A review of 437 previous studies, published recently in the journal Psychological Bulletin, found that individuals with high levels of narcissism are prone to aggressive and violent behavior, especially when they are provoked; the relationship was robust for different forms and functions of aggression, different types and dimensions of narcissism, and for males and females of different ages from different countries.
Kjærvik & Bushman found the best evidence to date that narcissism is an important risk factor for both aggression and violence.
“It is a pretty straightforward message: narcissism is a significant risk factor for aggressive and violent behavior across the board,” said Ohio State University’s Professor Brad Bushman, co-author of the study.
“The link we found between narcissism and aggression was significant — it was not trivial in size. The findings have important real-world implications,” added Ohio State University Ph.D. student Sophie Kjaervik, first author of the study.
Professor Bushman and Kjaervik combined and analyzed data from 437 independent studies with a total of 123,043 participants.
Narcissism was related to all forms of aggression measured in these studies, including physical, verbal, bullying, direct or indirect, and displaced onto innocent targets.
“Individuals who are high in narcissism are not particularly picky when it comes to how they attack others,” Kjaervik said.
“The findings showed that narcissism was linked to online cyberbullying, as well as bullying offline. That’s a highly important finding now that we live in an online world.”
“People higher in narcissism were not only more likely to lash out in anger, but were also more likely to be cold, deliberate and proactive in their aggression,” Professor Bushman said.
People high in narcissism were more likely than others to be aggressive whether they were provoked or not.
But the risk for aggression was significantly higher when they felt provoked, such as being ignored or insulted.
The researchers were somewhat surprised to find that the link between narcissism and violence was nearly as strong as its link with less serious forms of aggression.
“Violence is more rare than and is generally more difficult to predict than lesser forms of aggression,” Professor Bushman said.
The results suggest that higher levels of narcissism are related to more aggression even before it reaches pathological levels.
“All of us are prone to being more aggressive when we are more narcissistic,” Professor Bushman said.
“One thing that clearly stood out in the analysis was how people high in narcissism respond when they feel threatened.”
“Our results suggest provocation is a key moderator of the link between narcissism and aggression.”
“Those who are high in narcissism have thin skins, and they will lash out if they feel ignored or disrespected.”
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S.L. Kjærvik & B.J. Bushman. 2021. The link between narcissism and aggression: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, in press; doi: 10.1037/bul0000323
