Grandiose/Vulnerable Narcissism predicting spiteful punishment after self-threat
Description
NPI items were re-coded such that the narcissistic response was always scored as 1, and the non-narcissistic response was always scored as 0. The Vanity, Exhibitionism, Superiority, and Entitlement subscales were positively skewed, and were Log-transformed. Power analyses showed that the desired sample size given a medium effect size, .80 power, and an α of .05, was 168 participants. Given that the dataset was more than double that, in order to avoid inflated p values, the total dataset was split into a training (n = 221) and a validation (n = 233) sample based on a random selection of 50% of the total cases. This serves as an internal replication for performed analyses, as suggested by Hair and colleagues (2009). Initial preference scores were calculated using an algorithm created by LeBel and Gawronski (2009). Hypothesis 1: in the no threat condition, high and low vulnerable narcissistic participants (MCNS) would not differ in their endorsements of spiteful or strategic punishment. However, it was predicted that participants high in vulnerable narcissism in the self-threat condition would favor more spiteful punishment than threatened low narcissistic participants. This was tested using a hierarchical linear regression entering in MCNS and Condition in step 1, and adding MCNS x Condition in step 2. Hypothesis 2: in the no threat condition, participants high in grandiose narcissism would not differ from low grandiose narcissism participants in their endorsement of spiteful punishments. But in the self-threat condition, participants high in grandiose narcissism would show greater endorsement of spiteful punishment compared to participants low in grandiose narcissism. This was analyzed using total NPI scores (Hypothesis 2a) and NPI subscales separately (Hypothesis 2b). This was tested using hierarchical linear regressions entering in NPI measures and Condition in step 1, and adding NPI x Condition interactions in step 2. Hypothesis 3: vulnerable narcissism would predict more of the variance in spiteful punishments than grandiose narcissism. This was tested using Fisher's r to z transformation to analyze correlation coefficients between models. Hypothesis 4: participants higher in vulnerable narcissism would be less in favor of strategic punishment after self-threat compared to those lower in narcissism and non-threatened participants. This was tested using a hierarchical linear regression entering in MCNS and Condition in step 1, and adding MCNS x Condition in step 2. Hypothesis 5: participants higher in grandiose narcissism would be less in favor of strategic punishment after self-threat compared to those lower in narcissism and non-threatened participants. This was tested using hierarchical linear regressions entering in NPI measures and Condition in step 1, and adding NPI x Condition interactions in step 2. Hypothesis 6 threatened vulnerable narcissists should show increased implicit self-esteem after given the ability to punish.