Michael Dufner

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Verified

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• Professor
• Professor at Witten/Herdecke University

Studies have linked personality dispositions to important social evaluations, such as howmuch power individuals are granted, or how much they are liked. Yet, these links are notalways consistent and seem to depend on the social context. We zeroed in on this issue,testing two mutually non-exclusive hypotheses on how the context might moderate the ef...

Studies have linked personality dispositions to important social evaluations, such as how much power individuals are granted, or how much they are liked. Yet, these links are not always consistent and seem to depend on the social context. We zeroed in on this issue, testing two mutually non-exclusive hypotheses on how the context might moderate the...

Interest in emotional variability as an interindividual difference is growing. Yet, basic features of the construct, such as its stability and reliability, are not well understood. To address this gap, we examined two longitudinal data sets, each comprising two waves of daily assessments, one with a 3-month and the other with a 16-month retest inte...

Previous research reported that different subtypes of narcissism lead to stronger or weaker stress responses, due to narcissistic individual’s sensitivity to social evaluation. However, evidence remains mixed. In the current preregistered study, we investigated psychological and physiological stress response indicators (self-reports, salivary corti...

The assumption that people differ in affective awareness (i.e., the extent to which a person’s subjective affective experience matches their affective bodily state) is central to emotional competence. To test this assumption empirically, we used a physiology-based approach to investigate individual differences in affective awareness. Participants (...

In this registered report ( N = 423), we investigated in a competitive intergroup context to what extent the perception of targets scoring high in grandiose narcissism varies depending on whether they belong to one’s own group or to an opposing outgroup. In a laboratory study, members of newly formed groups had direct contact with another group and...

The assumption that people differ in affective awareness (i.e., the extent to which a person’s subjective affective experience matches their affective bodily state) is central to emotional competence. To test this assumption empirically, we used a physiology-based approach to investigate individual differences in affective awareness. Participants (...

The self-insight motive (SIM; also known under the label self-assessment motive) describes the dispositional tendency to strive for accurate self-knowledge. The current research includes five multimethodological studies (total N = 3667) that comprehensively investigated the SIM’s nomological network, its antecedents, and cognitive-behavioral conseq...

Observations of behavior are of central importance in social-personality psychology. A major downside of such observations, however, is that they are highly costly in terms of the required logistics, time, financial resources, and effort. The current research tested whether accurate behavioral observations could also be gained in a far more economi...

The amount of social support partners provide and receive in romantic relationships is important for psychological well-being. But in what sense exactly? Divergent and highly nuanced hypotheses exist in the literature. We explicitly spelled out these hypotheses, specified a statistical model for each using response surface analyses, and simultaneou...

Narcissistic individuals have a strong desire for attracting short-term mates, being influential in groups, and attaining prestige and material wealth. Past research suggests that narcissistic individuals are also quite successful in attaining these outcomes and these effects are due to narcissists’ grandiose self-image and admiration-seeking tende...

Although interindividual differences in narcissism are well studied, little is known about assessing narcissism at the within-person level. To fill this research gap, we investigated whether the narcissism construct is represented in the same way at the between- and within-person levels. We analyzed four established narcissism measures across multi...

This eye tracking study tested the hypothesis that narcissists’ visual attention is motivated, focusing on two fundamental social motives: status and affiliation. We measured participants’ full narcissism spectrum (agency, antagonism, and neuroticism) via self-reports. We measured visual attention to status and affiliation images via eye-tracking i...

When people judge the motive dispositions of unacquainted others, are their judgments accurate representations of the targets’ explicit motives, their implicit motives, or both? To address this question, we assessed target persons’ explicit motives via self-report and their implicit motives via a Picture Story Exercise as well as two recently devel...

People often attribute success to themselves and failure to others. Past research indicates that this tendency toward self-serving attributions is pronounced among individuals high in trait narcissism. The aim of this registered report was to re-visit the link between narcissism and self-serving attributions by studying attributions in a group cont...

Individuals differ in the tendency to derive pleasure out of motive-specific incentives, such as being socially included or attaining power. Multiple theoretical approaches have proposed that such motive-specific positive affective contingencies (PACs) are central building blocks of motive dispositions and personality more broadly. In the current r...

When meeting other people for the first time, how should one behave in order to be liked? We investigated the effects of agentic and communal behaviors on two forms of being liked: popularity (being generally liked by others) and unique liking (being uniquely liked by specific interaction partners). In a round-robin study, 139 unacquainted German a...

An important aspect of implicit self-esteem is the positivity of peoples spontaneous affective reactions to the self. In this study, we developed and validated a physiology-based measure that captures such positive reactions. We presented participants (N = 256) self-related stimuli (i.e., pictures of themselves) and used electromyography (EMG) to r...

When meeting others for the first time, how should one behave in order to be liked? We investigated the effects of agentic and communal behaviors on two forms of being liked, popularity (being generally liked by others) and unique liking (being uniquely liked by specific interaction partners). In a round-robin study, 139 unacquainted German adults...

Research on grandiose narcissism distinguishes between self-promotional processes (i.e., narcissistic admiration) and other-derogative processes (i.e., narcissistic rivalry; Back et al., 2013). Moreover, research has begun to assess and investigate narcissistic manifestations in different domains (e.g., communal narcissism). To integrate these two...

Condition-based regression analysis (CRA) is a statistical method for testing self-enhancement effects. That is, CRA indicates whether, in a set of empirical data, people with higher values on the directed discrepancy self-view S minus reality criterion R (i.e., S-R) tend to have higher values on some outcome variable (e.g., happiness). In a critic...

This meta-analysis examines generalized reciprocity, that is, the relationship between how people perceive others and how they are perceived by others. It tests the hypothesis that generalized reciprocity varies as a function of the content domain under investigation. Generalized reciprocity for attributes with primarily communal content (e.g., fri...

Condition-based regression analysis (CRA) is a statistical method for testing self-enhancement (SE) effects. That is, CRA indicates whether, in a set of empirical data, people with higher values on the directed discrepancy S R (self-view S minus reality criterion R) tend to have higher values on some outcome variable (e.g., happiness). In a critica...

This meta-analysis examines generalized reciprocity, that is, the relationship between how people perceive others and how they are perceived by others. It tests the hypothesis that generalized reciprocity varies as a function of the content domain under investigation. Generalized reciprocity for attributes with primarily communal content (e.g., fri...

This meta-analysis examines generalized reciprocity, that is, the relationship between how people perceive others and how they are perceived by others. It tests the hypothesis that generalized reciprocity varies as a function of the content domain under investigation. Generalized reciprocity for attributes with primarily communal content (e.g., fri...

Partner-enhancement refers to perceiving the romantic partner more positively than one’s own self. Partner-enhancement often varies as a function of relationship duration: It is stronger in the earlier than later stage of a relationship. We asked whether narcissism moderates the association between relationship duration and partner-enhancement. We...

Several theories propose that narcissism is rooted in affective contingencies. Given narcissists' focus on power, these contingencies should be strong in the power domain but not in the affiliation domain. We systematically investigated narcissists' contingencies and explored whether these contingencies might link narcissism to social behavior. In...

People have characteristic ways of perceiving others’ personalities. When judging others on several traits, some perceivers tend to form globally positive and others tend to form globally negative impressions. These differences, often termed perceiver effects, have mostly been conceptualized as a static construct that taps perceivers’ personal ster...

How positively or negatively people generally view others is key for understanding personality, social behavior, and psychopathology. Previous research has measured generalized other-perceptions by relying on either explicit self-reports or judgments made in group settings. With the current research, we overcome the limitations of these past approa...

People have characteristic ways of perceiving others’ personalities. When judging others on several traits, some perceivers tend to form globally positive and others tend to form globally negative impressions. These differences, often termed perceiver effects, have mostly been conceptualized as a static construct that taps perceivers’ personal ster...

Social and behavioral studies more and more often yield multi-block data, which consist of novel blocks of data (e.g., data from wearable devices) and traditional blocks of data (e.g., survey data) collected from the same sample. Multi-block data offer researchers valuable insights into complex social mechanisms, where several influences act togeth...

Research on grandiose narcissism distinguishes between self-promotional processes (i.e., narcissistic admiration) and other-derogative processes (i.e., narcissistic rivalry; Back et al., 2013). Moreover, research has begun to assess and investigate narcissistic manifestations in different domains (e.g., communal narcissism). To integrate these two...

Self-reported mate preferences suggest intelligence is valued across cultures, consistent with the idea that human intelligence evolved as a sexually selected trait. The validity of self-reports has been questioned though, so it remains unclear whether objectively assessed intelligence is indeed attractive. In Study 1, 88 target men had their intel...

Machiavellianism (Mach) and subclinical psychopathy are two widely studied antagonistic personality traits with distinct theoretical conceptualizations. Mach is conceptualized by strategic deviousness, cynicism, and pragmatic morality, whereas subclinical psychopathy is conceptualized by impulsive antisocial tendencies, callousness, and rule-breaki...

Humans’ extraordinary intelligence seems to extend beyond the needs for survival. One theory to explain this surplus intelligence is that it evolved via sexual selection as a fitness indicator to advertise genetic quality to prospective mates. Consistent with this idea, self-reported mate preferences suggest intelligence is valued across cultures....

Grandiose narcissists typically pursue agentic goals, such as social status, competence, and autonomy. We argue that because high intelligence is a key asset for the attainment of such agentic goals, the concept of intelligence should play a prominent role in grandiose narcissists’ self-regulation and social behavior. We review the relevant literat...

Objective: The current study examined whether the transition from university to work, a major developmental milestone in young adulthood, was related to stability and change in self-esteem. Method: Self-esteem was assessed in the last year of their master's program (T1) of 163 27-year old students and 14 months later, when they had graduated and...

Objective: The current research comprehensively examined how grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are linked to intelligence and intelligence-related beliefs and emotions. Method: In four studies (total N = 1141) we tested the associations between both forms of narcissism, subjectively and objectively assessed intelligence, basic personality trai...

The current research dealt with the stereotype that only children are more narcissistic than people with siblings. We first investigated the prevalence of this stereotype. In an online study (Study 1, N = 556), laypeople rated a typical only child and a typical person with siblings on narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry, the two subdim...

Whenever groups form, members readily and intuitively judge each other’s agentic characteristics (e.g., self-confidence or assertiveness). We tested the hypothesis that perceiving others as low in these characteristics triggers agentic interpersonal behavior among perceivers, which benefits their own reputation in terms of agency. We analyzed data...

This research introduced novel measures of explicit and implicit romantic partner evaluations and tested whether these measures predict video-observed relationship behaviors. One hundred and eighty heterosexual participants (90 couples) completed two measures of explicit partner evaluations, the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) and a short form...

Emotional processes are of key importance for the understanding of narcissism, in both its grandiose and its vulnerable forms. The current chapter provides an overview on the links between narcissism and emotionality. The two forms of narcissism differ distinctly in their hedonic tone, with vulnerable narcissism being characterized by negative emot...

Empirical research on the (mal-)adaptiveness of favorable self-perceptions, self-enhancement, and self-knowledge has typically applied a classical null-hypothesis testing approach and provided mixed and even contradictory findings. Using data from 5 studies (laboratory and field, total N = 2,823), we used an information-theoretic approach combined...

How can the consequences of self-enhancement (SE) be tested empirically? Traditional two-step approaches for investigating SE effects have been criticized for providing systematically biased results. Recently, we suggested condition-based regression analysis (CRA) as an approach that enables users to test SE effects while overcoming the shortcoming...

How can the consequences of self-enhancement (SE) be tested empirically? Traditional two-step approaches for investigating SE effects have been criticized for providing systematically biased results. Recently, we suggested condition-based regression analysis (CRA) as an approach that enables users to test SE effects while overcoming the shortcoming...

In this study we investigated the links between motive dispositions and online social network (OSN) profile content. We assessed the achievement, affiliation and power motives via self- and peer-report. In addition, we used a projective test and two novel, affect based measures (involving affect ratings and EMG recordings) to assess implicit motive...

Empirical research on the (mal-)adaptiveness of favorable self-perceptions, self-enhancement, and self-knowledge has typically applied a classical null-hypothesis testing approach and provided mixed and even contradictory findings. Using data from five studies (laboratory and field, total N = 2,823), we employed an information-theoretic approach co...

This article advances the debate about costs and benefits of self-enhancement (the tendency to maintain unrealistically positive self-views) with a comprehensive meta-analytic review (299 samples, N=126,916). The review considers relations between self-enhancement and personal adjustment (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, depress...

The present study aims to validate an Italian version of the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ), which operationalizes the two-dimensional model of grandiose narcissism recently proposed by Back et al. (2013). The model differentiates between Admiration and Rivalry, two dimensions that entail the agentic and antagonistic aspec...

Abel and Kruger (2010) found that smile intensity, coded from photographs of professional baseball players who were active in the year 1952, predicted these players’ longevity. In the current investigation, we sought to replicate this result and to extend the initial analyses. We analyzed (a) a sample that was almost identical to the one from the o...

Data from two studies were used to estimate the reliability of facial EMG when used to index facial mimicry (Study 1) or affective reactions to pictorial stimuli (Study 2). Results for individual muscle sites varied between muscles and depending on data treatment. For ifference scores, acceptable internal consistencies were found only for corrugato...

According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested These assumptions. We presented participants with positive affi...

Despite a large body of literature and ongoing refinements of analytical techniques, research on the consequences of self-enhancement (SE) is still vague about how to define SE effects, and empirical results are inconsistent. In this paper, we point out that part of this confusion is due to a lack of conceptual and methodological differentiation be...

Data from two studies were used to estimate the reliability of facial EMG when used to index facial mimicry (Study 1) or affective reactions to pictorial stimuli (Study 2). Results for individual muscle sites varied between muscles and depending on data treatment. For difference scores, acceptable internal consistencies were found only for corrugat...

Despite a large body of literature and ongoing refinements of analytical techniques, research on the consequences of self-enhancement (SE) is still vague about how to define SE effects, and empirical results are inconsistent. In this paper, we point out that part of this confusion is due to a lack of conceptual and methodological differentiation be...

This research investigated effects of narcissism and emotional intelligence (EI) on popularity in social networks. In a longitudinal field study we examined the dynamics of popularity in 15 peer groups in two waves (N=273). We measured narcissism, ability EI, explicit and implicit self-esteem. In addition, we measured popularity at zero acquaintanc...

Different theoretical conceptualizations characterize grandiose narcissists by high, yet fragile self-esteem. Empirical evidence, however, has been inconsistent, particularly regarding the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem fragility (i.e., self-esteem variability). Here, we aim at unraveling this inconsistency by disentangling the eff...

According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested These assumptions. We presented participants with positive affi...

According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested These assumptions. We presented participants with positive affi...

Narcissism is known to be related to romantic success in short-term contexts (dating, early-stage relationships) but also to problems in long-term committed relationships. We propose that these diverging romantic outcomes of narcissism can be explained by differential associations with agentic versus antagonistic dimensions of grandiose narcissism:...

In the present research, we followed two objectives. First, we aimed to replicate the classic finding by McAdams, Jackson, and Kirshnit (1984) that strong implicit affiliative motives predict high levels of nonverbal socializing behavior (eye contact, laughing, smiling) in dyadic interactions with an unacquainted person. Second, we applied a dual-m...

In five studies (total N = 1300) we developed and validated a Polish version of the Dirty Dozen measure (DTDD-P) that measures the three traits of the Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. We detail the presence and stability of a bifactor structure of the 12 items and present evidence for good internal consistency and test–ret...

How are people who generally see others positively evaluated themselves? We propose that the answer to this question crucially hinges on the content domain: We hypothesize that Agency follows a “zero-sum principle” and therefore people who see others as high in Agency are perceived as low in Agency themselves. In contrast, we hypothesize that Commu...

In this research, we investigated the association between narcissism and one central aspect of empathy, susceptibility to emotional contagion (the transfer of emotional states from one person to another). In a laboratory study (N = 101) we detected a negative link between narcissism and emotional contagion in response to experimentally induced posi...

According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested these assumptions. We presented participants with positive affi...

The current research investigates the short- and long-term mate appeal of narcissists and the characteristics of people that are open to a narcissistic romantic partners. In a vignette study (Study 1; N = 1,347), raters’ level of sensation seeking and narcissistic admiration were positively associated to attraction towards targets high in narcissis...

To investigate the interpersonally relevant personality dimensions narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism (the „Dark Triad“) three different and extensive questionnaires are currently needed. In three studies (N = 501; N = 828; N = 96) two questionnaires to assess the core aspects of the Dark Triad are presented and validated. The first instr...

Building on a two-dimensional reconceptualization of grandiose narcissism, we investigated how narcissistic admiration (the tendency toward agentic self-promotion) and rivalry (the tendency toward other-derogation) are related to acting. Study 1 (N = 583) showed that acting students scored higher on narcissistic admiration than students with other...

We investigated the reciprocal associations between academic self-enhancement and key indicators of intra- and interpersonal adjustment as well as the role of self-esteem as a mediator. This longitudinal study involved three assessments in a sample of 709 German children and adolescents (Mage = 11.83; 54% female) over the course of one academic yea...

The objective of this study was to test the effects of two types of narcissism on popularity in peer networks. Using data from four groups of well-acquainted students (N=122), we investigated differential relations of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism with network centrality indicators of liking and disliking. Grandiose narcissists received a lar...

The objective of this study was to test the effects of two types of narcissism on popularity in peer networks. Using data from four groups of well-acquainted students (N=122), we investigated differential relations of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism with network centrality indicators of liking and disliking. Grandiose narcissists received a lar...

The present study investigates the relative extent to which judgments of people’s behavior are influenced by “truth” (as measured by averaged observer-judgments) and by systematic bias (i.e., perceivers’ preexisting views of target persons). Using data from online questionnaires and laboratory sessions (N = 155), we demonstrate that self- and peer-...

Do actual and perceived self-enhancement entail differing social impressions (i.e. interpersonal evaluations)? Actual self-enhancement represents unduly positive self-views, as gauged by an objective criterion (in this case, IQ scores), whereas perceived self-enhancement involves the extent to which an individual is seen by informants (i.e. peers o...

We present a process model that distinguishes 2 dimensions of narcissism: admiration and rivalry. We propose that narcissists' overarching goal of maintaining a grandiose self is pursued by 2 separate pathways, characterized by distinct cognitive, affective-motivational, and behavioral processes. In a set of 7 studies, we validated this 2-dimension...

This research was aimed to provide a comprehensive test of the classic notion that narcissistic individuals are appealing as short-term romantic or sexual partners. In three studies, we tested the hypotheses that narcissism exerts a positive effect on an individual's mate appeal and that this effect is mediated by high physical attractiveness and h...

The relation between self-enhancement and psychological adjustment has been debated for over 2 decades. This controversy is partly due to the variety of approaches implicated in the assessment of mainly self-enhancement but also psychological adjustment. We adopted a face-valid approach by statistically removing actual intellectual ability variance...