{"id":897835,"date":"2026-10-28T18:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/897835\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T18:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:46:19","slug":"subtle-clue-can-reveal-if-youre-a-grandiose-narcissist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/897835\/","title":{"rendered":"Subtle clue can reveal if you’re a ‘grandiose narcissist’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk about saving face.<\/p>\n

Many of us possess some narcissistic personality traits<\/a>, whether it\u2019s a sense of entitlement, confidence in our own superiority or a desire to be the center of attention.<\/p>\n

Narcissism doesn\u2019t only mean talking about yourself or being vain, though, as a new study<\/a> reveals a subtle clue some \u201cgrandiose\u201d or overt narcissists give off.<\/p>\n

\"AnNarcissists can give off nonverbal clues to their personality, including one that\u2019s more subtle than others. nicoletaionescu \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The research, published Tuesday in the journal Cerebral Cortex, looked at empathy in \u201cgrandiose narcissists\u201d by monitoring how their personality traits influenced brain activity during a life-like scenario where another person faced a social threat.<\/p>\n

Participants watched videos in which someone told personal stories about being excluded or admired and received feedback that threatened the image the narrator was presenting.<\/p>\n

The feedback questioned whether the admiration was deserved or whether the narrator was at fault for their own exclusion.<\/p>\n

The brain activity of the narcissists showed reduced empathy towards the narrator experiencing embarrassment, whereas less narcissistic subjects shared in the narrator\u2019s mortification.<\/p>\n

The researchers based their study on a theory from sociologist Erving Goffman \u2014 that people try to present a certain image of themselves in social interactions.<\/p>\n

Because others can accept or reject this self-image, causing anxiety or embarrassment for both the person projecting it and the observers, people protect that image from being undermined in a move called \u201csaving face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically, anyone involved in the social interaction will work together to save each other\u2019s faces, a practice called facework.<\/p>\n

\"ANarcissists showed reduced empathy towards someone experiencing anxiety or embarrassment in a social situation. New Africa \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The study found that facework differed between those with more narcissistic traits and those with fewer.<\/p>\n

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the narcissistic brains were less in sync during the narrator\u2019s embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Areas of the brain associated with empathy showed less activity than in less narcissistic subjects, implying the latter had a shared experience with the narrator and engaged in cognitive empathy.<\/p>\n

These findings suggest that \u201cgrandiose narcissists\u201d may not build genuine connections or show support for others, leading to misunderstandings in social interactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople with a high number of narcissistic traits respond to another person\u2019s vulnerable experience differently than others,\u201d lead study author Matias Piispanen said in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may attune to interaction in a different way, pay attention to different aspects of it or make different interpretations of what is happening,\u201d Piispanen added.<\/p>\n

The researchers used empathy to determine how the participants processed a complex social situation in the moment by having people tell stories or receive feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cA real-life-like scenario is much more complex and requires more interpretation and evaluation of the situation,\u201d Piispanen explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, participants were not specifically instructed to empathize with the narrator\u2019s experience,\u201d he added. \u201cThis allowed us to observe how they spontaneously tracked and processed a complex social situation as it played out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talk about saving face. Many of us possess some narcissistic personality traits, whether it\u2019s a sense of entitlement,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[1491,97,259,260,5964,5262,3284,673],"class_list":["post-897835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-brains","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-psychology","tag-social","tag-study-says","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}