TY - JOUR

T1 - Social decision making in narcissism

T2 - Reduced generosity and increased retaliation are driven by alterations in perspective-taking and anger

AU - Böckler, Anne

AU - Sharifi, Marjan

AU - Kanske, Philipp

AU - Dziobek, Isabel

AU - Singer, Tania

N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Preparation of this manuscript was fully supported by the Max Planck Society, Germany .

PY - 2017/1

Y1 - 2017/1

N2 - Narcissism can lead to various interpersonal problems. However, the characteristics of social decision making in trait narcissism and the cognitive and affective underpinnings are poorly understood. We employed established game theoretical paradigms to investigate different facets of social behavior in participants (N = 122; 41 female, mean age = 30 years) with a wide range of scores on the Pathological Narcissistic Inventory. Interpersonal traits, attitudes, and emotions were assessed as potential mediators of behavioral differences. High narcissism scores were related to lower generosity, especially when this could result in being punished. This maladaptive behavior was fully mediated by reduced perspective-taking abilities in narcissism. Also, narcissism scores predicted higher levels of punishment behavior, driven by higher levels of experienced anger. Hence, the difficulties narcissists face in interactions may be due to their reduced perspective-taking skills and resulting reduced generosity as well as enhanced anger-based retaliation behavior.

AB - Narcissism can lead to various interpersonal problems. However, the characteristics of social decision making in trait narcissism and the cognitive and affective underpinnings are poorly understood. We employed established game theoretical paradigms to investigate different facets of social behavior in participants (N = 122; 41 female, mean age = 30 years) with a wide range of scores on the Pathological Narcissistic Inventory. Interpersonal traits, attitudes, and emotions were assessed as potential mediators of behavioral differences. High narcissism scores were related to lower generosity, especially when this could result in being punished. This maladaptive behavior was fully mediated by reduced perspective-taking abilities in narcissism. Also, narcissism scores predicted higher levels of punishment behavior, driven by higher levels of experienced anger. Hence, the difficulties narcissists face in interactions may be due to their reduced perspective-taking skills and resulting reduced generosity as well as enhanced anger-based retaliation behavior.

KW - Behavioral economics

KW - Individual differences

KW - Narcissism

KW - Prosocial behavior

KW - Social decision making

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84979649739&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.020

DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.020

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84979649739

VL - 104

SP - 1

EP - 7

JO - Personality and Individual Differences

JF - Personality and Individual Differences

SN - 0191-8869

ER -