Adolescent Narcissism, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior: The Relevance of Socially Desirable Responding

Abstract

An important threat to validity in personality research pertains to an individual's motivation to respond in a socially desirable manner on self-report inventories. This issue was examined in this study in the context of narcissism, aggression, and prosocial behavior in a sample of at-risk adolescents. Participants were 161 adolescents (128 males, 29 females, 4 not reported) ranging in age from 16 to 19 years who were attending a residential program for youth who have dropped out of school. Overall, socially desirable response tendencies were negatively correlated with vulnerable narcissism and self-reported aggression. Moreover, low socially desirable responses strengthened the relation between narcissism and self-reported aggression. Socially desirable responding was not associated with self- or peer-reported prosocial behavior and did not moderate the relation between narcissism and prosocial behavior. These findings indicate that the relation between narcissism and aggression is attenuated by concerns with social desirability. However, further work is needed in broader samples of adolescents to more closely examine whether social desirability concerns actually mitigate aggression among some youth or signify underreporting of one's problem behaviors.

Narcissism and Prosocial Behavior

“…Discrepancies between self-reported and observer-reported prosocial behavior Some research examines the relationship between narcissism and combined measures of formal and informal prosocial behaviors. Most of these studies find that narcissism is associated with more self-reported prosocial behavior (Barry, Lui, & Anderson, 2017;Kauten & Barry, 2014, 2016Konrath et al, 2016;Zuo, Wang, Xu, Wang, & Zhao, 2016). However, one study finds the opposite pattern (Naderi & Strutton, 2014), and another study finds no association (Jonason, Li, & Teicher, 2010).…”

“…Yet in peer-report studies, narcissism is uncorrelated with prosocial behavior (Barry et al, 2017;Kauten & Barry, 2014, 2016, which suggests a self-enhancement bias. To further complicate the picture, the parents of more narcissistic children report that they engage in more prosocial behavior (Kauten & Barry, 2016).…”

“…The research findings on vulnerable narcissism and prosocial behavior are mixed. Some studies find that vulnerable narcissists are more prosocial (Barry et al, 2017), others find the opposite (Min, 2013;Zhou et al, 2010), and others find no relationship, whether helping in private or public (Kauten & Barry, 2016;Moran, 2016), or when rated by observers (Barry et al, 2017;Kauten & Barry, 2016). Clearly, more research is needed, but one study demonstrates how social pressure may matter.…”

Duplicitous Me: Communal Narcissists and Public Service Motivation

“…Personality traits reflect stable individual differences (McCrae & Costa, 1987) affecting work motivation (Judge & Ilies, 2002). Communal narcissism predicts subjective prosociality assessed through self-reports (Barry et al, 2017; Nehrlich et al, 2019), and strongly influenced by self-enhancement strategies (Paulhus & Holden, 2010). To examine traits implicated in narcissism and PSM, this research tested honesty-humility, a dimension of HEXACO-60 (“honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience”), and BIDR-16 (Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding–Short Form), as possible antecedents of relationships between CNI and PSM.…”

Predictores y correlatos del comportamiento prosocial de adolescentes mexicanos

“…Así también, niveles más altos de conducta prosocial, independientemente de la obtención de un beneficio propio, están asociados con altos niveles del rasgo honestidad-humildad; mientras que niveles bajos de este rasgo se asocian con conducta pro-conducta prosocial InterdIscIplInarIa, 2018, 35, 2, 495-509 social ligada a la obtención de un beneficio y a conducta antisocial (e.g., explotación) relacionada con la posibilidad de impunidad (Allgaier et al, 2015). Otros resultados añaden más información sobre esta diferenciación entre altruismo interesado y desinteresado, y revelan que la deseabilidad social no está asociada con la conducta prosocial autoreportada o reportada por terceros, ni modera la relación entre narcisismo y conducta prosocial (Barry, Lui, & Anderson, 2017). En este sentido, la conducta prosocial puede ser considerada como un comportamiento válido en sí mismo y no como un artificio debido a la deseabilidad social (Jensen-Campbell, Knack, & Gomez, 2010).…”