Narcissists are people maintain
their self-esteem by drawing on the energy of other people. They thrive on the
accolades of others and like to broadcast their achievements. They also have difficulty in their social
interactions, because they do not really empathize with others.
Empathy is the ability to
understand and experience someone else’s emotions. Empathy is a crucial aspect of social
relationships. We are able to work
effectively with other people, because we understand what they need. We recognize what other people are
experiencing, and that helps us to exhibit pro-social behaviors that benefit
other people and to avoid antisocial behaviors that harm others.
Because empathy is so important
for social interactions, it is valuable to know whether people with a tendency
toward narcissism can be led to experience more empathy. This issue was explored in a paper by Erica
Hepper, Claire Hart, and Constantine Sedikides in the September, 2014 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
The first study they did demonstrated
that narcissists really do tend to exhibit low levels of empathy. Participants completed a personality inventory
that measures narcissism. Then, they read a story about a person who had
just gone through a romantic breakup.
The person in the story was the same gender as the participant. The breakup was either mild or
devastating. The person either saw it
coming or did not.
After reading the vignette,
participants filled out a scale about how much they empathized with the
writer. The expectation was that
non-narcissists would empathize more with the writer when the breakup was
severe than when it was mild. The
results bear this out and find that narcissists generally did not empathize
with the writer, particularly when the breakup was severe.
Two other studies asked whether instructing
people to really take someone else’s perspective would push narcissists to feel
more empathy. In one study, participants
who had filled out a narcissism inventory watched a video about a victim of
domestic violence. Some participants
were given specific instructions to imagine how the victim was feeling and to
take her perspective. Others were not
given these instructions. After watching
the video, participants filled out a survey about how much they empathized with
the victim.
Participants high in narcissism
did not empathize much with the victim when they just watched the video. When they were given specific instructions to
take the victim’s perspective, though, they did show levels of empathy that
were similar to the non-narcissists.
A final study used a similar
method, but rather than using survey questions, the experimenters measured
heart rate. Previous research
demonstrates hat increases in heart rate are a reliable signal that people are
empathizing with others. Essentially,
when you feel someone else’s emotion, you get an increase in arousal, which
increases heart rate. Narcissists given
no instructions before watching a video (in this case about a woman undergoing
a breakup) did not show an increase in heart rate, but those who were told to
take the other person’s perspective did show an increase in heart rate.
These results suggest that
narcissists are capable of empathy, but most of the time, they do not put in
the effort to take another person’s perspective. If it is clearly important for narcissist to
take another person’s perspective, then they can do it. Most of the time, though, they do not.
In order to help narcissists
engage in more pro-social behavior, then, it is important to give them reasons
to want to take other people’s point of view rather than just focusing on
themselves.
