Sound the Alarm: The Effect of Narcissism on Retaliatory Aggression Is Moderated by dACC Reactivity to Rejection
Open accessAbstract
Narcissists behave aggressively when their egos are threatened by interpersonal insults. This effect has been explained in terms of narcissists' motivation to reduce the discrepancy between their grandiose self and its threatened version, though no research has directly tested this hypothesis. If this notion is true, the link between narcissism and retaliatory aggression should be moderated by neural structures that subserve discrepancy detection, such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). This study tested the hypothesis that narcissism would only predict greater retaliatory aggression in response to social rejection when the dACC was recruited by the threat. Thirty participants (15 females; Mage = 18.86, SD = 1.25; 77% White) completed a trait narcissism inventory, were socially accepted and then rejected while undergoing fMRI, and then could behave aggressively toward one of the rejecters by blasting him or her with unpleasant noise. When narcissists displayed greater dACC activation during rejection, they behaved aggressively. But there was only a weak or nonsignificant relation between narcissism and aggression among participants with a blunted dACC response. Narcissism's role in aggressive retaliation to interpersonal threats is likely determined by the extent to which the brain's discrepancy detector registers the newly created gap between the grandiose and threatened selves.
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Grandiose narcissism is associated with the triad of admiration-seeking, rivalry, and retaliation and a propensity to act in a quarrelsome manner when others are seen as dominant.
“Grandiose narcissism is associated with the triad of admiration-seeking, rivalry, and retaliation (43, 44) and a propensity to act in a quarrelsome manner when others are seen as dominant (45).”
From Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Progress in Understanding and Treatment (2022) · cites this paper as [44]
The Narcissism and Aggression section describes grandiose self-views, and the Discussion reports greater aggression against a rejecter among narcissistic participants—but only when dACC activation during rejection was high. Our copy does not describe the claimed triad of admiration-seeking, rivalry, and retaliation. The quarrelsomeness clause is attached to citation 45, not this source. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Chester, D. S., & DeWall, C. N.
- Affiliations
- University of Kentucky (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chester, David S.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-02-17
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 361-368
- ISSN
- 0022-3506 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-6494
- PMC
- PMC4492910
- OpenAlex
- W2124999185
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 4.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA005312)
- National Science Foundation (BCS1104118)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- narcissism, reactive aggression, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, social rejection, self-discrepancy, grandiose self
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aggression, Female, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Narcissism, Personality, Psychological Distance, Young Adult
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