Are Narcissists really in the dark about the minds of others?

puzzle: How many narcissists take it to change the lamp? (In the end.)

Loki, the shrewd villain in the Marvel world, was talented With a scepter, it was a mind control system, allowing it to influence the ideas of others to serve his own interests. Although he is unknown to him, though, it is due to a secret reverse results, which affects his mind by fueling his hatred of his brother Thor and all the inhabitants of the earth. He even polls his memories childhood:

bull: We grew up together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember nothing of this?

Loki: I remember a shadow, I live in the shadow of your greatness. I remember that you throw me into the abyss, I am the one who should be king! “

Achieving functional goals as a major campaign in life is the distinctive feature of dark personalities, however to achieve this, they will inevitably cross other tracks and their conflicting desires. The deciphering accurately and the ability to manipulate it accordingly would provide a high competitive advantage. However, there is a widespread spread intuition These characters with dark features are high blind from their own intentions so that they cannot read other minds, and leave “in the dark” about them.

For example, it remains in the worlds of heroes and bad guys, when you face convincing evidence that Clark Kent is actually Superman, it cannot be accepted by Lex Luthor, because:

“I know better! I know that there is no man with a superman power that will pretend to be just a human being! Such strength must be constantly exploited! This power must be used!”

The inability to move away from their views and goals weakens the ability to understand other motives, and over time, this can lead to increased alienation from other minds. But is it really unable? What if they really intend to understand what others believe and feel and will ensure efforts for that? Psychological research somewhat supports the expected basic deficit in understanding the minds of others for dark characters.

We have already discussed the problem of reading other minds for high people Social anxiety (He sees here) As one of directing. More specifically, the socially anxious individual imagines the way they see reality (by looking at home) on the way in which all other minds are explained. This brings safety and ability to predict at the expense of accuracy. Self -similar, self -reference prejudice It was documented in the case of high dark features, although modified through the various motives (especially their absence) that determines them to link to other minds (or ignore them). Part 1 of this series will deal with social research perception In high individuals Narcissistic The features, while the following post (posts) will indicate the effects of other features such as Psychopathyand MachiavelliOr sadism.

Narcissism is the most benign feature in terms of anti -society behaviors – in fact, Ticket In prisoners, she showed that she was one of the dimensions of the few dark factors that did not predict criminal behavior (unlike sadism or deception). However, in its chronic or pathological forms, it can be destroyed Personal consequences This led to cases aggressionNarcissistic anger, ideal, reduction in value and excessive control or revenge, and often suffer from others as forms of abuse.

For high individuals NarcissismA vast arsenal of strategies within the character and between the character to maintain positive views and high strengthening Self -respect. This is translated into multiple cognitive biases (see here For an excellent summary), ranging from sensory perception (less comprehensive, more analytical and focused), attention (biases towards positive, especially self -reference), to memory (It is best in coding and remembering positive information in particular, but also their negative collective experiences-for example, being vurable-which indicates that they may be aware of themselves about their lack of collective values ​​and their transgressions).

Interesting TicketMiranda Jiacom and collaborators (2018) asked the participants to listen to an online lecture while they will be tested later about the contents in the preparation where they can view the records and their video image at the same time. It was directly mediated in the poor memory of high narcissistic individuals (and not for those who suffer from low narcissism) directly by focusing on themselves, which means that the more they look at themselves while delivering the lecture, the more they remember its contents.

Therefore, the preferential direction towards the self creates different distortions in realizing, interpreting information and remembering it from others. However, this can be more accurate according to the various sub -species of narcissism.

For example, some studies I just suggest it exhibition Narcissists have a deficit in Mind theory And sympathy, while individuals are high in bony Darkness can perform well on the tasks of evaluating the theory of mind, Emotional intelligenceAnd sympathy. both of them agent and Hostile The narcissism predicted the implementation of a lower emotional social perception, but only the anti -group (accurately) was imagining that its performance was less, while the parents of parents continued to strengthen their perceptions of social and emotional performance (Motta and others, 2019). Finally, a distinct sub -type of narcissism, “a wolf in sheep clothes” – is considered –Collective narcissism, it is It is characterized by global self-assessments similar to the self-mission, merit and exceptional social authority-but this time in the world of their society, while realizing themselves as “saints” or moral savior. However, as far as we know, we have no objective measure of the theory of the mind in the collective narcissists, which will be an interesting research method for follow -up, given their determination incentivize To interact with others.

Moreover, different types of social perception can be disabled differently in the case of narcissism: cognitive sympathy (taking a perspective, measured with the famous Reading the mind in the eyes The task) seems unlikely to be weak, while emotional sympathy (related to another emotional state) is more disrupted (see here For a modern methodology review). This supports the opinion that, instead of real inability, it may be a shortage incentivize To be emotionally harmonious to other minds.

Interestingly, there are also some evidence Excessive verbs (Excessive focus on the minds of others), associated with rejection sensitivity, JealousyAnd paranoia (Similar to what we noticed in the case of social anxiety) Associated with narcissism, which is still not calculated. When the self is exposed (by rejection or a race), He may participate in repeated episodes (often by mistake) to address information about others in an attempt to save the positivity Self -image And the deviation of blame.

What can be done to address this ability in power and/or motivation? Changing some negative personal behaviors associated with narcissism may require correcting self -relevant cognitive biases behind the narcissistic tendencies of people. This can be achieved temporarily by changing their motives: for example, it was He appears This highly narcissist can show sympathy for a sad person when they are explicitly encouraged (and thus the motivation) to take the perspective of that person. However, direct attempts to increase emotional sympathy are not successful unless we address the difficulties inherent in self -service perceptions, or weaknesses in self -esteem. Without this, the reinforced cycle in terms of development of social cognitive strategies that serve self -serve to integrate a real concern about the other cannot be broken, away from the abyss that Loki mentioned, which the self is deeply immersed.

Answer the puzzle: Only one. All they have to do is keep him in place while the world is around them.