Aggression, narcissism, self-esteem, and the attribution of desirable and humanizing traits to self versus others

Undergraduates (n = 156) completed measures of aggression, self-esteem, and narcissism. In accord with previous research, self-esteem and narcissism had opposing effects on aggression and functioned as mutual suppressors: Controlling their shared variance amplified self-esteem’s negative association with aggression and narcissism’s positive association with aggression. Participants also rated themselves and peers on traits that were or were not (a) desirable and (b) humanizing (i.e., uniquely human or reflecting human nature). Ascribing more humanizing and less dehumanizing traits to the self than to others was associated with more narcissism and more aggression (but did not mediate the narcissism-aggression relationship); this intriguing finding should stimulate further study of the social cognition associated with entitled, exploitative, and hostile behavior.