Reducing Narcissistic Aggression by Buttressing Self-Esteem: An Experimental Field Study

• Published in: Psychological science 2009-12, Vol.20 (12), p.1536-1542
• Main Authors: Thomaes, Sander, Bushman, Brad J., de Castro, Brain Orobio, Cohen, Geoffrey L., Denissen, Jaap J. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Affirmation; Aggression - psychology; Aggressiveness; Assignment; At risk youth; Child psychology; Childhood; Ego; Experimental psychology; Female; Field study; Human aggression; Humans; Male; Modeling; Narcissism; Peer Group; Personal aggression; Personality disorders; Prone; Psychological intervention; Psychological Tests; Self; Self Concept; Self esteem; Selfaffirmation; Social psychology; Teenagers; Writing
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02478.x

Narcissistic individuals are prone to become aggressive when their egos are threatened. We report a randomized field experiment that tested whether a socialpsychological intervention designed to lessen the impact of ego threat reduces narcissistic aggression. A sample of 405 young adolescents (mean age — 13.9 years) were randomly assigned to complete either a short self-affirmation writing assignment (which allowed them to reflect on their personally important values) or a control writing assignment. We expected that the self-affirmation would temporarily attenuate the ego-protective motivations that normally drive narcissists 9 aggression. As expected, the self-affirmation writing assignment reduced narcissistic aggression for a period of a school week, that is, for a period up to 400 times the duration of the intervention itself. These results provide the first empirical demonstration that buttressing self-esteem (as opposed to boosting self-esteem) can be effective at reducing aggression in at-risk youth.