The idea that narcissism is a stable quality which, at its extreme, becomes a personality disorder assumes that people are either narcissistic or they’re not. Perhaps you’ve met someone new who seems charming, self-confident, and even a bit charismatic. Things are going well until one day, without provocation, this person turns on you and spews out some insulting remarks. Apparently, by not complimenting them sufficiently, you’ve caused them to fly into a rage. You’re hurt but also confused. How could you have missed what may have been obvious clues that this person was not quite as delightful as you thought? Was this a narcissist disguised as a nice person?
As disconcerting as all of this was, you decide to give it another go. Sure enough, the next time you see each other, the person seems to have calmed down considerably. You wonder if you misjudged them based on this temporary glitch.
Narcissism’s Varying Qualities
Although conceived of as a stable personality trait, there is reason to regard narcissism as a quality that can vary over time, even daily. As noted by Radoslaw Rogoza and colleagues (University of Economics and Human Science in Warsaw, 2024), narcissism can be “a dynamic process” when viewed as a “state” that can rise and fall depending on circumstances. This inner set of dynamics could potentially account for what seemed to be such erratic behavior in your new acquaintance.
Previous research cited by the Polish authors describes narcissism as an “if-then” type of concept governed by whether or not the individual perceives a threat. The agentic form of narcissism emerges in the form of self-promotion, “If there is no threat to the grandiose self-image.” But, if a threat arises on the horizon, neurotic or vulnerable narcissism emerges, and “the strategy shifts to self-promotion by any means” (p. 2). This “means,” the authors further go on to suggest, becomes that of antagonism—the person high on narcissism goes into attack mode to protect a weak inner sense of self.
Although prior investigators agree that state-like variations in narcissism are worthy of study, they missed out on the antagonism piece, according to Rogoza and colleagues. To address this shortcoming, the authors set out to develop and then test a measure that could capture not just daily, but momentary, shifts in the antagonistic component of narcissism.
The Narcissistic Antagonism Scale (NAS)
Beginning with a previously developed set of 30 adjectives intended to zero in on antagonism as a component of narcissism, Rogoza and his colleagues embarked on a series of six studies on online samples to refine and validate their new NAS. Across three of these studies, the authors pre-registered their hypotheses and all of their data was submitted to the Open Science Framework, allowing their work to be completely transparent.
Because they made the NAS openly available, you can test yourself on these 16 items, which emerged from the original 30 based on rigorous statistical analyses:
Read each adjective and indicate to what extent it describes you from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely):
- Abusive
- Spiteful
- Scheming
- Humiliating
- Misusing
- Insidious
- Treacherous
- Nasty
- Devaluing
- Offending
- Oppressive
- Denouncing
- Exploitative
- Manipulative
- Depreciating
- Conceitful
The test of stability across time for these 16 items involved the administration of the NAS twice, eight weeks apart. As hypothesized, overall scores on the NAS remained stable over time, as did scores on standard measures of agentic and neurotic narcissism.
Getting to the question of daily vacillations in narcissism, the authors developed a version of their measures that they could administer throughout the day, asking participants to rate themselves “at the present moment.”
The 12 adjectives on this experience sampling measure included 1, 8, 13, and 15 from the NAS, four agentic narcissism adjectives (brilliant, glorious, powerful, prestigious), and four from a neurotic or vulnerable narcissism scale (ignored, resentful, misunderstood, and underappreciated). In this last study, the authors also assessed affect (for example, inspired, ashamed), empathy (for example, soft-hearted), and self-esteem (for example, “I am satisfied with myself”). Participants rated themselves on all of these adjectives using a visual analog scale from 0 (not at all) to 100 (extremely).
The daily data showed that, as the authors predicted, within-person daily variations in narcissistic antagonism coincided with variations in affect and self-esteem. Momentary antagonism scores were negatively related to empathy, affect, and self-esteem, meaning the lower all of these scores were, the higher the antagonism.
Narcissism Essential Reads
Although these findings largely support the need to track narcissistic antagonism over time, one result on the grandiose versus neurotic narcissism measures did not. People high in vulnerable narcissism tended not to change across time and situations, a finding the authors suggest is consistent with clinical evidence. Translating this into daily life, this would mean that it would be the people high in grandiose narcissism, such as the individual who seemed to turn on you, who take slights to their inflated self-image as cues to turn on their attack mechanisms. You do not want to cross the antagonistic narcissist, especially when this person feels threatened.
How to Use the NAS
It might be instructive for you to provide your own daily ratings of both the entire NAS and the four items used as part of the experience sampling method in the Rogoza and colleagues study. Are there times you feel like turning on someone who has burst your bubble? Rating yourself on these items could provide you with valuable insights about tendencies you have to react angrily when suffering a bruising to your ego.
Applying to scale to other people can also prove instructive. Before someone high on narcissism goes after you, see if you detect anything in their language that suggests they might endorse some of the NAS items when they talk about other people. Indicating they “can’t wait to get back” at someone they perceive as having done them wrong could be a great cue.
You can also derive an understanding of what leads people high in narcissism to shift in ways that seem unpredictable to you. If it’s someone you like or would like to like, use your own empathic powers to understand that maybe they don’t enjoy feeling the way they do. Unfortunately, the Polish study didn’t connect specific events in people’s daily lives with vacillations in NAS scores, but future research could explore this possibility taking advantage of the ease of administering this scale.
To sum up, the antagonism that can characterize a person high in narcissistic traits can be painful and difficult to endure. Understanding what leads them to shift over time can help give you greater insights into the inner processes that make them tick.
