Self-affirmation as an intervention for narcissistic overt aggression

Abstract

Background. Narcissistic individuals have inflated self-views that are vulnerable to ego-threat. They can act out violently when they feel their ego is threatened. Method. An experiment was conducted with 565 young adolescents (M = 12.98, SD = 0.87) in the Netherlands. We tested whether narcissistic aggression would be reduced after completing a self-affirmation exercise known to buttress self-esteem. Multiple regression analysis with a three-way interaction between narcissism, state self-esteem and experimental condition was used to test whether the experiment had any effect on the amount of ego-threat experienced and thus whether ego-threat moderates the relationship between narcissism and aggression. Results. Even though overt aggression and narcissism were positively associated, there were no significant interaction effects found between narcissism, state self-esteem and the experimental condition on overt aggression. Conclusions. Multiple regression analysis did not show a significant effect of the experimental or control condition on overt aggression, regardless of the level of perceived ego-threat. Low self-esteem and gender were found to be significant predictors. Keywords. Narcissism, state self-esteem, ego-threat, adolescence, aggression, bullying.