Vulnerable narcissism higher in Germany than Japan, related to self-construal; grandiose narcissism not equivalent across cultures; culturally incongruent forms of narcissism show more mental health problems

Narcissism in independent and interdependent cultures. Emanuel Jauk et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 177, July 2021, 110716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110716

Highlights

• Studied narcissism in independent (Germany) and interdependent (Japan) cultures

• Vulnerable narcissism higher in Germany than Japan, related to self-construal

• Grandiose narcissism not equivalent across cultures

• Culturally incongruent forms of narcissism show more mental health problems.

Abstract: Narcissism can manifest in a grandiose form – admiration-seeking, exhibitionism, and dominance – or a vulnerable form – anxiety, withdrawal, and hypersensitivity. While grandiose narcissism is conceptually in line with an independent self-construal, as prevalent in Western countries, the vulnerable form can be assumed to relate more to an interdependent self-construal, as prevalent in Eastern countries. We studied both forms of narcissism in Germany and Japan (Ns = 258, 280), which differ fundamentally in their independent and interdependent self-construal, yet are similar regarding global developmental standards. We tested whether (1) mean differences in both narcissism forms would conform to the predominant self-construal, (2) self-construal would explain variance in narcissism beyond broad personality traits, and (3) there would be stronger mental health tradeoffs for culturally incongruent forms of narcissism. Our results largely confirm these expectations for vulnerable narcissism, which is (1) more prevalent in Japan than Germany, (2) related to self-construal beyond broad traits, and, (3) more strongly related to mental health problems in Germany than Japan. For grandiose narcissism, data analyses indicated that construct equivalence can only be assumed for the entitlement factor, and internal structure and nomological networks differ substantially between cultural contexts.

Keywords: Grandiose narcissismVulnerable narcissismIndependent self-construalInterdependent self-construalCross-cultural research

4. Discussion

We investigated grandiose and vulnerable narcissism across Germany and Japan, two countries differing in independent and interdependent self-construal. We tested whether (1) grandiose narcissism would be higher in Germany, whereas vulnerable narcissism would be higher in Japan, and that (2) these differences would relate to self-construal beyond broad FFM traits. Finally, (3) we tested two competing hypotheses regarding the relations between narcissism and psychological maladjustment across independent and interdependent cultures.

4.1. Vulnerable narcissism has a similar structure, yet different implications across cultures

Results largely confirmed our expectations for vulnerable narcissism, which was (1) higher in Japan than Germany, (2) related to interdependent self-construal beyond FFM traits (albeit also related to independent self-construal) and (3) related more strongly to interpersonal problems in Germany than Japan, which is in line with the cultural incongruency hypothesis on personality and mental health (Curhan et al., 2014). This latter result suggests that, while vulnerable narcissism goes along with interpersonal problems in both cultures, the burden for individuals high on vulnerable narcissism might be higher in a cultural context valuing individualism and assertiveness. The MCNS as a measure of vulnerable narcissism displayed metric invariance, which means that indicators loaded equally on a latent factor (however, intercepts differed). Nomological network structure within the FFM was similar for the central dimensions of neuroticism and disagreeableness (Miller et al., 2016) as well as introversion (Jauk et al., 2017).

4.2. Grandiose narcissism has different structures across cultures, but entitlement might be similar

For grandiose narcissism, the measure used in this study (NPI-13) was not invariant at a general factor level (similar to previous research; Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al., 2019), so we conducted analyses for lower-order factors. Here, the entitlement/exploitativeness-factor displayed metric invariance, the others did not. Though this result is at odds with a recent study by Żemojtel-Piotrowska and colleagues, who observed invariance for the other two factors (leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism; Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al., 2019), it fits conceptually with structural models of narcissism placing entitlement – an aspect of antagonism – at the core of the construct (Krizan & Herlache, 2018; Weiss et al., 2019).

Contrary to our expectations, the entitlement aspect of narcissism was (1) higher in Japan than Germany (even more when controlling for FFM traits) and (2) controlling for self-construal did not alter this difference. While different post-hoc explanations for this finding could be conceived, when considered together with FFM differences observed here, it most likely reflects a reference group effect (see Limitations). Grandiose exhibitionism, the more (though not exclusively) agentic-extraverted aspect of grandiose narcissism was, in line with our expectations, lower in Japan (note, however, that this aspect likely assesses different constructs between cultures). This latter aspect, which is arguably most culturally incongruent with the Japanese culture, (3) was related to intrapersonal maladjustment in Japan, but not in Germany, further confirming the cultural incongruency hypothesis (Curhan et al., 2014). This shows that, while more agentic narcissism is largely associated with good mental health (less symptoms) in Western samples (e.g., Kaufman et al., 2018), this allegedly “happy face” (Rose, 2002) imposes a burden on the individual in cultures which value modesty and relatedness.

4.3. Limitations

An important methodological limitation of this study is that we relied on self-reports within the investigated cultures, in which cross-cultural differences might be obscured by reference group effects (Heine et al., 2002). This was likely the case for (part of) the self-construal scale, which showed an expected difference only for interdependent but not independent self-construal (despite experts' general agreement on independent orientation being very untypical for Japan; ibid.). Also, the scale displays limited reliability for its length. Regarding narcissism, while most of the effects observed here were in line with theoretical predictions, making reference group effects unlikely in these cases, the higher entitlement score in Japan might reflect such an effect, as do differences in FFM traits (see Supplement S1): as in previous research, Japanese participants rated themselves lower on agreeableness and conscientiousness than Germans, which might rather be indicative of high within-culture comparison standards than actual between-culture effects (Schmitt et al., 2007).

Another potential limitation could be seen in non-invariance of the grandiose narcissism measure/imperfect invariance of the vulnerable narcissism measure and entitlement scale. However, we wish to emphasize that we consider the finding that the complex psychological phenomenon of grandiose narcissism – rooted in Western thinking – varies across fundamentally different cultures an important insight rather than a “lack of invariance”. Nonetheless, when interpreting the findings presented here, it must be taken into account that vulnerable narcissism and entitlement do only partially reflect the same latent constructs across cultures, and leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism likely reflect different constructs and must be interpreted at the level of observed test scores (with varying meanings).