It may be common knowledge that people who are narcissistic feel very entitled, but how is that entitlement justified? A study published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences suggests that grandiose narcissists and vulnerable narcissists justify entitlement in very different ways.
Entitlement can be thought of as the belief that an individual deserves more than other people and is linked to selfishness as well as lowered participation in helping behavior. The relationship between narcissism and entitlement is well documented. Narcissism can be split into two types: grandiose and vulnerable. These two types share many adverse behavioral traits, such as being antagonistic and self-absorbed, but also have many differences. Grandiose narcissists are overconfident and socially charming, while vulnerable narcissists are anxious and lack self-confidence. Both types of narcissism are highly correlated with entitlement.
Researchers Stephanie D. Freis and Ashley A. Hansen-Brown conducted three studies to investigate narcissism and entitlement. In all three studies, participants were university students from a college in the Midwestern United States participating for course credit. Subjects answered demographic questions and completed measures on narcissism, entitlement, superiority, and injustice. The first study replicated previous research on the link between narcissism and entitlement.
Additionally, the first study looked at justification statements. Grandiose narcissists chose statements such as “I am naturally deserving” and vulnerable narcissists chose statements such as “I have been disadvantaged in the past.” This supports the hypothesis that different types of narcissism experience different reasons for entitlement.
Study 2 expanded on this by showing that vulnerable narcissism was correlated with victim justice sensitivity, supporting the idea that vulnerable narcissists see themselves as disadvantaged and victims. Study 3 revealed that grandiose narcissism made it easy to think of times they had been “deservedly better off” and vulnerable narcissism made it easy to think of times they had been “undeservedly worse off.”
This supported the authors’ hypothesis that grandiose narcissists see their superiority as intrinsic, while vulnerable narcissists see their disadvantage as unfair. Also supporting this were the results that superiority mediated the relationship between grandiose narcissism and entitlement, while both superiority and concerns of injustice mediated the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and entitlement.
This study sought to parse out differences in entitlement between grandiose and vulnerable narcissists. These studies were correlational and cross-sectional, and these results would be strengthened by using experimental manipulation in future research. In addition, the sample was comprised solely of Midwestern college students, which is a very narrow population, and may not be generalizable of people of different demographics.
The study, “Justifications of entitlement in grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: The roles of injustice and superiority“, was authored by Stephanie D. Freisa and Ashley A. Hansen-Brown.