Trumping Shame by Blasts of Noise: Narcissism, Self-Esteem, Shame, and Aggression in Young Adolescents

Authors: Thomaes, Sander; Bushman, Brad J.¹; Stegge, Hedy²; Olthof, Tjeert²

Source: Child Development, Volume 79, Number 6, November/December 2008 , pp. 1792-1801(10)

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Abstract:

This experiment tested how self-views influence shame-induced aggression. One hundred and sixty-three young adolescents (M = 12.2 years) completed measures of narcissism and self-esteem. They lost to an ostensible opponent on a competitive task. In the shame condition, they were told that their opponent was bad, and they saw their own name at the bottom of a ranking list. In the control condition, they were told nothing about their opponent and did not see a ranking list. Next, participants could blast their opponent with noise (aggression measure). As expected, narcissistic children were more aggressive than others, but only after they had been shamed. Low self-esteem did not lead to aggression. In fact, narcissism in combination with high self-esteem led to exceptionally high aggression.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01226.x

Affiliations: 1: University of Michigan and VU University Amsterdam 2: VU University Amsterdam

Publication date: 2008-11-01