Rivalry and admiration-seeking in a social competition: From traits to behaviors through contextual cues.

Abstract

To gain social status, humans employ two strategies, rivalry and admiration-seeking, and these strategies are over-expressed in trait narcissism, according to the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept (NARC) and the Status Pursuit in Narcissism (SPIN) model. Whether one engages in rivalry or admiration-seeking behaviors is thought to depend on the interaction between underlying traits and status-relevant social cues, with status threats encouraging rivalry and status-boosting experiences encouraging admiration-seeking. However, experimental studies of how traits and environment influence rivalry and admiration-seeking are lacking, and we do not know whether status-relevant cues selectively activate congruent traits (i.e., whether defeat primarily activates trait rivalry and victory, trait admiration-seeking). We used a rigged video game tournament with three randomized blocks with defeat manipulations of varying intensity, measuring behavioral rivalry (stealing points from opponents) and admiration-seeking (paying to boost rank in the tournament) in a sample of 434 undergraduates assessed for trait rivalry and trait admiration-seeking with the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire. We found trait-congruent main effects: behavioral rivalry scaled with trait rivalry and behavioral admiration-seeking with trait admiration-seeking. Exploratory analyses found modest support for trait × environment interactions wherein trait rivalry primarily increased status-pursuit behaviors following defeats and trait admiration-seeking following victories. However, these effects were not robust. These results support the NARC's two-dimensional conceptualization of narcissistic grandiosity. Future studies with greater within-subject power are needed to test the interactionist model of status pursuit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).