Behavioral processes underlying the decline of narcissists' popularity over time

Following a dual-pathway approach to the social consequences of grandiose narcissism, we investigated the behavioral processes underlying (a) the decline of narcissists' popularity in social groups over time and (b) how this is differentially influenced by the 2 narcissism facets admiration and rivalry. In a longitudinal laboratory study, participants (N = 311) first provided narcissism self-reports using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, and subsequently interacted with each other in small groups in weekly sessions over the course of 3 weeks. All sessions were videotaped and trained raters coded participants' behavior during the interactions. Within the sessions participants provided mutual ratings on assertiveness, untrustworthiness, and likability. Results showed that (a) over time narcissists become less popular and (b) this is reflected in an initially positive but decreasing effect of narcissistic admiration as well as an increasing negative effect of narcissistic rivalry. As hypothesized, these patterns of results could be explained by means of 2 diverging behavioral pathways: The negative narcissistic pathway (i.e., arrogant-aggressive behavior and being seen as untrustworthy) plays an increasing role and is triggered by narcissistic rivalry, whereas the relevance of the positive narcissistic pathway (i.e., dominant-expressive behavior and being seen as assertive) triggered by narcissistic admiration decreases over time. These findings underline the utility of a behavioral pathway approach for disentangling the complex effects of personality on social outcomes.