Narcissistic Goodness: When High Narcissism Individuals Donate More

What is it about?

Narcissism has often been characterized by egocentrism and a “lack of empathy”. We raise raises the intriguing possibility that a narcissistic individual can be a benevolent donor when he/she is more easily able to imagine oneself the scene of need.

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Why is it important?

We show that some types of charitable campaigns which encourage donors to mentally simulate the recipient’s circumstance may have a stronger positive effect on higher narcissism donors. These appeals were framed in one of two forms, “imagine-recipient” or “imagine-self”. While the imagine-recipient appeal simply asks donors to imagine the recipient and his/her circumstances, the imagine-self appeal asks donors to explicitly put him or herself into the recipient's circumstances and simulate the situation as if the donor were the recipient. We find that high-narcissism donors are more fluent in imagining when exposed to an imagine-self appeal which in turn, appears to elicit empathy and lead to greater charitable outcomes (relative to an imagine-recipient appeal). We explain that having a strong egocentric perspective, high-narcissism individuals do not respond well to an appeal that asks them to “see through someone else’s eyes” due to their relative difficulty in imagining another’s emotions and needs. In contrast, imagine-self types of appeals allow potential high-narcissism donors to project themselves into the scene in need - “standing in someone else’s shoes”- and vicariously experience the negative emotions that a recipient feels. This leads to eliciting genuine concern and as a consequence, more other-centered behaviors.

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