Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity
The literature on narcissism suggests two contradictory ways how highly narcissistic individuals deal with their failures: They might avoid consciously recognising their failures to protect their ego or they might vigilantly turn towards their failures to process cues that are important for maintain...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Personality Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513988622000074/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811155715693215744 |
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| author | Markus Mück André Mattes Elisa Porth Jutta Stahl |
| author_facet | Markus Mück André Mattes Elisa Porth Jutta Stahl |
| author_sort | Markus Mück |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The literature on narcissism suggests two contradictory ways how highly narcissistic individuals deal with their failures: They might avoid consciously recognising their failures to protect their ego or they might vigilantly turn towards their failures to process cues that are important for maintaining their grandiosity. We tried to dissolve these contradictory positions by studying event-related potential components of error processing and their variations with narcissism. With a speeded go/no-go task, we examined how the error-related negativity (Ne; reflecting an early, automatic processing stage) and the error positivity (Pe; associated with conscious error detection) vary with Admiration and Rivalry, two narcissism dimensions, under ego-threatening conditions. Using multilevel models, we showed that participants with high Rivalry displayed higher Ne amplitudes suggesting a heightened trait of defensive reactivity. We did not find variations of either narcissism dimension with the Pe, which would have pointed to weaker error awareness. Thus, our results only supported the second position: a heightened vigilance to errors in narcissism at early, rather automatic processing stages. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:39:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-047d9b3e622545768ed6bb504556c406 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2513-9886 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:39:14Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Personality Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-047d9b3e622545768ed6bb504556c4062023-03-09T12:43:10ZengCambridge University PressPersonality Neuroscience2513-98862023-01-01610.1017/pen.2022.7Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivityMarkus Mück0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8081-1852André Mattes1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4821-8012Elisa Porth2Jutta Stahl3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3252-180XUniversity of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyUniversity of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyUniversity of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyUniversity of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyThe literature on narcissism suggests two contradictory ways how highly narcissistic individuals deal with their failures: They might avoid consciously recognising their failures to protect their ego or they might vigilantly turn towards their failures to process cues that are important for maintaining their grandiosity. We tried to dissolve these contradictory positions by studying event-related potential components of error processing and their variations with narcissism. With a speeded go/no-go task, we examined how the error-related negativity (Ne; reflecting an early, automatic processing stage) and the error positivity (Pe; associated with conscious error detection) vary with Admiration and Rivalry, two narcissism dimensions, under ego-threatening conditions. Using multilevel models, we showed that participants with high Rivalry displayed higher Ne amplitudes suggesting a heightened trait of defensive reactivity. We did not find variations of either narcissism dimension with the Pe, which would have pointed to weaker error awareness. Thus, our results only supported the second position: a heightened vigilance to errors in narcissism at early, rather automatic processing stages.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513988622000074/type/journal_articleError processingEvent-related potentials (ERP)Narcissism |
| spellingShingle | Markus Mück André Mattes Elisa Porth Jutta Stahl Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity Personality Neuroscience Error processing Event-related potentials (ERP) Narcissism |
| title | Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity |
| title_full | Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity |
| title_fullStr | Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity |
| title_short | Narcissism and the perception of failure – evidence from the error-related negativity and the error positivity |
| title_sort | narcissism and the perception of failure evidence from the error related negativity and the error positivity |
| topic | Error processing Event-related potentials (ERP) Narcissism |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513988622000074/type/journal_article |
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