Koskinen Emmi, Henttonen Pentti, Kettunen Sanna Kie, Pesonen Sanna, Piispanen Matias, Voutilainen Liisa, Wuolio Mariel, Peräkylä Anssi
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2024 Jul;63(3):1429-1449. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12734. Epub 2024 Feb 26.
In this study, we investigate how personal experiences about shameful events are described in face-to-face social interaction, and how these stories differ between participants who have either high or low levels of narcissistic personality traits. The dataset consists of 22 dyadic conversations where the participants describe events where they felt ashamed of themselves. We found the narratives to vary in terms of five dimensions. With narcissistic individuals, the default narrative tended to exhibit a cluster of characteristics that gather at one end of these dimensions: (1) weak expressions of shame; (2) located in the story-world; (3) low level of reflexivity as well as; (4) responsibility of the described event; and (5) a general level of description. We discuss the findings in relation to sociological and psychological theories of shame and suggest that individuals with narcissistic personality traits are more inclined to use suppressive conversational practices in their treatment of shame, thus providing a "window" to these interactional practices.
