Narcissists as "Victims": the role of narcissism in the perception of transgressions.
Narcissism is a set of traits that are motivated by the desire to establish and maintain a grandiose self-image. Consistent with this conceptualization, the authors hypothesized that narcissistic people perceive themselves to be the victims of other people's inter-personal transgressions more frequently than do less narcissistic people. In a 14-day diary study, the authors found that narcissism (particularly in its exploitiveness/entitlement dimension) was associated positively with the number and frequency of transgressions that respondents reported. The narcissism-victimization relationship appears to result, at least in part, from biased recall or self-presentation. The exploitiveness/entitlement dimension of narcissism may be particularly useful for explaining why narcissistic people report higher rates of interpersonal transgressions in their daily lives.
McCullough
Michael E
ME
University of Miami, Coral, Gables, FL 33124-2070, USA. mikem@miami.edu
Emmons
Robert A
RA
Kilpatrick
Shelley Dean
SD
Mooney
Courtney N
CN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009289:Narcissism; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology