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(https://www.psypost.org/intellectually-humble-people-show-heightened-empathic-accuracy-and-emotional-resilience/) Intellectually humble people show heightened empathic accuracy and emotional resilience
Apr 22nd 2025, 10:00

New research published in the (https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241313427) Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that people who recognize the fallibility of their beliefs may also be more accurate at interpreting others’ feelings. Across three studies, researchers found that intellectual humility was positively associated with empathic accuracy, particularly toward members of a perceived outgroup. The findings also suggest that intellectual humility can increase empathic concern without amplifying personal distress—a pattern the researchers call “empathic resilience.”
The study was motivated by growing interest in how intellectual humility—the ability to acknowledge that one’s beliefs may be wrong—shapes social behavior. While past research has shown that humility can reduce prejudice, increase forgiveness, and improve tolerance for different perspectives, less is known about how it influences interpersonal dynamics in emotionally charged or divisive contexts.
“Intellectual humility—the understanding that we don’t know everything and that our knowledge is limited—is an important and rare virtue,” said study author (https://scholars.cmu.edu/13085-michal-lehmann) Michal Lehmann, a postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University.
“In my research, I am interested in how relationships shape and are shaped by intellectual humility. In this project, I partnered with Prof. Anat Perry from the Hebrew University, her students Shir Genzer and Nur Kassem, and Prof. Daryl R. Van Tongeren from Hope College to uncover how and whether intellectual humility affects true understanding of other people’s emotions.”
“We tested this question in a particularly interesting context: how Jewish Israelis understand other Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Israelis.”
For their research, Lehmann and her colleagues conducted three pre-registered studies involving a total of 533 participants, all Jewish Israeli adults. The studies focused on cognitive empathy, or the ability to accurately identify what others are feeling, and emotional empathy, which includes both empathic concern and personal distress.
To assess these aspects of empathy, participants viewed short video clips of individuals recounting emotional personal experiences—some from the Jewish majority, others from the Palestinian minority. The researchers then compared participants’ judgments of the speakers’ emotions with the speakers’ own self-reported emotional states.
In the first study, 212 participants either visited a lab or participated via Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each participant watched eight videos—four featuring Jewish Israeli women and four featuring Palestinian Israeli women. While watching the videos, participants rated the speakers’ emotions in real time using a sliding scale. They also completed additional measures assessing their own emotional reactions, as well as questionnaires measuring trait-level intellectual humility.
The findings from this first study suggested that intellectual humility predicted greater empathic accuracy, especially when participants viewed videos of Palestinian Israeli speakers—an outgroup in the local sociopolitical context. Participants higher in intellectual humility were more accurate in recognizing the emotions of outgroup members compared to those lower in humility. This association was weaker or even reversed when evaluating members of their own group.
“We found that the intellectual humility of Jewish Israelis predicts understanding of others’ emotions—especially those of people from the outgroup (Palestinian Israelis),” Lehmann told PsyPost. “This made a lot of sense to me, as it aligned with the idea that intellectual humility plays a greater role when a relationship is different or more challenging.”
“What surprised me was that in subsequent studies, we did not find a difference in understanding between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. This doesn’t mean the difference isn’t there, but rather that we need to collect more data to further investigate these questions.”
Participants with higher intellectual humility also reported greater empathic concern—such as feeling compassion or sympathy—and less personal distress, such as feeling overwhelmed or upset, when listening to emotional stories. This combination of high concern and low distress is what the researchers referred to as “empathic resilience.” It reflects the capacity to stay emotionally engaged without becoming emotionally overwhelmed.
The second study replicated these findings with a new group of 112 participants. This time, the researchers included a measure of motivation for empathy, asking participants to choose between engaging with their own feelings or trying to imagine how someone else might feel across a series of trials. As in the first study, intellectual humility was associated with greater empathic accuracy using one of the two empathy metrics. Again, those higher in humility showed a wider gap between empathic concern and personal distress.
However, the researchers did not find evidence that motivation for empathy explained the link between intellectual humility and empathic accuracy. This suggests that humility might influence empathy through other mechanisms, such as how individuals process emotional information or regulate their own emotional responses.
To test whether intellectual humility could be experimentally increased, the researchers conducted a third study using a between-subjects design with 209 participants. One group was assigned to read materials and answer questions designed to foster intellectual humility, while the other group was exposed to content emphasizing intellectual certainty. The manipulation increased state-level intellectual humility in the target group, confirming that it was effective.
Although the manipulation did not directly increase empathic accuracy, it did lead to an indirect effect: participants in the humility condition scored higher on the intellectual humility scale, which in turn predicted better empathic accuracy.
This suggests that boosting intellectual humility can enhance emotional understanding, even if the effect is indirect. The third study also showed that participants higher in humility reported greater empathic concern than personal distress, once again demonstrating the pattern of empathic resilience.
To strengthen their conclusions, the researchers conducted a mini meta-analysis combining data from all three studies. They found that, across measures and samples, intellectual humility was positively associated with empathic accuracy, though the effect was small. Another mini meta-analysis confirmed that humility consistently predicted empathic resilience across studies.
“Intellectual humility has an important value, especially when the situation and a relationship are challenging,” Lehmann said. “In this case, when citizens of the same country come from diverse and complicated backgrounds, like Jewish and Palestinian Israelis.”
The study—like all research—includes some caveats. All participants were unfamiliar with the people in the videos, so it remains unclear whether the findings would extend to close personal relationships. The samples were also composed of Jewish Israeli participants viewing videos from a specific cultural context, which may limit generalizability to other populations or conflicts.
“It is important to note that we tested our questions in a specific context—relationships between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, from the perspective of Jewish participants,” Lehmann explained. “It would be both interesting and important to explore whether these findings apply in other contexts.”
“First, do similar patterns emerge among Palestinian Israelis when they encounter Israeli Jews? And beyond that, in other societies—such as between Black and white people in the U.S., neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals, or straight and gay people?”
“I am currently working on several projects related to intellectual humility,” Lehmann added. “In one line of research with Prof. Anat Perry, I am exploring interventions to increase intellectual humility, particularly through interpersonal listening. In another, with Prof. Laurie Weingart from Carnegie Mellon University, I am examining the role of intellectual humility in fostering team effectiveness across various contexts, including negotiations, hackathons, and multi-disciplinary teams.”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241313427) Intellectual Humility Predicts Empathic Accuracy and Empathic Resilience,” was authored by Michal Lehmann, Shir Genzer, Nur Kassem, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, and Anat Perry.

(https://www.psypost.org/brain-endurance-training-improves-cognitive-and-physical-performance-of-healthy-older-women/) Brain endurance training improves cognitive and physical performance of healthy older women
Apr 22nd 2025, 08:00

A recent study of healthy older women with sedentary lifestyles found that brain endurance training—combining cognitive tasks with physical exercise—improved both cognitive and physical performance. Participants who underwent this training outperformed a control group that received no intervention, both when they were well-rested and when mentally fatigued. The study was published in (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029224001687) Psychology of Sport & Exercise.
As people age, their cognitive and physical abilities tend to decline. Processing speed slows down, making it take longer to complete tasks or respond to new information. Working memory—the ability to hold and manipulate information temporarily—also tends to deteriorate. Some aspects of episodic memory, such as recalling specific events or names, may become less reliable. In contrast, semantic memory (general knowledge and vocabulary) often remains stable or even improves with age. Older adults frequently compensate for cognitive decline by relying more on experience, routines, and learned strategies.
Mental fatigue—a psychological state resulting from prolonged and demanding cognitive activity—can worsen age-related cognitive impairments. Some studies suggest it may also diminish physical performance in older adults.
Study author Jesús Díaz-García and his colleagues set out to examine whether brain endurance training could improve the cognitive and physical performance of older adults more effectively than physical exercise alone or no training at all. They also investigated whether participants who completed brain endurance training would be more resilient to the effects of mental fatigue.
The study involved 24 healthy older women between the ages of 65 and 78, all living in a rural town in Spain. None of the participants reported engaging in regular physical activity. The researchers randomly assigned the participants to one of three groups: a brain endurance training group, a physical exercise group, and a control group that received no intervention.
The brain endurance training group completed 20 minutes of cognitive tasks, followed by 20 minutes of resistance exercises and 25 minutes of endurance exercise. The physical exercise group completed the same physical exercises but without the cognitive tasks. Both groups trained three times per week for eight weeks.
Participants completed assessments of physical performance (including the chair-stand test, arm-curl test, and walk test) and cognitive performance (using the Brief Stroop task and Brief Psychomotor Vigilance task) at four time points: the start of the study, after four weeks, after eight weeks (the end of training), and after twelve weeks. Each assessment was conducted twice—once when participants were fresh, and once after they were mentally fatigued. To induce mental fatigue, participants completed a 30-minute incongruent Stroop test before the assessments.
Results showed that both exercise groups outperformed the control group on physical and cognitive tasks at weeks 4 and 8. These improvements were evident both when participants were fresh and when they were fatigued. Notably, the brain endurance training group performed better than the physical exercise group only in the mentally fatigued condition.
“The present study demonstrated that BET [brain endurance training], which combines cognitive and exercise training, enhanced cognitive and physical performance in older adults. These enhancements were observed for attention and executive function cognitive operations as well as endurance and resistance exercise activities,” the study authors wrote.
“Importantly, these BET-related enhanced performances were seen relative to both no training (mostly) and exercise training (sometimes). Finally, we confirmed that BET developed resilience to mental fatigue and recalibrated the relationship between exercise and perceived effort.”
The study sheds light on the effects of brain endurance training. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on a very small group of older women living sedentary lifestyles. Results on other demographic groups might not be identical.
The paper, “(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102757) Brain endurance training improves sedentary older adults’ cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued,” was authored by Jesús Díaz-García, Tomás García-Calvo, and Christopher Ring.

(https://www.psypost.org/media-habits-predict-vaccination-and-trust-in-science-and-not-always-how-youd-expect/) Media habits predict vaccination and trust in science — and not always how you’d expect
Apr 22nd 2025, 06:00

A new study published in (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-77408-4) Scientific Reports suggests that people who consume a more ideologically diverse mix of news sources are more likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to trust science—regardless of their personal political beliefs. At the same time, consuming more conservative media was associated with lower vaccine uptake and less trust in science. Importantly, the negative influence of conservative media appeared to be weaker among individuals with a more ideologically varied media diet.
The research was conducted during a period when COVID-19 vaccines were widely available but public uptake had stalled. With vaccine hesitancy contributing to preventable deaths and ongoing strain on healthcare systems, the researchers sought to understand how different patterns of media consumption shaped public health behavior—especially beyond the influence of demographic factors and political ideology.
“While living through the COVID-19 pandemic, my collaborators and I could see the shift in discourse around government guidance, vaccines, and the politicization of COVID-19 disease across news media,” said study author (https://www.marrissadaniellegrant.com/home) Marrissa (Dani) Grant, a social psychology PhD student at CU Boulder.
“And because people were often socially isolated during lockdowns, it seemed like people were developing these parasocial relationships with political pundits and commentators. News more intensely became a social outlet for people, and their identities were getting wrapped up in the topics their trusted news sources talked about—like vaccination, masking, and social distancing. There was also this growing sense of tribalism, and the news media often seemed to be at the center of it all.”
To examine these questions, the researchers surveyed over 1,600 adults in the United States in spring 2022, a time when booster shots were widely available but not yet universally adopted. Participants reported their vaccination status, their trust in science, their political ideology, and how frequently they consumed news from a variety of media outlets. These outlets ranged from left-leaning sources like MSNBC to right-leaning ones like Fox News and the Daily Wire.
Each respondent’s media diet was evaluated in two main ways: the overall ideological tilt of the news sources they consumed and the ideological diversity of those sources. The researchers also examined whether these media patterns could explain differences in trust in science.
The findings revealed a consistent pattern. People who consumed more conservative media were less likely to be fully vaccinated and boosted. This relationship held even after accounting for age, education, ethnicity, cognitive reflection, and personal ideology. In contrast, individuals who reported consuming a broader mix of ideologically different news outlets were more likely to have received the vaccine and a booster shot.
Moreover, consuming a diverse media diet appeared to weaken the negative link between conservative media consumption and vaccine uptake. Among people who consumed mostly conservative media and little else, the odds of being vaccinated and boosted were significantly lower. But among those who mixed conservative media with liberal or centrist sources, the likelihood of being vaccinated was higher—even if they still favored right-leaning outlets overall.
A similar pattern emerged in analyses of trust in science. Conservative media use was associated with lower trust in scientific institutions. Yet this effect was less pronounced for people who consumed a wider variety of news sources. Unexpectedly, ideological diversity on its own was slightly associated with lower trust in science.
“We found a small negative correlation between diverse news consumption and trust in science, which at the start was quite surprising to me,” Grant told PsyPost. “But this finding suggests trust in science is not as simple an idea as you might initially think.”
“Are you referring to trust in science as an institution or your belief that scientists themselves can approach their work with integrity and have the best intentions for the public in mind (which historically has not always been the case)? I think this finding shows that trust in science is a complex phenomenon, and news media very likely impacts public trust—but we need to further pick apart the construct of trust in science more to make sense of that relationship.”
To ensure that these associations weren’t simply due to existing individual differences, the researchers revisited data collected from the same participants in 2020. At that time, respondents had reported their intentions to get a future COVID-19 vaccine and their media habits.
By comparing their earlier intentions and media use with actual vaccination behavior in 2022, the researchers found that changes in media consumption mattered. People who shifted toward a more ideologically diverse media diet or reduced their reliance on conservative outlets were more likely to follow through with vaccination.
This pattern also held when controlling for previous intentions to get vaccinated. For example, two people with similar conservative ideologies and comparable reluctance in 2020 differed in their vaccination status in 2022 depending on how their media habits changed. Those who broadened their media diet or reduced their conservative media exposure were more likely to get vaccinated.
The researchers also replicated their findings in a separate sample from the United Kingdom. Though overall levels of vaccine hesitancy were lower in the UK, the relationship between media diversity and vaccination intentions remained. In both countries, consuming a greater variety of ideological perspectives was linked to higher willingness to receive a vaccine.
To further explore what might be driving these associations, the researchers analyzed whether the reliability or sensationalism of news content influenced the results. Conservative outlets, on average, received lower reliability ratings from third-party media analysts, and participants who consumed less reliable media were also less likely to be vaccinated.
When media reliability was added to the statistical models, the effect of conservative media on vaccination weakened, suggesting that part of the link may be explained by the lower factual quality of some conservative outlets. Still, the positive effect of ideological diversity remained even after controlling for reliability and threat-based language in media content.
This study provides evidence that where people get their news—and how ideologically varied their sources are—matters for health behaviors and scientific trust. While personal ideology continues to play a role, these findings suggest that media habits shape how people think about public health guidance, especially during times of crisis. Encouraging broader media exposure may be one strategy to reduce the polarization of vaccine attitudes and build resilience against misinformation.
“Lots of people have experienced disagreement—sometimes heated and painful—about polarized topics with loved ones. And too often we come to the conclusion that those we disagree with are a lost cause,” Grant told PsyPost. “We believe that no amount of evidence will change their minds.”
“I think this work shows us that this often just isn’t true. When people engage with ideologically diverse media, they are exposed to new information, evidence, and perspectives. They can take this all in and update their beliefs about the world.”
However, the researchers acknowledged some limitations. The study was observational, meaning it cannot determine whether media habits directly caused changes in vaccine behavior. People who choose more ideologically diverse media may differ in unmeasured ways, such as openness to new information or influence from social networks.
“It is very important to keep in mind that this is a correlational study,” Grant noted, “and we must always remember that correlation does not equal causation!”
The researchers also hope to refine the concept of ideological diversity. It’s still unclear whether all types of diversity are equally helpful.
“For example, does cross-cutting correspond differently with outcomes compared to ideologically consistent media consumption? And what about high reliability versus low reliability diets?” Grant explained.
“I also hope to investigate the psychological processes that help explain the connection between ideologically diverse media diets and other polarized topics, like belief in human-caused climate change and support for climate mitigation policies. What is being conveyed that changes people’s minds?”
“Do people who consume diverse media develop the ability to better distinguish between good and bad argumentation?” Grant continued. “Are they better able to distinguish between misinformation and truth? Or are they gleaning something else, like cultivating more accurate estimates of social norms around community vaccination behaviors and public trust in vaccines?”
The study, “(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-77408-4) Ideological diversity of media consumption predicts COVID-19 vaccination,” was authored by Marrissa D. Grant, David M. Markowitz, David K. Sherman, Alexandra Flores, Stephan Dickert, Kimin Eom, Gabriela M. Jiga-Boy, Tehila Kogut, Marcus Mayorga, David Oonk, Eric J. Pedersen, Beatriz Pereira, Enrico Rubaltelli, Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, and Leaf Van Boven.

(https://www.psypost.org/nightly-cbd-linked-to-better-morning-mood-but-no-changes-in-cognitive-function/) Nightly CBD linked to better morning mood but no changes in cognitive function
Apr 21st 2025, 14:00

A new study published in the journal Psychopharmacology found that taking cannabidiol (CBD) nightly for two weeks did not impair thinking, memory, or reaction time in people with insomnia. Participants who took CBD reported feeling calmer, clearer-headed, and more coordinated the following morning compared to those who took a placebo. However, their performance on computerized tests of cognitive functioning remained unchanged.
Cannabidiol, often known as CBD, is a compound derived from cannabis that has gained popularity for its potential therapeutic benefits, including reducing anxiety and improving sleep. Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), another compound found in cannabis, CBD is not intoxicating.
In recent years, CBD has been widely marketed as a natural sleep aid, especially in regions like Australia where it is available over the counter. Despite its growing use, there is limited research on whether CBD affects how people think and function during the day, particularly for those with sleep difficulties.
“Cannabis has been used medicinally for centuries for the treatment of numerous conditions. There have also been a lot of anecdotal claims about the sleep- and mood-enhancing effects of CBD and other cannabinoids,” said study author Andrea J. Narayan, a PhD candidate at Swinburne University of Technology.
“At the time of the study, Australia had legalized the sale of a maximum dose of 150 mg CBD in pharmacies without a prescription. Very few studies have specifically looked at the direct effects on sleep and any potential indirect effects of this specific dose following its night-time consumption, so this topic was important to study—and personally quite exciting.”
The researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial involving 30 adults with moderate to severe insomnia symptoms. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 150 milligrams of CBD or a placebo every night for two weeks. Before the two-week trial began, all participants completed a one-week placebo run-in period to identify those who might respond to placebo alone. Anyone who showed marked improvement in sleep during this week was excluded from the study.
The trial was designed to minimize bias. Participants, researchers, and staff were unaware of who received CBD or placebo, and both treatments looked and smelled the same. Each night, participants took their assigned oil dose under the tongue about an hour before going to bed. They also wore wrist devices to monitor sleep and kept daily logs of their mood and any side effects.
Cognitive functioning was tested using a computerized system called CogPro. These tests assessed attention, memory, reasoning, and reaction time. Participants completed these tasks at the beginning of the study, after one week of dosing, and again at the end of the two-week period. The cognitive tests were scheduled in the morning, more than eight hours after the previous night’s dose, to simulate the typical time people might go about their daily activities.
The study found no significant differences in cognitive performance between the CBD and placebo groups. Across a wide range of tests—including memory recall, working memory, and attention—both groups performed similarly. The only change observed was a small improvement in simple reaction time across the whole sample, which may have been due to participants becoming more familiar with the tasks rather than a treatment effect.
While cognitive performance did not improve, participants in the CBD group reported more favorable mood states compared to those on placebo. They consistently rated themselves as feeling calmer, more clear-headed, better coordinated, and more alert across the two-week period.
These effects were statistically significant and sustained throughout the trial. Those in the CBD group also reported feeling slightly more energetic and happier than those taking the placebo. Notably, these mood changes did not coincide with increases in drowsiness, lethargy, or sadness, suggesting that CBD had a mildly positive effect on morning well-being.
“People taking CBD reported feeling more calm, clear-headed, and coordinated in the mornings than those who took placebo,” Narayan told PsyPost. “We explored sleep in the same population and did not see any notable changes to night-time sleep. This could mean that CBD may improve some subjective states, which could suggest it has other secondary mood effects at these doses when taken for sleep.”
As for side effects, dry mouth was the most commonly reported issue among those who took CBD, although it was generally mild. Other side effects like nausea, dizziness, and light-headedness were rare and not significantly different from those in the placebo group. Only a small number of participants withdrew due to discomfort, and these symptoms resolved quickly.
The researchers emphasized that although the study did not find measurable changes in cognitive function, it also did not detect any impairing effects of CBD on thinking or attention. This contrasts with many common sleep medications, such as benzodiazepines, which are known to cause daytime grogginess, memory problems, and reduced concentration.
“There weren’t any noted positive or negative changes to daytime neurocognitive performance, but we still aren’t sure how this will relate to daily, real-life tasks such as driving, considering neurocognitive performance was measured using computerized tasks in our lab,” Narayan noted.
The researchers cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from this study alone. The trial included a relatively small number of participants and focused on a short, two-week dosing period. The 150-milligram dose used in this study is within the range available over the counter in some countries, but may not be high enough to fully assess CBD’s potential therapeutic effects.
“Though the results seem promising, we had a very small sample with a specific clinical condition,” Narayan explained. “We also explored the effects of only one dose of a cannabis isolate for a short period of time. This means that we can’t confirm these results to be true for other clinical populations, or for different doses of CBD, or other cannabinoid treatments.
“Until more studies explore and observe similar outcomes for daytime neurocognitive performance, it is also difficult to confirm that there are no hazards or strong benefits of CBD from this study alone.”
Overall, this study suggests that taking 150 milligrams of CBD each night for two weeks may help people with insomnia feel calmer and more clear-headed in the morning without impairing their ability to think or remember. While these results are encouraging, especially compared to more sedating sleep medications, more research is needed.
“In terms of road safety, the Drugs and Driving Research Unit at Swinburne University of Technology is already conducting a world-first study looking into the effects of medical cannabis on driving performance in patients with medical cannabis prescriptions,” Narayan said. “This is an incredibly important study for the safety of patients and overall road users in general.”
“In terms of the efficacy of medicinal cannabis, deeper exploration into the effects of different doses and ratios of cannabinoids on mood and sleep in different clinical populations is incredibly necessary.”
“I am particularly curious about the possibility of using current cannabinoid isolates such as CBD together with other known treatments to safely enhance therapeutic benefits in the treatment of mood and sleep conditions,” Narayan added.

(https://www.psypost.org/narcissistic-people-are-more-likely-to-feel-ostracized-and-misread-social-cues/) Narcissistic people are more likely to feel ostracized and misread social cues
Apr 21st 2025, 12:00

Despite exuding confidence, narcissistic people relentlessly crave admiration. In other words, they are unable to convince themselves of their own brilliance.
Growing research shows the gap between perception and reality for narcissistic people goes far deeper than their (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886920307996) inflated views about their appearance, accomplishments and abilities.
Narcissism is a personality trait that exists along a spectrum, where the lower end reflects a healthy balance of self-esteem and confidence. At the extreme end of the spectrum, however, narcissism is considered a personality disorder which affects (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37200887/) 1-2% of the population. Most of us manifest narcissistic traits to varying degrees, but the more elevated the features are, the wider the gap between perception and reality.
Narcissistic people with elevated features frequently belittle anyone who fails to provide them with the special treatment they feel entitled to. Ironically, they continuously undermine the false self they are trying to build and maintain.
They can be quick to respond with anger and aggression to criticism, in an attempt to protect their grandiose yet fragile (https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2014-57455-001) sense of self. A (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopy.12693) 2021 UK study found they experience more paranoia, even when there is no evidence of people meaning to harm them, compared with people with lower levels of narcissism.
Similarly, (https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspp0000547) recent research by US psychologists found that narcissistic people experienced heightened fear of being left out, and accused others of deliberately ostracising them when there was no evidence to support their belief.
The study found that participants high in narcissistic traits were more likely to interpret ambiguous social cues as rejection (for instance, a delayed text message). This suggests their perceptions of social behaviour may be distorted.
Narcissism and ostracism fuel one another
Narcissism (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8060359/) can be expressed in “vulnerable” features (socially-inhibited and neurotic) as well as “grandiose” features (dominant and extroverted). People with more grandiose features are overtly assertive and self-promoting. People with more vulnerable features tend to be outwardly distressed, hypersensitive and inhibited.
Although these are separate forms of narcissism, they share a core of entitlement and an antagonistic character style. And just like we all exhibit varying degrees of narcissistic traits, we also fluctuate between these two expressions of narcissism.
The US researchers chose to focus on grandiose narcissism only. The study differentiated between two facets of grandiose narcissism: narcissistic admiration (the ability to charm and manipulate people) and narcissistic rivalry, which includes devaluing and acting aggressively towards others.
The research team analysed data for more than 77,000 participants from a series of seven studies by other scientists spanning 2009-2022. The first two studies investigated the relationship between narcissism and ostracism using surveys and experience sampling (a method used to investigate participants’ cognition and behaviour outside the lab – for example, using participants’ smartphones to track their behaviour).
The first study found people who reported higher narcissism levels said they experienced significantly more ostracism, compared with other participants. This was backed up by the second study, in which participants completed the narcissism assessments then reported feelings of ostracism within a 14-day period, using a mobile app.
The remaining experiments examined how people with higher levels of narcissism perceive ambiguous social interactions, and how others respond to narcissistic traits. After a group task, people with higher traits in narcissistic rivalry were more likely ostracised, even when other participants weren’t told the target had elevated levels of narcissism.
This supports the findings of (https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpas0000433) a 2017 meta-study showing that people high in narcissistic rivalry may provoke direct conflict through their behaviour, and perceive others more negatively.
The US researchers concluded that, while narcissistic features can fuel social exclusion, ostracism itself can, over time, contribute to pronounced narcissistic traits. It appears that ostracism can make people already high in narcissism even higher in these traits.
Other research has similarly shown disparity between the narcissistic self and reality, and the role paranoia plays in this relationship. For instance, (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550615616170) a 2015 study found that elevated levels of narcissism are associated with belief in conspiracy theories. This association was driven by paranoid thought.
These findings are concerning given the (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/spanish-journal-of-psychology/article/are-conspiracy-theories-harmless/FA0A9D612CC82B02F91AAC2439B4A2FB) harmful consequences of conspiracy theories for society. They can fuel violence, climate denial and vaccine hesitancy.
Narcissistic personality features also tend to be higher among (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797613491970) political leaders than the general population. Conspiracy theories may be appealing to politicians – particularly during times that challenge their entitled need for superiority and power.
The ideal self and the actual self
The US study’s findings carry practical implications for interventions aimed at people with high levels of narcissism. The researchers said interventions should not only try to improve relationships by identifying personality risk factors (in this instance, the rivalry component of narcissism), but also consider the perceptions of the person involved.
Narcissistic personality disorder comes with a higher risk of suicide and mental health difficulties, and treatment (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Igor-Weinberg/publication/340008837_Dos_and_Don'ts_in_Treatments_of_Patients_With_Narcissistic_Personality_Disorder/links/5e79fafaa6fdcceef9732e31/Dos-and-Donts-in-Treatments-of-Patients-With-Narcissistic-Personality-Disorder.pdf) rarely makes much difference. This is partly because of patients’ resistance to abandoning the “ideal self”, leading to frustration, anger and conflict with their therapist.
But some interventions could target the cognitive distortions of narcissistic people that hamper their ability to function in society. For example, psychological therapies could aim to help them process the defensive mechanisms (overvaluing themselves) that mask underlying feelings of vulnerability.
Helping narcissistic people develop (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10187391/) greater insights into their habitual reactions – such as responding aggressively to self-esteem threats and feelings of social exclusion – could help them foster skills that reshape their cognitive distortions. This could ameliorate distress, anger and hostility for narcissistic people – and the people around them.
 
This article is republished from (https://theconversation.com) The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the (https://theconversation.com/for-narcissistic-people-the-gap-between-perception-and-reality-may-go-far-deeper-than-we-thought-250434) original article.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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