Narcissists are people who maintain their self-esteem by relying on the energy of others. They thrive on other people’s accolades and like to broadcast their accomplishments. They also have difficulty in their social interactions, because they do not really empathize with others.
Empathy is the ability to understand and experience another person’s feelings. Empathy is a crucial aspect of social relationships. We are able to work effectively with others because we understand what they need. We recognize what others are experiencing, and this helps us exhibit pro-social behaviors that benefit others – and avoid anti-social behaviors that harm others.
Since empathy is so important for social interactions, it is important to know whether people with a tendency toward narcissism can be led to experience more empathy. This issue is explored in a paper by Erica Heber, Claire Hart, and Constantine Sedikides in the September 2014 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
The first study they conducted showed that narcissists actually tend to display low levels of empathy. Participants completed a personality inventory that measures narcissism. Then they read a story about someone who had just gone through a romantic breakup. The person in the story was of the same gender as the participant. In the stories, the breakup was either mild or devastating, and the person either saw it coming or didn’t.
Related : 5 Signs of a Situational Narcissist
After reading the vignette, participants filled out a scale on how much they sympathized with the person in the story. The prediction was that non-narcissists would sympathize more with the writer when the breakup was severe than when it was moderate. The results confirm this, and find that narcissists generally did not sympathize with the writer, especially when the breakup was severe.
Two other studies asked whether directing people to adopt another person’s perspective would lead narcissists to feel more empathy. In one study, participants who filled out a narcissism data list watched a video about a victim of domestic violence. Some participants were given specific instructions to imagine what the victim was feeling and take their perspective; Others were not. After watching the video, participants filled out a questionnaire about the extent of their sympathy for the victim.
Participants high in narcissism did not empathize much with the victim when they had just watched the video. But when they were specifically instructed to take the victim’s perspective, they showed levels of empathy similar to those of non-narcissists.
A final study used a similar method, but instead of relying on survey questions, the experimenters measured heart rate. Previous research has shown that increases in heart rate are a reliable signal that people empathize with others. Basically, when you feel another person’s emotions, you get a surge of arousal, which increases your heart rate. Narcissists instructed before watching a video (in this case about a woman going through a breakup) showed an increase in heart rate, but those who were asked to take in the other person’s perspective showed an increase in heart rate.
These findings suggest that narcissists are capable of empathy, but most of the time, they do not make an effort to adopt another person’s perspective. If it is important for narcissists to take another person’s perspective, they can do so, although most of the time they do not.
In order to help narcissists engage in more pro-social behavior, it is important to give them reasons to adopt the perspective of others rather than focusing only on themselves.
