Humor style mediates the association between pathological narcissism and self-esteem

The aim of the present study was to examine whether humor styles mediated the associations between the pathological forms of narcissism (grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism) and self-esteem in a sample of Israeli undergraduates (N = 200). Grandiose narcissism was positively associated with the use of adaptive humor (i.e., self-enhancing humor and affiliative humor), whereas vulnerable narcissism was negatively associated with the use of adaptive humor and positively associated with the use of maladaptive humor (i.e., self-defeating humor and aggressive humor). These forms of humor were found to mediate the associations between the pathological forms of narcissism and self-esteem. Findings are discussed in terms of the role that humor may play in the self-esteem regulation of individuals with pathological narcissism.