Early information processing in narcissism: Heightened sensitivity to negative but not positive evaluative attributes

Abstract

Abstract Previous experimental evidence has revealed that people with high self-reported narcissism demonstrate heightened sensitivity to negative evaluative stimuli, suggesting a defensive motivational style related to fragile self-views. It remains less clear whether people with high self-reported narcissism demonstrate similar heightened sensitivity to positive evaluative stimuli in line with the view of narcissism as an adaptive self-enhancement system related to (very) positive self-views. Participants (N\xa0=\xa085) were tested on computer based semantic priming tasks and completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Experiment 1 investigated sensitivity to negative (e.g. “worthless”) and Experiment 2 sensitivity to positive (e.g. “brilliant”) words in people with higher self-reported narcissism. We explored for the first time associations between heightened sensitivity and facets of narcissism. Results showed participants with high self-reported narcissism were faster at detecting negative but not positive words, with the onset of sensitivity occurring very early in information processing. This heightened sensitivity to negative words was predicted by scores on the Superiority sub-scale of the NPI. The present results confirm that heightened sensitivity to evaluative stimuli in narcissism is likely the result of a defensive style related to fragile self-views rather than being part of a healthy adaptive self-enhancement system.