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Narcissism and Prosocial Behavior

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Abstract

There is a large literature on narcissism and antisocial behaviors such as aggression, but this chapter examines the smaller emerging literature on narcissism and prosocial behavior, or actions intended to benefit others. We find that narcissistic people self-report more prosocial behavior but are actually less prosocial on more objective measures (peer report, behavioral). In terms of types and motivations for helping, narcissistic people appear to be strategic in their helping decisions: they are more likely to help in public or to receive a benefit, and they are less likely to help for altruistic reasons. We identify several situational factors that influence the relationship between narcissism and prosocial behavior and identify gaps in the literature that warrant future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Sara Konrath & Yuan Tian

Authors
  1. Sara Konrath
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  2. Yuan Tian
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Correspondence to Sara Konrath .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA

    Anthony D. Hermann

  2. Department of Psychology, Ohio State University at Mansfield, Mansfield, OH, USA

    Amy B. Brunell

  3. Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

    Joshua D. Foster

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Konrath, S., Tian, Y. (2018). Narcissism and Prosocial Behavior. In: Hermann, A., Brunell, A., Foster, J. (eds) Handbook of Trait Narcissism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92171-6_40

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