A new study provides insight into why narcissistic individuals are more likely than non-narcissists to engage in antisocial behaviors. The findings, which appear in Psychological Reports, suggest that need for power plays a key role in linking narcissism to aggressive and hostile actions.
“I am very intrigued by the mind and abnormal psychology. I am also very intrigued by how the mind and disorders can affect an individual and their life. So, this research allowed me to gain more knowledge on the matters,” said study author Megan Brooke Alexander, an undergraduate student at Eastern Kentucky University.
“In my study, when I talk about antisocial, I don’t mean shyness. I mean behaviors that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others. This includes criminal behaviors or violent behaviors.”
In two surveys of 324 undergraduate students and 323 individuals recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, the researchers found that those who scored higher on an assessment of narcissism also tended to score high on a measure of need for power, which in turn was associated with engaging in antisocial behaviors. Resistance to subordination, a subcomponent of need for power, was primarily responsible for the association between narcissism and criminal behavior.
“People with narcissism do not like to be submissive to others. They like to be in control of others. Therefore, some will go to the extreme to be in control, meaning they will commit antisocial behaviors. This research and future research could assist in the treatment and rehabilitation of such individuals,” Alexander told PsyPost.
“In short, they are less concerned with being in a powerful role as much as they do not want to be dominated by someone else,” the researchers wrote in their study.
The study — like all research — includes some limitations.
“First, the data from this research did not come from prison or clinical populations. It came from non-clinical students and citizens. Therefore, future research should include samples from both clinical and non-clinical populations to determine any differences and similarities between the two populations,” Alexander explained.
“Second, there was an issue identifying whether antisocial behavior at an early age becomes internalized or rationalized to form narcissistic traits, or if individual differences in narcissism are formulated first. In order to address this implication, longitudinal strategies would need to take place.”
“One big question that remains is that need for power did not mediate the association between exploitative narcissism and criminal behavior. The question is why? The answer could be that there is a different explanatory factor between the link, maybe like hormonal conditions rather than motivational conditions. Future research should address this question,” Alexander added.
The study, “How Need for Power Explains Why Narcissists Are Antisocial“, was authored by Megan Brooke Alexander, Jonathan Gore, and Caitlin Estep.