Trumping shame by blasts of noise: narcissism, self-esteem, shame, and aggression in young adolescents.
This experiment tested how self-views influence shame-induced aggression. One hundred and sixty-three young adolescents (M = 12.2 years) completed measures of narcissism and self-esteem. They lost to an ostensible opponent on a competitive task. In the shame condition, they were told that their opponent was bad, and they saw their own name at the bottom of a ranking list. In the control condition, they were told nothing about their opponent and did not see a ranking list. Next, participants could blast their opponent with noise (aggression measure). As expected, narcissistic children were more aggressive than others, but only after they had been shamed. Low self-esteem did not lead to aggression. In fact, narcissism in combination with high self-esteem led to exceptionally high aggression.
Thomaes
Sander
S
Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands. s.thomaes@uu.nl
Bushman
Brad J
BJ
Stegge
Hedy
H
Olthof
Tjeert
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009289:Narcissism; D009622:Noise; D012649:Self Concept; D012752:Shame; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires