2.1 Agentic Grandiose Narcissism

The agentic form of grandiose narcissism (called “agentic narcissism” from this point forward) is characterized by grandiosity, high self-esteem, extraversion, arrogance, and dominance (Miller & Campbell, Reference Miller and Campbell2008; Miller et al., Reference Miller, Lynam, Hyatt and Campbell2017). Agentic narcissists have exalted self-views, especially on agentic traits such as competence and intelligence (Campbell, Rudich, & Sedikides, Reference Campbell, Rudich and Sedikides2002). They believe themselves to be superior to others, even when these views conflict with reality (Grijalva & Zhang, Reference Grijalva and Zhang2016). For example, they believe themselves to be more attractive than others do and more intelligent than objective measures suggest (Gabriel et al., Reference Gabriel, Critelli and Ee1994). Relatedly, as a means of maintaining their sense of superiority, agentic narcissists derogate the characteristics of others, including their friends (Park & Colvin, Reference Park and Colvin2015). They likewise desire to be admired by others (Campbell, Reference Campbell1999). They would prefer to have status than to have intimacy with others (Campbell, Reference Campbell1999).

When they are working with others, agentic narcissists will take credit for success and blame others for failure (Campbell et al., Reference Campbell, Reeder, Sedikides and Elliot2000). They work to procure short-term benefits for themselves, even when their decisions would cost themselves and others dearly in the future (Campbell et al., Reference Campbell, Bush, Brunell and Shelton2005).

One recent model of agentic narcissism that incorporates their need for admiration and their more antagonistic qualities is the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept (NARC) (Back et al., Reference 39Back, Küfner and Dufner2013). The NARC differentiates these two central aspects of agentic narcissism. Narcissistic admiration reflects narcissists’ agentic qualities and tendency to self-promote. The admiration dimension incorporates striving for uniqueness, grandiose fantasies, and charming behavior, which could lead to social power through popularity, social status, and attainment of social resources. Narcissistic rivalry, on the other hand, reflects agentic narcissists’ antagonistic qualities, which come about when they feel socially threatened, such as when they receive negative feedback or social disapproval. In this case, agentic narcissists will use strategies to self-protect, such as devaluing others, aggression, or other means of tearing others down.

2.2 Communal Grandiose Narcissism

While grandiose narcissism concerns grandiosity, entitlement, and power, a growing amount of research has demonstrated that one can accomplish these motives not only in the agentic domain but in the communal domain as well. Communal narcissists seek out admiration by being caring and helpful (Gebauer et al., Reference Gebauer, Sedikides, Verplanken and Maio2012). Although it seems on the surface that communal narcissists are deeply concerned with others, agentic motives are at the heart of their behavior (Gebauer & Sedikides, Reference Gebauer, Sedikides, Abele and Wojciszke2018). For example, in a study wherein participants were given personality feedback that empowered them, communal narcissists became less helpful in response (Giacomin & Jordan, Reference Giacomin and Jordan2015).

2.3 Vulnerable Narcissism

Vulnerable narcissism is characterized by low self-esteem and negative emotionality (e.g., Miller & Campbell, Reference Miller and Campbell2008), which includes increased anxiety and depression (Brunell & Buelow, Reference Brunell and Buelow2019). Vulnerable narcissists tend to be socially inhibited, defensive, and vindictive (Hendin & Cheek, Reference Hendin and Cheek1997). They are mistrusting of others and think that others’ behaviors have malevolent intent (Wink, Reference Wink1991). Perhaps because they are not very successful at regulating their self-esteem, they rely on external feedback from others (Besser & Priel, Reference Besser and Priel2009). This makes vulnerable narcissists hypersensitive to social approval.

5.1 Connections to the Five-Factor Model and the Big Five

The theoretical advances in the investigation of narcissism have highlighted the extent to which narcissism is associated with variables in the Five-Factor Model or Big Five variables. Understanding the personality correlates of narcissism is challenging because it depends not only on how narcissism is measured but also in how personality is measured. The Five-Factor Model and the Big Five, for example, appear to be similar but come from different origins and therefore have slightly different content (Visser, Reference Visser, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). The newer HEXACO model of personality introduces a six-factor framework and has accounted for variance not captured by the Five-Factor Model or Big Five (Lee & Ashton, Reference Lee and Ashton2012; Lee et al., Reference Lee, Ashton and Wiltshire2013). Rather than getting into the weeds on the differences in measures, I take a broad stroke view of how narcissism variables appear to map onto broader personality assessments.

Generally, agentic narcissism measures tend to be associated with low neuroticism and agreeableness and high extraversion (Miller & Campbell, Reference Miller and Campbell2008; Trull & McCrae, Reference Trull, McCrae, Costa and Widiger2002). Extraversion is associated with gregariousness, liveliness, boldness, positive affect, and is therefore associated with better life satisfaction (Lee et al., Reference Lee, Dean and Jung2008) and positive health outcomes (Nettle, Reference Nettle2005). Neuroticism is associated with negative emotions, anxiety, and depression (Lahey, Reference Lahey2009), which suggests that agentic narcissists do not experience a lot of personal distress. Agreeableness as measured by the Five-Factor Model and the Big Five Personality perspectives are correlated, but the Five-Factor Model appears to be better at accounting for agentic narcissism because its facets contain measures of modesty and straightforwardness, whereas the Big Five perspective focuses more on being helpful, forgiving, and trusting (Miller et al., Reference Miller, Gaughan, Maples and Price2011; Visser, Reference Visser, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). The HEXACO model contains considerable overlap with Five-Factor Models and the Big Five (Visser, Reference Visser, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). Emotionality contains the anxiety component of neuroticism, whereas the agreeableness facet contains more of the anger/hostility aspects. Honesty-humility concerns fairness, sincerity, greed avoidance, and modesty. The straightforwardness and modesty aspects of agreeableness in the Five-Factor Model is encompassed by the honesty-humility facet to demonstrate that agentic narcissism has a higher correlation with agreeableness. In this view, agentic narcissism correlates with extraversion and honesty-humility (Lee & Ashton, Reference Lee and Ashton2005), suggesting that low honesty-humility and high extraversion appear to be the key ingredients of agentic narcissism (Lee & Ashton, Reference Lee and Ashton2012).

Only one study has examined the personality correlates of communal narcissism. This study (Rogoza & Fatfouta, Reference Rogoza and Fatfouta2019) found that communal narcissism was associated with lower neuroticism, higher extraversion, higher openness to experience, higher agreeableness, and higher conscientiousness. These findings provide some evidence that communal narcissists are high functioning.

With regard to vulnerable narcissism, there is a growing amount of research suggesting that vulnerable narcissism is associated with high neuroticism and possibly low extraversion. From a Five-Factor Model perspective, because vulnerable narcissists tend not to be trusting, they are lower in agreeableness. Thus, agentic and vulnerable narcissism are both associated with lower agreeableness, but for different reasons (Miller et al., Reference Miller, Gaughan, Maples and Price2011). Similar patterns for vulnerable narcissism have also been found from a Big Five perspective (Thomas et al., Reference Thomas, Wright, Lukowitsky, Donnellan and Hopwood2012). Most of the variance in vulnerable narcissism is accounted for by neuroticism followed by antagonism (Miller et al., Reference Miller, Lynam and Vize2018). Thus, it seems that vulnerable narcissists are disagreeable because of affective dysregulation and distrust, whereas agentic narcissists are disagreeable for instrumental reasons like personal gain.

In summary, both agentic and communal narcissists score low on neuroticism and high on extraversion. Where they diverge is in how agreeable they are. Agentic narcissists are more disagreeable, but communal narcissists, who view themselves as being exceptionally helpful (Gebauer et al., Reference Gebauer, Sedikides, Verplanken and Maio2012), score high on agreeableness. Given that vulnerable narcissists tend to experience negative emotionality (Miller & Campbell, Reference Miller and Campbell2008), are hypersensitive (Hendin & Cheek, Reference Hendin and Cheek1997), and mistrusting of others (Wink, Reference Wink1991), they tend to score higher on neuroticism and lower on agreeableness.

5.2 Connection to the Dark Personality Traits

In the literature, narcissism is frequently considered in conjunction with other dark personality traits, most notably subclinical psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Together, they are referred to as “the Dark Triad” (Paulhus & Williams, Reference Paulhus and Williams2002). In the context of the Dark Triad, narcissism refers to the agentic form of narcissism (communal narcissism has not been studied). Psychopathy reflects a callous and impulsive nature; a person high in psychopathy lacks empathy for others, is self-centered and inattentive, and lacks self-control (Salekin & Lynam, Reference Salekin and Lynam2010). People who score higher on Machiavellianism tend to be emotionally detached, manipulative, exploitative, and cynical (Furnham et al., Reference Furnham, Richards and Paulhus2013; Rauthmann & Will, Reference Rauthmann and Will2011). There tends to be a moderate correlation between agentic narcissism and psychopathy and a small correlation between agentic narcissism and Machiavellianism (Paulhus & Williams, Reference Paulhus and Williams2002; Turner & Webster, Reference Turner, Webster, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). Very often, agentic narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism are used as independent predictors of dark behavior. For example, it appears that when it comes to aggressive responding, agentic narcissism is associated with aggression in response to ego threat and psychopathy in response to physical threat, while Machiavellianism is not associated with either one (Jones & Paulhus, Reference Jones and Paulhus2010).

Recently, research has begun to determine the extent to which vulnerable narcissism is associated with the Dark Triad traits. There appears to be a small to medium correlation between vulnerable narcissism and Machiavellianism, and little to no association with psychopathy (Breeden et al., Reference Breeden, Hart, Kinrade and Richardson2020; Kajonius & Bjorkman, Reference Kajonius and Bjorkman2020; March et al., Reference March, Litten, Sullivan and Ward2020; Pilch, Reference Pilch2020). However, Miller and colleagues (Miller et al., Reference Miller, Dir and Gentile2010) proposed a Vulnerable Dark Triad that consists of vulnerable narcissism, a subscale of psychopathy, and borderline personality disorder. The subscale of psychopathy reflects social deviance and centers around behavior problems and impulsivity (Lynam & Derefinko, Reference Lynam, Derefinko and Patrick2006). This dimension of psychopathy consists of an antagonistic personality style, disinhibition, and negative emotionality. People who score higher on measures of bipolar personality disorder are more neurotic, impulsive, and interpersonally antagonistic (Samuel & Widiger, Reference Samuel and Widiger2008). The three dimensions of the Vulnerable Dark Triad have high neuroticism, disagreeableness, and increased psychological distress and dysfunction in common. To test how the Dark Triad and the Vulnerable Dark Triad differentially predict behavior, Edwards and colleagues (Reference Edwards, Albertson and Verona2017) examined criminal behavior among adult offenders. They found that the Dark Triad and the Vulnerable Dark Triad were both associated with crimes, but in different ways. The Dark Triad and the Vulnerable Dark Triad both accounted for fraud. However, only the Vulnerable Dark Triad accounted for robbery and theft, and only the Dark Triad predicted crimes against persons, such as assault. The Dark Triad accounted for the obstruction of justice, such as committing perjury, while the Vulnerable Dark Triad predicted drug offenses.

Additional research has begun to examine narcissism in the context of additional dark personality traits, such as spite, greed, and sadism. The entitlement/exploitative features of agentic narcissism appear to be modestly correlated with spite as does a measure of vulnerable narcissism (Marcus et al., Reference Marcus, Zeigler-Hill, Mercer and Norris2014). Greed appears to be moderately associated with trait narcissism, but it is more strongly associated with psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Veselka et al., Reference Veselka, Giammarco and Vernon2014).

The investigation of sadism appears to have received the most traction in the investigation of a Dark Tetrad. Sadism might be considered multidimensional; for example, verbal sadism (humiliating and mocking others), physical sadism (desire for subjugation and enjoyment of hurting others), and vicarious sadism (gaining pleasure through observing or fantasizing about violence) (Johnson et al., Reference Johnson, Plouffe and Saklofske2019). Agentic narcissism has small to moderate correlations with all three dimensions of sadism (Johnson et al., Reference Johnson, Plouffe and Saklofske2019). One aspect all dimensions have in common is emotional callousness (Lee, Reference Lee2019); even so, each dimension of the Dark Tetrad might predict different motives or outcomes. For example, when it comes to aggression, sadists aggress for enjoyment’s sake (Buckels et al., Reference Buckels, Jones and Paulhus2013), whereas agentic narcissistic aggression centers on responses to ego threat (Jones & Paulhus, Reference Jones and Paulhus2010). In an investigation on how people respond to discussions with others who are mourning the loss of a loved one, sadists said the mourners were funny, their pain enjoyable, and felt that the mourner owed them for investing their time and effort in listening to them (Lee, Reference Lee2019). Those who scored higher in psychopathy reported more schadenfreude, while those who scored higher in Machiavellianism reported feeling annoyed by the conversation because there was nothing to be gained from it personally. Perhaps surprisingly, agentic narcissists reported feeling less annoyed by the conversation, suggesting that agentic narcissists demonstrate empathy when such displays are needed (Vonk et al., Reference Vonk, Zeigler-Hill, Mayhew and Mercer2013).

Taken together, both forms of narcissism are a part of a collection of traits that predict dark behavior, including aggression, dishonesty, and emotional callousness. The dark qualities of narcissism – whether the grandiose forms or the vulnerable form – suggest difficulties in their interpersonal functioning. In the sections that follow, I highlight research demonstrating how narcissists behave in the workplace and in their romantic relationships. Most of the research in these domains have investigated agentic narcissism, but I include research on vulnerable narcissism and communal narcissism when possible.

6.1 Agentic Narcissism and Civility

One form of deviant workplace behavior is incivility, which reflects an ambiguous intention to harm somebody in violation of norms of mutual respect (Lata & Chaudhary, Reference Lata and Chaudhary2020). There are consequences for targets of incivility at both the personal and organizational level. For example, at the personal level, incivility can adversely affect workers’ performance, job satisfaction, and psychological well-being (Schilpzand et al., Reference Schilpzand, De Pater and Erez2016). From an organizational standpoint, collectively, there are lower productivity and performance (Porath & Erez, Reference Porath and Erez2007). A recent study showed that especially in environments that are largely supportive and create a sense of community, agentic narcissists are more uncivil toward their peers, possibly because their “true colors” emerge in situations where there are no power differentials (Lata & Chaudhary, Reference Lata and Chaudhary2020).

One defining characteristic of agentic narcissism is the tendency to self-enhance because they desire to see themselves in overly positive ways and to have others view them in an extremely positive fashion (Morf & Rhodewalt, Reference Morf and Rhodewalt2001). Given this desire, agentic narcissists do not take kindly to incidents of incivility in the workplace because they attempt to avoid threatening treatment and strive to protect themselves (Chen et al., Reference Chen, Ferris and Kwan2013). That is, being targets of incivility means there is a discrepancy between how agentic narcissists are treated and how they think they ought to be treated. Therefore, when there is incivility – or even a lack of praise – in the workplace, agentic narcissistic workers tend to disengage from their work (Chen et al., Reference Chen, Ferris and Kwan2013; Morf et al., Reference Morf, Weir and Davidov2000) because disengagement allows them to reduce exposure to hostile others at work and minimize the extent to which they invest their sense of self in their work environment. Consequently, agentic narcissistic employees who feel they have been targets of incivility also have lower task performance (Chen et al., Reference Chen, Ferris and Kwan2013).

6.2 Agentic Narcissism and Counterproductive Work Behavior

A common thread for agentic narcissism in the workplace is the engagement in counterproductive work behaviors, which include behaviors such as workplace incivility, bullying, aggression, and even embezzlement and other white-collar crimes (Bogart et al., Reference Bogart, Benotsch and Pavlovic2004; Penney & Spector, Reference Penney and Spector2002). Two meta-analyses examined the extent to which agentic narcissism was associated with counterproductive work behavior, and both studies revealed large effect sizes. However, as ingroup collectivism increased, agentic narcissists engaged in less counterproductive work behaviors (Grijalva & Newman, Reference Grijalva and Newman2015; O’Boyle et al., Reference O’Boyle, Forsyth, Banks and McDaniel2011). That is, work cultures that value loyalty to organizations and group cohesiveness among team members tend to have fewer incidents of counterproductive work behavior (House et al., Reference House, Hanges and Jayidan2004). These cultures are less tolerant of agentic narcissistic behaviors such as self-promotion (because it is interpreted as a violation of group norms), violations to the norm of social exchange, and manipulation (Van Dyne et al., Reference Van Dyne, Vandewalle, Kostoya, Latham and Cummings2000). Additional analyses have revealed that counterproductive work behaviors tend to be driven by the entitlement/exploitativeness facet of agentic narcissism and tempered by the leadership/authority facet (Grijalva & Newman, Reference Grijalva and Newman2015).

6.3 Agentic Narcissism, Leadership, and Followership

Poor leadership is one of the most influential predictors of employee cynicism (Bommer et al., Reference Bommer, Rich and Rubin2005). Agentic narcissists are likely to fall under the category of poor leadership, despite the tendency for them to emerge as leaders (Brunell et al., Reference Brunell, Gentry and Campbell2008; Grijalva et al., Reference Grijalva, Harms, Newman, Gaddis and Fraley2015; Nevicka et al., Reference Nevicka, Velden, De Hoogh and Van Vianen2011) and to occupy positions of power such as presidents and CEOs (Chatterjee & Hambrick, Reference Chatterjee and Hambrick2007). Because agentic narcissistic leaders (a) have leadership visions that are self-serving rather than serving the teams they lead (Conger, Reference Conger and Vecchio1997), (b) self-promote to gain recognition (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, Reference Rosenthal and Pittinsky2006), and (c) use strategies of deception, manipulation, and intimidation to get their way (Glad, Reference Glad2002), they foster organizational cynicism. Organizational cynicism refers to a negative attitude toward one’s organization, such as beliefs that the organization lacks integrity as well as behavior such as disparaging the organization (Dean et al., Reference Dean, Brandes and Dharwadkar1998). In a study of university hospital nurses in Turkey, the association between leaders’ agentic narcissism and organizational cynicism was mediated by employee psychological strain, such as feelings of anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and loss of self-confidence (Erkutlu & Chafra, Reference Erkutlu and Chafra2017).

If agentic narcissistic coworkers are “emotional vampires” in the workplace, how do they rise to leadership roles so often? One theory suggests that there is considerable overlap between agentic narcissistic characteristics and how people think leaders “should be” (Nevicka, Reference Nevicka, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). This helps with agentic narcissists’ ability to rise through the ranks. Furthermore, their charm, enthusiasm, dominance, and confidence tend to assist them in making positive first impressions on people (Back et al., Reference Back, Schmukle and Egloff2010), even though these positive impressions do not last (e.g., Paulhus, Reference Paulhus1998). Second, agentic narcissists desire to lead and rate themselves positively on leadership (Brunell et al., Reference Brunell, Gentry and Campbell2008; Grijalva et al., Reference Grijalva, Harms, Newman, Gaddis and Fraley2015; Judge et al., Reference Judge, LePine and Rich2006). Therefore, they actively seek out opportunities to climb the corporate ladder (Zitek & Jordan, Reference Zitek and Jordan2016).

One question concerns how effective agentic narcissistic leaders are. On the one hand, agentic narcissistic leaders are innovative (Gerstner et al., Reference Gerstner, König, Enders and Hambrick2013), charismatic, and impart bold visions to followers (Galvin et al., Reference Galvin, Waldman and Balthazard2010). They are decisive and persistent (Wallace et al., Reference Wallace, Ready and Weitenhagen2009). When faced with criticism, agentic narcissists are more willing to do tasks that would enable them to prove themselves (Nevicka et al., Reference Nevicka, Baas and Ten Velden2016). Furthermore, during difficult and uncertain times, their followers find their leadership to be reassuring (Nevicka et al., Reference Nevicka, De Hoogh, Van Vianen and Ten Velden2013). One study demonstrated that agentic narcissism among US presidents was associated with better crisis management, public persuasiveness, and the ability to push through an agenda and initiate legislation (Watts et al., Reference Watts, Lileinfeld and Smith2013).

On the other hand, agentic narcissists have a host of negative traits, such as overconfidence and self-serving behavior, impulsivity, entitlement, and a sense of superiority, which can have negative consequences for an organization (Judge et al., Reference Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka2009). They disregard advice from others (Kausel et al., Reference Kausel, Culbertson, Leiva, Slaughter and Jackson2015) because they believe their ideas are the best (Maccoby, Reference Maccoby2000). While they are decisive, they also make risky and volatile decisions (Chatterjee & Hambrick, Reference Chatterjee and Hambrick2007). Agentic narcissistic leaders have a habit of dominating discussions and are poor at sharing information with subordinates, which in turn leads to reduced team performance (Nevicka et al., Reference Nevicka, Velden, De Hoogh and Van Vianen2011). Thus, there could be considerable negative consequences from agentic narcissistic leadership.

However, whether or not agentic narcissistic leaders are effective depends, in part, on what is studied and how it is studied. For example, one study examined the extent to which agentic narcissism among major league baseball team owners was associated with team performance (Resick et al., Reference Resick, Whitman, Weingarden and Hiller2009). This study found that team owners’ agentic narcissism was associated with lower contingent reward leadership, which refers to recognizing and rewarding performance such as through pay increases and promotion for when organization objectives are met. This contingent reward leadership, in turn, predicted less external influence (building relationships with important constituents such as customers or donors), but was also associated with lower manager turnover, suggesting that the managers wind up feeling empowered. Importantly, however, is that the owner’s agentic narcissism was not associated with the team’s performance.

Yet there are times when leader agentic narcissism has consequences for subordinates, such as their job engagement or job performance. Agentic narcissists thrive on recognition and positive attention from others (DuBrin, Reference DuBrin2012). One effective way to gain this kind of attention is to obtain good results, which can be accomplished by motivating and guiding followers as well as keeping more negative reactions to them at bay (Campbell et al., Reference Campbell, Hoffman and Campbell2011). Furthermore, when leaders give followers respect and bestow trust onto them (Robbins & Judge, Reference Robbins and Judge2011), good relationships are developed. One study found that positive exchanges between leaders and followers mediated the association between leader agentic narcissism and efforts made by the team to improve team performance (Ha et al., Reference Ha, Lee, Byun and Dai2020). These exchanges were more likely to occur when followers perceived that they were treated fairly by the leader and the organization (Ha et al., Reference Ha, Lee, Byun and Dai2020).

Furthermore, it is important to note that leaders themselves have numerous qualities (Owens et al., Reference Owens, Wallace and Waldman2015). It may seem counterintuitive, but there is research demonstrating that even agentic narcissists can display high levels of humility (such as by acknowledging one does not know the answer to a problem) (Ou et al., Reference Ou, Tsui and Kinicki2014; Owens et al., Reference Owens, Wallace and Waldman2015). When agentic narcissistic leaders demonstrate higher levels of humility, they can be viewed as effective because their acts of humility temper their more noxious agentic narcissistic qualities.

Another direction to explore with regard to followership is when the follower is narcissistic (Benson & Jordan, Reference Benson, Jordan, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). Agentic narcissists have a tendency to be dissatisfied with their role as follower because they believe the position of follower is not a reflection of their true abilities (Benson et al., Reference Benson, Jordan and Christie2016). They are harder to mentor (Allen et al., Reference Allen, Johnson, Rodopman, Ottinot and Biga2009) because they are less likely to take advice (Kausel et al., Reference Kausel, Culbertson, Leiva, Slaughter and Jackson2015). When they are in roles as followers, they tend to be less motivated because they see themselves as leaders and prefer to be leaders (Arthur et al., Reference Arthur, Woodman, Ong, Hardy and Ntoumanis2011). For this reason, they prefer hierarchy in an organization when they can see themselves moving up the corporate ladder and dislike hierarchy when they do not perceive a means to advance (Benson & Jordan, Reference Benson, Jordan, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018; Zitek & Jordan, Reference Zitek and Jordan2016). In this situation, they are likely to move on to another position.

6.4 Communal Narcissism in the Workplace

To the best of my knowledge, research has not yet examined how communal narcissists behave in the workplace. One study has examined the kind of jobs that communal narcissists might be attracted to. This study found that communal narcissists are more attracted to companies that describe themselves in agentic ways (“dynamic company,” “results-oriented,” seeking employees who are “assertive, performance-oriented and goal-oriented”) than communal ways (“trusted company,” “cooperative,” and seeking employees who are “considerate, polite, and dependable”) (Fatfouta, Reference Fatfouta2021). One reason might be that agentic work environments validate communal narcissists more than communal work environments do. Recall that communal narcissists seek to find means of validating their sense of power (Gebauer et al., Reference Gebauer, Sedikides, Verplanken and Maio2012; Giacomin & Jordan, Reference Giacomin and Jordan2015).

From this, we can speculate how communal narcissists might behave in the workplace. They might be less inclined to be uncivil or engage in workplace bullying behaviors because they want to be seen as “the best” at making the company a better place to work. There is a good likelihood that they see themselves as good leaders and would desire leadership roles. However, much like their agentic grandiose narcissistic counterparts, they are likely to think they are better leaders and better team players than they actually are.

6.5 Vulnerable Narcissism in the Workplace

Surprisingly, little research has examined vulnerable narcissism in the workplace. One noteworthy exception was a recent study (Wirtz & Rigotti, Reference Wirtz and Rigotti2020) that examined the extent to which supervisor agentic narcissism and subordinate vulnerable narcissism combine to predict work engagement. These authors examined 71 leaders and their 235 team members. They found that vulnerable narcissism was negatively associated with work engagement, and it was moderated by leaders’ agentic narcissism, such that at higher levels of leader agentic narcissism, vulnerable narcissists declined in work engagement. This could be because vulnerable narcissists, who already feel poorly about themselves, are less inclined to engage in their work when they are met with potential abusive supervision or derogatory behavior from their supervisor.

Taken together, the research suggest that working with narcissists, especially agentic narcissists, creates difficulties in the workplace. First, both agentic and vulnerable narcissists disengage from their work when they feel threatened or their egos are bruised. Agentic narcissists can also behave in uncivil ways, engage in destructive behaviors at work, and are poor at communicating with their team. Such behaviors have consequences not only for the individual but also for the team and even the organization.

7.1 Agentic Narcissism in Romantic Relationships

The primary goal of agentic narcissists is to gain admiration from their partners and status by association (such as by having a trophy partner) (Campbell, Reference Campbell1999). Communal goals such as fostering intimacy, care, and concern are not nearly as important to agentic narcissists as are their concerns about status and admiration. For example, in one study, participants wrote about what matters to them in relationships (Campbell, Reference Campbell1999). Agentic narcissists were more likely to mention admiration and status and less likely to mention caring in their responses. Across several additional studies, agentic narcissists were likely to indicate feeling more attraction for a partner who admires them rather than one who cares about them (Campbell, Reference Campbell1999). This pattern was first investigated in the United States but has been replicated in a collectivistic culture (i.e., Thailand) as well (Tanchotsrinon et al., Reference Tanchotsrinon, Maneesri and Campbell2007).

This pattern of valuing status and power over care and intimacy extends to agentic narcissists’ sexual relationships. In the bedroom, agentic narcissists are more interested in power and personal pleasure than they are about closeness and love (Foster et al., Reference Foster, Shrira and Campbell2006). Their goal is to have casual sexual experiences and more sexual conquests (Schmitt et al., Reference Schmitt, Alcalay and Allik2017). When in long-term relationships, their primary motives for sex appear to be self-affirmation (e.g., affirming one’s sexual attractiveness) and to restore positive mood (Gewirtz-Meydan et al., 2017). Furthermore, women’s agentic narcissism was associated with lower intimacy motivation among their partners, perhaps because intimacy in heterosexual relationships is typically driven by women and warmth and intimacy are lacking among agentic narcissistic women.

When agentic narcissists are in dating relationships, they keep their partners guessing about their interest in the relationship and treat dating as a game (Campbell, Foster, & Finkel, Reference Campbell, Foster and Finkel2002; Rohmann et al., Reference Rohmann, Neumann, Herner and Bierhoff2012). Why do agentic narcissists play games? In their quest for status, power, and independence, game playing enables agentic narcissists to maintain their power and freedom through the principle of least interest (Campbell, Foster, & Finkel Reference Campbell, Foster and Finkel2002), which is the idea that the person who is less invested in the relationship has more power in the relationship (Sprecher et al., Reference Sprecher, Schmeeckle and Felmlee2006; Waller, Reference Waller1938). In addition, they delight in inducing jealousy to maintain power and control in their partnerships (Tortoriello et al., Reference Tortoriello, Hart, Richardson and Tullett2017). Thus, although long-term relationships come with the benefits of emotional intimacy and social support, agentic narcissists simply do not seem to find emotional intimacy and social support to be beneficial (Campbell, Reference Campbell1999). For this reason, agentic narcissists may not be particularly motivated to establish long-term relationships.

Relatedly, agentic narcissists lack commitment in their relationships. Research using the Investment Model has shown that there are three main factors for maintaining long-lasting relationships (Rusbult, Reference Rusbult1980; Reference Rusbult1983). The first is relationship satisfaction. The second is one’s perceptions of alternatives to the relationship one is in, which includes partnering with someone else or preferring to be single. The more high-quality alternatives a person has to the current relationship, the less likely they are to stay in the relationship. Lastly, the extent to which people feel invested in a relationship, the more likely they are to commit to the relationship. Investments include shared resources, friends, and children, for example. For agentic narcissists, because they are chronically looking for a better “trophy” partner, their perceptions of having more (high quality) alternatives predict lower relationship commitment (Campbell & Foster, Reference Campbell and Foster2002).

So why do people get involved with agentic narcissists? It seems that in the short-term agentic narcissists tend to be deemed attractive, confident, charming, likeable, and fun (Brunell & Campbell, Reference Brunell, Campbell, Campbell and Miller2011). They have mate-appeal (Jauk et al., Reference Jauk, Neubauer and Mairunteregger2016) and other qualities that draw others in (Back et al., Reference Back, Schmukle and Egloff2010). In addition, it is not uncommon that agentic narcissists are attracted to other agentic narcissists (Grosz et al., Reference Grosz, Dufner, Back and Denissen2015) as they share common goals for the relationship.

In one study, college students were asked to compare previous relationships they had with someone who was an agentic narcissist and someone who was not (Brunell & Campbell, Reference Brunell, Campbell, Campbell and Miller2011). First, they wrote their narratives about each relationship and then answered some additional questions. Their stories were then coded for themes. The good parts about dating agentic narcissists were that they were ambitious, popular, charming, and sexually attractive. The worst parts of the relationship were that they were deceptive, controlling, materialistic, and made their partners feel like a trophy. Participants also believed their agentic narcissistic partners were less committed and faithful to them. When asked about their relationship satisfaction over the course of the relationship with both kinds of partners, there was a steep decline in satisfaction in relationships with agentic narcissists as their more insufferable qualities became more apparent. Interestingly, the participants were not particularly unhappy at the end of the relationship with the nonnarcissist. They reported that they grew apart, were not compatible, or regretted that this relationship ended.

Although much research has indicated that agentic narcissists seem to be less interested in forming long-term relationships, many ultimately do form them, nonetheless. In the past few years, more research has focused on ongoing relationships with agentic narcissists, rather than on shorter relationships among adolescents and young adults. For example, studies have been done that observe couples having a conversation in the lab (Lamkin et al., Reference Lamkin, Lavner and Shaffer2017; Peterson & DeHart, Reference Peterson and DeHart2014). The data from these studies suggest that relationships with agentic narcissists become increasingly more dissatisfying for both the narcissist and the partner over time (Lavner et al., Reference Lavner, Lamkin, Miller, Campbell and Karney2016; Ye et al., Reference Ye, Lam, Ma and Ng2016).

One reason partners of agentic narcissists might become less happy over time is that agentic narcissistic partners seem to miss how their noxious behavior impacts their partners (Foster & Brunell, Reference Foster, Brunell, Hermann, Brunell and Foster2018). For example, they engage in frequent angry and hostile communication (Lamkin et al., Reference Lamkin, Lavner and Shaffer2017; Peterson & DeHart, Reference Peterson and DeHart2014). They have extreme negative reactions to criticism, rejection, and failure. Even when agentic narcissists have minor disagreements with their partners, they report feeling less committed to their relationship even after the conflict is over. This pattern extends to minor disagreements about hypothetical situations such as where they would like to take a dream vacation. Furthermore, they purposely make their partners feel insecure and jealous as a means to maintain power and control in the relationship (Tortoriello et al., Reference Tortoriello, Hart, Richardson and Tullett2017). In addition, agentic narcissists experience elevated jealousy themselves when they are in relationships (Chin et al., Reference Chin, Atkinson, Raheb, Harris and Vernon2017), possibly because they use their own behavior to judge what they expect of others. However, their own jealousy might come about from experiences with having their romantic partners stolen away from them (Kardum et al., Reference Kardum, Hudek-Knezevic, Schmitt and Grundler2015).

Lastly, research has suggested that agentic narcissists are more likely to engage in sexual coercion and intimate partner violence. For example, both agentic narcissistic men and women indicate a tendency to use an arsenal of strategies when their partners have rebuffed their sexual advances. These include persistence (such as kissing the person), manipulation, exploitation (such as getting their partner drunk), and use of physical threats or force (Blinkhorn et al., Reference Blinkhorn, Lyons and Almond2015). Furthermore, both agentic narcissistic men and women tend to be more accepting of intimate partner violence (Blinkhorn et al., Reference Blinkhorn, Lyons and Almond2016).

7.2 Communal Narcissism in Relationships

Little research has investigated how communal narcissists behave in their relationships. In a preliminary study, we found that communal narcissists reported more positive perceptions of their relationship behaviors and relationship quality (Drotleff & Brunell, Reference Drotleff and Brunell2020). We also investigated how communal narcissists would perceive their relationships when they were empowered versus when they were disempowered (Drotleff & Brunell, Reference Drotleff and Brunell2020). The inspiration of this study initially came from research examining how helpful communal narcissists were when they felt empowered, with results highlighting that communal narcissists became less helpful when they were empowered (Giacomin & Jordan, Reference Giacomin and Jordan2015). Given that interpersonal relationships are at the heart of self-enhancement on communal traits, in our study, we hypothesized that when communal narcissists felt empowered, it would alter their motivations about their relationships, such as the intention to engage in infidelity. Research has shown that having elevated power is linked to increased infidelity (Lammers et al., Reference Lammers, Stoker, Jordan, Pollmann and Stapel2011) as is agentic narcissism (Altınok & Kılıç, Reference Altınok and Kılıç2020). Furthermore, agentic narcissism has been associated with perceiving higher power in relationships more generally (Vrabel et al., Reference Vrabel, Zeigler-Hill, Lehtman and Hernandez2020). Thus, it was possible that like their agentic counterparts, empowered communal narcissists would indicate greater intentions to cheat. On the other hand, evidence has suggested that people cheat when they perceive a lack of power in their relationships (Prins et al., Reference Prins, Buunk and VanYperen1993). Thus, it was possible to find that communal narcissists who were led to feel less empowered might have been more likely to engage in infidelity even though being a good relationship partner seems to be at the center of a communal narcissists’ self-enhancement bias.

In our study, we recruited 208 participants who indicated they were in “exclusive” relationships from a research participant pool. As part of a larger packet of personality questionnaires, they were asked to complete the Communal Narcissism Inventory (Gebauer et al., Reference Gebauer, Sedikides, Verplanken and Maio2012). The other questionnaires were simply used as a cover for the power manipulation. Participants were given false feedback about how powerful they would be later in life by using the same power manipulation as Giacomin and Jordan (Reference Giacomin and Jordan2015). In the low-power feedback condition, participants were told that they “will not be in a position of power later in life,” whereas those in the high-power condition were told they “will be in a position of power later in life.” Following the manipulation, participants were asked questions about their relationships that included the Intentions toward Infidelity Scale (Jones et al., Reference Jones, Olderbak, Figueredo, Fisher, Davis, Yarber and Davis2011).

When communal narcissists were led to believe they would not have power, they indicated more intentions to cheat. When they were led to believe they would have power, they indicated less intentions to cheat. Thus, it seems that undermining a communal narcissists’ sense of power alters intentions in their relationships. However, in the context of interpersonal relationships, future research needs to disentangle the differences between the perception of having relationship power and the perception of feeling powerful more generally.

7.3 Vulnerable Narcissism in Relationships

Research into the romantic lives of vulnerable narcissists is also sparse. What is known is that vulnerable narcissists experience higher attachment anxiety (Rohmann et al., Reference Rohmann, Neumann, Herner and Bierhoff2012) and worry they will lose their partners to rivals (Hart et al., Reference Hart, Richardson and Tortoriello2018). When asked why they purposely try to make their partners jealous, vulnerable narcissists offered several reasons (Tortoriello et al., Reference Tortoriello, Hart, Richardson and Tullett2017). First, they sought power and control over their partner. Second, after experiencing jealousy, they wanted revenge on the partner. This finding goes hand in hand with their own self-reports that they behave more negatively in response to relationship conflict (Drotleff & Brunell, Reference Drotleff and Brunell2020). Third, they used jealousy as a test of the relationship, to gain assurance of the partner’s love or to make sure the relationship is strong. Lastly, they desired approval from the partner as a means of compensating for feelings of inadequacy. Thus, it seems that vulnerable narcissists try to make their partners feel vulnerable and insecure as a means of increasing their own feelings of self-worth. Furthermore, vulnerable narcissists appear to be less committed to their relationship partners as they report greater attention to relationship alternatives and lower relationship satisfaction (Drotleff & Brunell, Reference Drotleff and Brunell2020).

Although there is some evidence that narcissists can change if they are motivated to do so (Finkel et al., Reference Finkel, Campbell, Buffardi, Kumashiro and Rusbult2009; Hepper et al., Reference Hepper, Hart and Sedikides2014), there is no evidence so far that these changes last over longer periods of time. The information presented here, taken together, suggests that many relationships with narcissists, in general, are damaging. Not only is the relationship itself more likely to be destructive, but there are also potential negative consequences for the well-being of their partners who are left coping with damage they leave in their wake.

11.1 Frequently Asked Question #1: Where Does Narcissism Come From?

11.2 Frequently Asked Question #2: How Do I Navigate a Relationship with a Narcissist?

There is a plethora of discussions among practitioners, clinicians, and journalists about how to cope with narcissistic relationships. By contrast, the academic literature lacks investigation into feasible ways of coping with a narcissist. The recommendation to “just leave” a job or a marriage is often not a feasible solution. In the following sections, I review the literature that does exist (mostly focused on agentic narcissistic relationships) and some solutions by practitioners that are offered but need investigation.