Differentiating narcissism modes in everyday life: The role of situation perception

Abstract

Although situations themselves are objective in nature, each individual could experience same situation differently. Within the current manuscript, in an ecological momentary study during which N = 502 participants provided responses seven times per day for seven consecutive days (k = 19 108 observations), we investigate the mutual relationship between momentary narcissism and situation perception in naturalistic setting. Results of the tested dynamic structural equation models revealed a considerable amount of bi-directional interplay in which momentary increases in narcissism were related to subsequent increases in how participants perceived situations. Furthermore, using the dynamic latent class analysis we explored how these situations are perceived during specific narcissism modes. We distinguished four types of narcissism modes: (1) non-narcissistic, (2) agentic, (3) neurotic, (4) antagonistic, and demonstrate how they differ in terms of situation perception. All narcissism modes were characterized of seeing situation as more deceptive when compared to non-narcissistic mode. We also found specific patterns of perceiving situations for each mode. These results, on the one hand support claims on the default nature of agentic, and on the other, neurotic narcissism and highlight the reactive nature of antagonistic narcissism.

Plain Language Summary

People do not always feel equally confident, insecure, or defensive. These moment-to-moment shifts are especially important for understanding narcissism, which is usually seen as a stable personality trait but actually changes across situations in everyday life. In our study, over 500 people reported how they felt and how they saw their current situation seven times a day for a week. This allowed us to track narcissistic feelings in real time. We found that narcissism takes three momentary “modes”: Agentic, feeling confident, powerful, and positive; neurotic mode, feeling ignored, insecure, and negative, and antagonistic mode, feeling aggressive, defensive, and distrustful. Most of the time, people were in a non-narcissistic state. But when narcissistic modes appeared, they were closely tied to how people interpreted their situations. For example, in agentic mode, people saw situations as more positive while in neurotic mode as more negative. The antagonistic mode stood out: people in this state consistently viewed situations as more deceptive and hostile. Overall, our study shows that narcissism is not just a trait people “have” but a dynamic process shaped by how they interpret what is happening around them. Understanding these fluctuations may help explain why people with narcissistic tendencies sometimes react confidently, sometimes defensively, and sometimes aggressively.