The relationship of narcissism with tendency to react with anger and hostility : the role of neuroticism and emotion regulation ability

The present study examined the relationship of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism with dispositional anger and hostility. We investigated the roles of neuroticism, emotional intelligence, and gender in this relationship, using a sample of 405 participants. The results indicated that vulnerable narcissism was associated with a higher tendency toward anger and hostility, and that neuroticism accounted for a large part of this association. Poor emotion managing, known as strategic emotion regulation ability, also played a role in hostility related to vulnerable narcissism, especially among men. When emotional stability was controlled for, grandiose narcissism showed links to anger and hostility. We concluded that high neuroticism and poor emotion regulation abilities among vulnerable narcissists contribute to increased anger/hostility, whereas emotional stability likely protects grandiose narcissists against these internal aspects of aggression. The significant relationships between both forms of narcissism with aggression, remaining after neuroticism and emotion regulation were accounted for, suggest that there is another underlying source of this link. Finally, we found that controlling for interindividual differences in neuroticism significantly increased the relationship between vulnerable and grandiose narcissism, suggesting the existence of the common core of narcissism

Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissism Are Differentially Associated With Ability and Trait Emotional Intelligence

We examined the association between two types of narcissism, grandiose and vulnerable, and self-reported as well as ability emotional intelligence (EI). Grandiose narcissism is characterized by high self–esteem, interpersonal dominance and a tendency to overestimate one’s capabilities, whereas vulnerable narcissism presents defensive, avoidant and hypersensitive attitude in interpersonal relations. In the current study (n = 249) we found that vulnerable narcissism was significantly and negatively associated with trait (self-reported) EI; however, it did not correlate with ability (performance) EI. Grandiose narcissism was significantly positively connected with trait EI. Moreover, when the two EI scores were analyzed together in a single model, they were associated with grandiose narcissism in opposite directions. Specifically, trait EI showed a positive relation with grandiose narcissism, while ability EI negatively predicted this type of narcissism. The latter results are consistent with previous findings showing that individuals with high level of grandiose narcissism tend to overestimate their abilities. Vulnerable narcissism is probably connected with more realistic self-perception of emotional abilities

Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs

The current research examined whether the perception of evil intentions by the conspirators influences conspiracy beliefs about particular narratives. Study 1 manipulated texts describing the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be either low or high in conspiratorial information. Studies 2 and 3 manipulated texts describing a fictional country's election to be either low or high in antagonism. The studies revealed that the conspiratorial/antagonistic texts increased evil perceptions and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, they revealed that perceptions of evil mediated the effect of the text condition on conspiracy beliefs. Although the studies found that the conspiratorial/antagonistic texts increased entertainment value appraisals, they did not find evidence of entertainment value mediating the effect of text condition on conspiracy beliefs. These latter results do not replicate those of van Prooijen et al. (2022). The novel results with evil perceptions suggest that perceiving that the conspirators acted with evil intentions may increase conspiracy beliefs

Kinga Szymaniak's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

Memories of angering events: Word count analysis of autobiographical recall of angering events

The current research explored the language individuals use to describe their memories of times they experienced intense anger. Word count analysis of these memories was conducted using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2022). Angry memories were compared with neutral memories (Study 1) and fearful, sad, anxious, and disgust memories (Studies 2 and 3). These latter comparison conditions were useful as they compared discrete emotions that were similar to anger in negativity and arousal. Some of the most consistent and striking differences were that angry memories, as compared to other memories, included: more social words (personal pronouns, social processes, affiliation, males, females); more words relating to agency/coping potential (clout, drive, power); more words related to justification (moralization, politeness); and more words related to conflict (conflict, communication). These results suggest that angry memories exhibit unique linguistic characteristics

Belief in Conspiracy Theories that Differ in Evil Intentions: Correlations with Anger and Other Traits

The present research extended past correlational research (Harmon-Jones & Szymaniak, 2023) by manipulating the mediator – evil perceptions – in the relationship between trait anger and conspiracy beliefs. This past research revealed that trait anger correlated positively with conspiracy beliefs and with perceiving conspirators to have more evil intentions. Moreover, perceived evil intentions statistically mediated the relationship between trait anger and conspiracy beliefs. The current research first created a questionnaire to manipulate the evil intentions associated with relatively novel and unknown conspiracy theories (Study 1). Then, trait anger and other personality characteristics were measured along with beliefs in the low- and high-evil conspiracy theories (Study 2). Results revealed that trait anger correlated positively with beliefs in both types of conspiracy theories. Moreover, trait anger continued to predict belief in high-evil conspiracy theories when statistically controlling for belief in low-evil conspiracy theories. A general conspiracy mentality yielded similar results. Discussion focuses on how perceiving evil intentions in conspiracy theories may be one explanation for why trait anger relates to conspiracy beliefs