A recent study published in the Journal of Personality suggests that certain types of narcissism can drive a person to seek social status, while achieving that status might fuel their narcissism in return. The research provides evidence of a two-way street between self-centered personality traits and the pursuit of social standing. These findings suggest that climbing the social ladder and possessing an inflated ego tend to reinforce each other over time.
Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for excessive attention, and a lack of empathy for others. Psychologists generally divide narcissism into two main categories known as grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Grandiose narcissism involves extraversion, arrogance, and a tendency to boldly self-promote. Vulnerable narcissism is characterized by deep insecurity, defensiveness, and a tendency to withdraw socially when feeling threatened.
Within these broad categories, there are specific behavioral styles that psychologists track. Agentic narcissism is a uniquely grandiose trait that involves seeking acclaim and asserting dominance over others. Antagonistic narcissism is shared by both grandiose and vulnerable types, and it involves intense entitlement and a willingness to exploit people. Neurotic narcissism is uniquely vulnerable and is tied to emotional hypersensitivity and an intense fear of failure.
Researchers Christian Jordan and Nikhila Mahadevan designed their study to understand the exact sequence of events connecting these personality traits to social motives. The authors wanted to know if highly narcissistic people are naturally driven to seek status, or if gaining status tends to make people more narcissistic.
“Narcissism can be expressed in many different forms,” explained Jordan, a professor of psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. “Recently, Dr. Nikhila Mahadevan and I found that all of these forms relate to a strong desire for status and argued that this is a defining feature of narcissism.”
“It is also true that lots of research has found that people in high-status positions in society often have higher levels of narcissism, particularly grandiose narcissism (the bold, arrogant and self-aggrandizing form),” Jordan explained. “One question that has never been clearly addressed is whether that link occurs because narcissistic individuals strive for status more than others and are therefore more likely to achieve it, or whether being in high-status positions leads people to become more narcissistic over time. So that’s what we tested.”
Psychologists separate human social desires into two fundamental motives known as status and inclusion. Status refers to being respected, admired, and holding a powerful position in a social hierarchy. Inclusion simply means being liked, accepted, and feeling like an equal part of a community.
To test their ideas, the researchers recruited 528 undergraduate students from a Canadian university to participate in their research. The authors used a longitudinal study design, which means they collected data from the exact same group of people at multiple points in time. Participants completed three online surveys in total, with each survey spaced exactly two weeks apart.
During each of the three time periods, participants filled out several detailed questionnaires. The surveys measured their general desires for status and their general desires for inclusion. They also asked participants to rate their perceived attainment of these goals. This meant indicating how much they currently felt respected, admired, liked, and accepted by the people around them.
The surveys also tracked specific social interactions over the prior two weeks. Participants reported their levels of assertiveness, such as actively standing up for themselves in social situations or taking charge of a group. They also reported their affiliativeness, which involves friendly, cooperative behaviors like laughing with others or offering emotional support. Finally, the surveys included comprehensive personality tests to measure the different specific facets of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism.
The researchers found that grandiose forms of narcissism operate in a reciprocal loop with social status. When participants exhibited higher levels of grandiose narcissism than usual, they reported stronger desires for status two weeks later. When they showed elevated grandiose narcissism, they were also more likely to feel they had successfully attained high status at the next check-in.
“The main thing that we found is that people who are higher in grandiose narcissism tend to become more motivated to achieve status and to perceive themselves as having status over time,” Jordan told PsyPost. “And people who perceive themselves to have higher status and to desire status strongly, tend to increase in grandiose narcissism over time. This is consistent with grandiose narcissism and status feeding each other.”
Vulnerable narcissism produced a completely different pattern of results in the study. When participants experienced higher levels of vulnerable narcissism than usual, they actually reported weaker desires for both status and inclusion two weeks later. They also engaged in less friendly, affiliative behavior during that time.
“On the other hand, those high in vulnerable narcissism (the more neurotic, insecure and withdrawn form) tend to desire status, but this desire diminishes over time,” Jordan explained. “Similarly, believing you have achieved higher status is associated with lower levels of vulnerable narcissism over time.”
“So, it seems as though grandiose narcissism both fuels and is fueled by wanting and believing you have status,” Jordan added. “In contrast, vulnerable narcissism reduces the desire for status and the belief you have achieved it, and vice versa, over time.”
The authors found these results regarding vulnerable narcissism particularly notable. “We did not really expect vulnerable narcissism to be related to less desire for status over time,” Jordan said. “It tends to be correlated with greater desire for status when you examine it at just one time point. But over time, it is related to decreasing desire for status.”
“We already knew that people higher in vulnerable narcissism think they are lower in status than other people,” Jordan continued. “Our results suggest that they may withdraw from the pursuit of status over time, possibly because they doubt their ability to compete.”
The findings also point to the fact that narcissistic individuals focus heavily on status rather than genuine social connection. Grandiose narcissism did not consistently predict a desire to simply be included or liked. While they sometimes reported feeling included, their primary drive appeared to be elevated social rank and dominance.
Interestingly, the study provided evidence that feeling included might actually soothe an inflated ego. When participants felt highly accepted and liked by their peers, their levels of grandiose narcissism tended to decrease over the following two weeks. This indicates that a strong sense of warm community connection might reduce a person’s need for self-aggrandizing behavior.
But there are a few limitations to consider when interpreting the results. The sample was limited to university students in Canada. The social environment of a college campus is highly specific and dynamic, with unique pressures and hierarchies.
“First, we tested this only with undergraduate students,” Jordan explained. “We felt this group was a good one to test this in, because status and a sense of identity may fluctuate more in this context than in most contexts, but it does limit our ability to generalize to other groups.”
The researchers also noted some variations in their data depending on which specific questionnaires were used. “In addition, our findings were a bit inconsistent across different measures of vulnerable and grandiose narcissism (we included more than one of each),” Jordan pointed out. “So these findings should be considered preliminary and replicated in future research.”
Another factor is the reliance on self-reported questionnaires. “Lastly, we tested participants’ own perceptions of whether they had achieved status in the eyes of others, not more objective measures of status, so it’s unclear how accurate those perceptions were,” Jordan said. “Still, I think ultimately it is those perceptions that are most important in these processes (e.g., do I believe that people respect and admire me?) even if they don’t fully reflect reality.”
Moving forward, the researchers hope to see these psychological processes tested in older adults and different cultural backgrounds. “It would be good to test this pattern of results in other populations both to determine whether it replicates and to be able to draw broader conclusions about these effects,” Jordan noted. “A number of research groups (including Dr. Virgil Zeigler-Hill and his colleagues, and Dr. Stathis Grapsas and his colleagues) are also converging on the general idea that concern with and pursuit of status are central to narcissism as a personality disposition.”
“Testing how different expressions of narcissism relate to the desire for status and a sense of having achieved status, across different timescales and social contexts may help us understand a lot more about the fundamental psychology of narcissistic people,” Jordan concluded.
The study, “Ego, Elevation, and Exclusion: Bidirectional Prospective Associations Between Narcissism and Status and Inclusion,” was authored by Christian H. Jordan and Nikhila Mahadevan.