Our Vulnerable Dark Side—Two Laboratory Approaches

The Dark Triad of personality has been associated with aggression against others as a reaction to perceived provocations. However, previous work has also shown that such responsive aggression even occurs if it means harming oneself. The first of two laboratory studies aimed to investigate whether this relation between the Dark Triad and self-harming behavior also occurs in situations where no others are affected but self-harm is likely. The second laboratory study considered two different settings in a within-participants design in order to analyze the stability of self-harming behavior and to what extent the Dark Triad constructs influence this behavior. The sample for study 1 consisted of 151 students (45.7% female) with a mean age of 21.40 years (SD = 2.19); the sample for study 2 consisted of 251 students (76.0% female) with a mean age of 22.21 years (SD = 3.90). Aside from the Dark Triad’s common core, depending on how self-harm was triggered (ego-threat (mainly narcissism), being alone with one’s own thoughts (mainly psychopathy), or reward condition (mainly Machiavellianism)), the Dark Triad traits differed in their responsiveness but were stable over the last two conditions, thereby suggesting a vulnerable side of the Dark Triad.

Confidence

This chapter retells the story of Captain Chesley Sullenberger who successfully crash-landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson, demonstrating how confidence, skill, and composure can lead to amazing results. This is contrasted to the follies of Nick Leeson who single-handedly broke Barings Bank (the oldest merchant bank) through a combination of greed and fear, demonstrating what happens when confidence outpaces true capability. The chapter is rounded out by a recent study about final salary arbitrations in Major League Baseball, highlighting how confidence, individual capability, and ego-threat interact to predict who chokes under pressure both in and out of the workplace. Those who have the most to lose tend to fall the hardest.

Can neuroscience help to understand narcissism? A systematic review of an emerging field

Narcissism is a Janusian personality construct, associated with both grandiose self-assuredness and dominance, as well as vulnerable insecurity and reactivity. Central questions of intra- and interpersonal functioning in narcissism are still a matter of debate. Neuroscience could help to understand the paradoxical patterns of experience and behavior beyond the limitations of self-reports. We provide a systematic review of 34 neuroscience studies on grandiose, vulnerable, pathological narcissism, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), spanning experimental investigations of intra- and interpersonal mechanisms, research on neurophysiological and neuroendocrine aspects of baseline function, and brain structural correlates. While neuroscience has scarcely directly studied vulnerable narcissism, grandiose narcissism is associated with heightened vigilance to ego threat and stress responses following ego threat, as well as heightened stress indicators in baseline measures. Such responses are not commonly observed in self-reports, highlighting the potential of neuroscience to augment our understanding of self-regulatory dynamics in narcissism. Interpersonal functioning is characterized by deficits in social–affective processes. Both involve altered activity within the salience network, pointing to a double dissociation regarding the expression of narcissism and self/other oriented situational focus. Findings are summarized in an integrative model providing testable hypotheses for future research along with methodological recommendations.

The role of ego threat in professional growth: Fulfilling the ethical intentions of the SEED Model

Schools and education in general have made an implicit and, we would assert, explicit promise to society to educate all the children in their care. Unfortunately, there are achievement gaps that illustrate how schools have broken this promise. Teacher evaluation and other accountability measures have been heralded as the answer to this problem. Educator ego threat impedes the implementation of goal-driven teacher evaluation models and, thus, ethical questions arise. To realize the noble goals of educator evaluation, leaders must attend to ethical concerns and to the human aspects of ego threat.

The role of ego threat in professional growth: Fulfilling the ethical intentions of the SEED Model

Schools and education in general have made an implicit and, we would assert, explicit promise to society to educate all the children in their care. Unfortunately, there are achievement gaps that illustrate how schools have broken this promise. Teacher evaluation and other accountability measures have been heralded as the answer to this problem. Educator ego threat impedes the implementation of goal-driven teacher evaluation models and, thus, ethical questions arise. To realize the noble goals of educator evaluation, leaders must attend to ethical concerns and to the human aspects of ego threat.

Eye for an eye? Frontline service employee reactions to customer incivility

Purpose Frontline service employees (FSEs) face high demands of emotional labor when dealing with difficult, and sometimes even uncivil, customer behavior while attempting to deliver service with a smile. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether employees reciprocate uncivil customer behavior. The authors investigate two potential processes – ego threat and perceived interactional justice – and further address boundary conditions of this effect. Design/methodology/approach The data for this paper were collected in three studies: one field experiment and two online experiments using adult samples. Hypotheses were tested and data was analyzed using ANOVA and regression-based modeling approaches. Findings Findings from a field-experimental study and online experiments show that FSEs offer lower service levels to uncivil customers. The authors further find that this effect is mediated by a perceived ego threat and that employees’ regulation of emotion (ROE), as part of their emotional intelligence, attenuates the effect of perceived ego threats on service levels. Research limitations/implications This study finds that perceived ego threat (but not perceived interactional justice) explains why employees respond negatively to uncivil customer behavior. Therefore, it offers an emotion-driven explanation of retaliatory behavior in frontline service contexts. Implications for theories focusing on service value co-destruction and customer incivility are discussed. Practical implications The findings from this research show that ROE attenuates the impact of perceived ego threat on employee retaliatory behavior. Managerial implications include developing and training employees on emotion regulation. Furthermore, managers should identify alternative ways for restoring an employee’s ego after the employee experiences uncivil customer behavior. Originality/value The authors propose and test two processes that can explain why employees reciprocate uncivil customer behavior to gain a deeper understanding of which processes, or a combination of the two, drive employee responses. Furthermore, the authors shed insights into boundary conditions and explore when employees are less likely to react to uncivil customer behavior while experiencing ego threat.