Recent research published in Frontiers in Psychiatry has shed new light on the psychological mechanisms underpinning pathological narcissism. The study found that individuals with higher levels of narcissism are more likely to engage in grandiose fantasizing—a form of daydreaming about success, power, or beauty—to regulate their emotions and bolster their self-esteem.
Pathological narcissism is characterized by an intense, often unstable sense of self-importance. While much of the existing research has focused on how narcissists seek validation from others to maintain their inflated self-view, less is known about how they internally regulate their emotions and self-esteem. The new study aimed to fill that gap by exploring whether grandiose fantasizing serves as an effective internal coping mechanism for those with high levels of narcissism, particularly following negative emotional experiences.
The researchers recruited 193 participants through Prolific, an online research platform. To participate, individuals had to be between 18 and 40 years old, fluent in English, and free of long-term health conditions or disabilities.
Once selected, participants underwent a series of assessments to measure their levels of narcissism, self-esteem, and emotional states. The researchers used well-established questionnaires, including the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Depression and Anxiety Stress Scale. These tools provided baseline data on each participant’s psychological profile.
Participants were then randomly assigned to either a negative mood induction task or a neutral filler task. Those in the negative mood induction group were asked to recall and write about a personal failure for three minutes. This task was designed to lower their mood and self-esteem temporarily. Meanwhile, the filler task involved writing down objects in the room for three minutes, serving as a neutral activity that would not affect their mood.
Following this, participants engaged in a future thinking task. They were given a choice to write about a future event that would make them feel good, selecting from words associated with either positive affect (such as “enthusiastic” or “inspired”) or grandiose traits (such as “extraordinary” or “powerful”). They wrote about their chosen future event for three minutes.
To further understand the characteristics of the future events described, the researchers recruited an additional 128 participants to rate the plausibility, ambitiousness, and emotional tone of the writings. These external ratings provided qualitative insights into the nature of grandiose versus positive future thinking.
The researchers found that individuals with higher levels of narcissism were significantly more likely to choose grandiose words and engage in grandiose fantasizing compared to those with lower levels of narcissism. This suggests a preference for grandiose fantasizing among those with elevated narcissistic traits.
Moreover, the effectiveness of grandiose fantasizing as an emotional regulation tool was highlighted. Participants who engaged in grandiose fantasizing reported larger decreases in negative affect and greater increases in positive affect compared to those who wrote about general positive future events. This effect was particularly pronounced for individuals with higher levels of narcissism, suggesting that grandiose fantasizing is a more effective method of mood regulation for them.
Additionally, the qualitative analysis of the future events revealed distinct characteristics of grandiose fantasizing. Grandiose future events were rated as more ambitious, less plausible, more agentic (indicating that the person felt in control of the event), and having a more negative emotional tone compared to positive future events. This supports the idea that grandiose fantasizing involves envisioning highly ambitious, though often unrealistic, future scenarios.
These findings provide empirical support for the theory that grandiose fantasizing is not just a general tendency in pathological narcissism but serves a functional role in regulating emotions.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that that people scoring high in narcissism are more likely to choose to engage in grandiose fantasizing to make themselves feel better,” the researchers conclude. “We also believe that this is the first study to demonstrate that grandiose fantasizing is a more efficacious affect regulator for people scoring high in narcissism than people scoring low in narcissism.”
“This work provides empirical support for an oft-cited theory that grandiose fantasizing is regulatory and should increase confidence in the idea that grandiose fantasizing is not just a general tendency in pathological narcissism, but rather serves a functional (and potentially adaptive) role. It also highlights the specificity of this function for people scoring higher in narcissism and suggests that affect may be a variable that warrants increased consideration in future research. Although we provide evidence supporting the short-term benefits of grandiose fantasizing, future work would do well to also consider its longer-term consequences.”
The study, “Functional fantasies: the regulatory role of grandiose fantasizing in pathological narcissism,” was authored by Ellen F. Finch and Jill M. Hooley.