Do narcissists try to make romantic partners jealous on purpose? An examination of motives for deliberate jealousy-induction among subtypes of narcissism

•We investigated whether narcissists strategically induce romantic jealousy.•Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism positively related to jealousy induction.•Power/control motives mediated grandiose narcissists' jealousy induction.•All jealousy motives mediated vulnerable narcissists' jealousy induction.•Findings suggest narcissists' jealousy-inducing behaviors may be tactical.

We speculated that narcissists' apparent desire for alternative mates might reflect a behavioral strategy designed to induce jealousy in their partners. We assessed grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, propensity to engage in strategic jealousy induction, and five motives for strategic jealousy induction. Both grandiose and vulnerable narcissists reported enhanced strategic jealousy induction. Results revealed that grandiose narcissists induce jealousy as means to acquire power and control, but vulnerable narcissists induce jealousy as a means to acquire power and control, exact revenge on the partner, test and strengthen the relationship, seek security, and compensate for low self-esteem. Additional mediation analyses revealed that the effects of both narcissism subtypes on jealousy induction were reduced upon controlling for Machiavellianism, and the effects of grandiose (vulnerable) narcissism on jealousy induction were accentuated (suppressed) upon controlling for trait self-esteem. Therefore, narcissists' relationship-threatening behavior might, in part, be strategic.