Chester David S, DeWall C Nathan
University of Kentucky.
J Pers. 2016 Jun;84(3):361-8. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12164. Epub 2015 Feb 17.
Narcissists behave aggressively when their egos are threatened by interpersonal insults. This effect has been explained in terms of narcissists' motivation to reduce the discrepancy between their grandiose self and its threatened version, though no research has directly tested this hypothesis. If this notion is true, the link between narcissism and retaliatory aggression should be moderated by neural structures that subserve discrepancy detection, such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). This study tested the hypothesis that narcissism would only predict greater retaliatory aggression in response to social rejection when the dACC was recruited by the threat. Thirty participants (15 females; Mage = 18.86, SD = 1.25; 77% White) completed a trait narcissism inventory, were socially accepted and then rejected while undergoing fMRI, and then could behave aggressively toward one of the rejecters by blasting him or her with unpleasant noise. When narcissists displayed greater dACC activation during rejection, they behaved aggressively. But there was only a weak or nonsignificant relation between narcissism and aggression among participants with a blunted dACC response. Narcissism's role in aggressive retaliation to interpersonal threats is likely determined by the extent to which the brain's discrepancy detector registers the newly created gap between the grandiose and threatened selves.
当自恋者的自我受到人际侮辱的威胁时，他们会表现出攻击性。这种效应已根据自恋者减少其夸大自我与其受威胁版本之间差异的动机来解释，不过尚无研究直接检验这一假设。如果这一观点正确，那么自恋与报复性攻击之间的联系应由服务于差异检测的神经结构（如背侧前扣带回皮质，dACC）来调节。本研究检验了这一假设：只有当威胁激活dACC时，自恋才会预测对社会排斥做出更强的报复性攻击。30名参与者（15名女性；年龄中位数Mage = 18.86，标准差SD = 1.25；77%为白人）完成了一份特质自恋量表，在接受功能磁共振成像（fMRI）时先被社会接纳然后被排斥，之后他们可以通过用不愉快的噪音轰炸其中一名排斥者来表现出攻击性。当自恋者在被排斥期间表现出更强的dACC激活时，他们会表现出攻击性。但在dACC反应迟钝的参与者中，自恋与攻击性之间只有微弱或不显著的关系。自恋在对人际威胁的攻击性报复中的作用可能取决于大脑差异探测器记录夸大自我与受威胁自我之间新产生差距的程度。
