Reducing narcissistic aggression by buttressing self-esteem: An experimental field study
Open accessAbstract
Narcissistic individuals are prone to become aggressive when their egos are threatened. We report a randomized field experiment that tested whether a social-psychological 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' 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.
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“Thomaes et al. (2009) argued that one type of SA intervention reduced narcissistic aggression for one school week in a sample of sixth and seventh graders.”
Background
- Authors
- Thomaes, S., Bushman, B. J., Castro, B. O. D., Cohen, G. L., & Denissen, J. J. A.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of Colorado System (US)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Thomaes, Sander
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-12
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1536-1542
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2136026104
- Cited by
- 153
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 10.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.vu.nl
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- self-affirmation, ego threat, self-esteem, narcissism, adolescents, aggression reduction, social-psychological intervention, ego protection, at-risk youth
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Aggression, Ego, Female, Humans, Male, Narcissism, Peer Group, Psychological Tests, Self Concept, Writing
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