Attentional bias for performance-related words in individuals with narcissism

• We examined the attentional bias of narcissists as well as its mechanism.
• Narcissists exhibited highly vigilant to failure words.
• Narcissists exhibited difficulty disengaging from success words.
• Non-narcissists exhibited difficulty disengaging from failure words.
• Non-narcissists exhibited difficulty disengaging from rejection words.

In this study, dot probe tasks were employed to present performance-related or interpersonal-related words paired with neutral words, we examined the attentional bias of narcissists as well as its mechanism. Results showed that the narcissistic individuals demonstrated significant attentional bias for performance words. Specifically, they were highly vigilant to failure words and had difficulty disengaging from success words, and there was no such bias for the category of interpersonal ones. Non-narcissists, on the other hand, exhibited significant difficulty disengaging from negative words, including failure words and rejection words. From this data, it would appear that attentional bias may be a built-in cognitive attribute of narcissism. The limitations of the present study and future research directions are also discussed.