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Do narcissistic personalities also have more alarming reactions than others when their romantic partner hurts them? Psychologists have sought to find out. Here’s what to expect if this is your case.
How can narcissistic people in relationships react when they feel hurt or betrayed by a romantic partner? Two psychologists conducted the survey among several hundred people. Here’s what we learn there.
Narcissistic people get angry easily
Before even getting into the theme of love, let’s remember that a narcissistic personality is characterized by an exaggerated feeling of personal importance and entitlement. Although they can be charming and charming, narcissistic people tend to make poor long-term partners due to their constant need for admiration. In fact, they quickly feel threatened in their self-esteem, which often leads them to become angry in the event of rejection. But what about when it is the romantic partner who is at fault or hurts them in their relationship?
More present anger in the event of relational injury
In the media Psychology Todaypsychologist Gwendolyn Seidman shares a study that she co-carried out with another expert, Lillian Carney on this subject. To do this, the two women conducted an experiment on 241 participants in a relationship, who were asked to write about a time when they were hurt or disappointed by their partner (called relational threat condition) or simply to write about their activities daily (control group). They then asked participants to rate their angry mood, and to rate their partner on various positive characteristics immediately after this writing task. At the same time, participants completed questionnaires measuring narcissism.
Not surprisingly, participants who wrote about relationship threat reported more anger, sadness, and anxiety than those who wrote about their daily activities.
However, the effect of relationship threat on anger was greater among those who scored higher on narcissism. In other words, individualsvery narcissistic people were particularly likely to feel anger” when they thought about a time when their partner had hurt them.
Good in his body, good in his head!
They blame their partner above all else
The study did not stop here. The two psychologists also wanted to know whether or not narcissists might view their partner in a particularly negative way in the context of the hurtful relationship event. “We suspected that the greater anger they felt when thinking about their partner’s hurtful behavior was likely directed against the latter“.
To test this hypothesis, they also examined participants’ written accounts of their partner’s hurtful behavior. As expected, those who scored higher on narcissism tended to describe their partner more negatively when remembering the hurtful event.
“This study demonstrates one of the reasons why narcissists tend to have problems in their long-term relationships and why their partners often experience less satisfaction. When things go wrong in the relationship, narcissists tend to “take it out on their partner and, as this study shows, continue to harbor feelings of anger and negativity toward their partner in response to past hurts.”
If you are around a narcissistic person, you now know what to expect.
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