Three facets of narcissism in their relations to the experienced emotions and their variability

Abstract

Narcissism is defined as a multidimensional construct composed of three facets: agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic. We assessed the relations between these facets of trait narcissism to trait and state emotions. We conducted a cross-sectional (N = 356) and seven-day long daily-diary study (N = 199; k = 1272 observations). As registered, we provided evidence that trait and state antagonistic emotions are positively associated with all facets of narcissism, while agentic and neurotic emotions are only related to their respective narcissistic counterparts. Agentic narcissism predicted faster recovery from experiencing neurotic emotions, while neurotic narcissism predicted increases in the time needed for returning to equilibrium. These results highlight that emotions may play an important role in explaining the fluctuations in narcissism.