicts intergroup outcomes in the agentic domain (i.e., preferences for military aggression) better than communal collective narcissism does.Conclusions: the construct of communal collective narcissism is conceptually and empirically distinct from classic (i.e., agentic) collective narcissism.<br/