More specifically, at lower versus higher levels of grandiosity, there was a substantial difference in slope between the vulnerable and grandiose facets. The analysis revealed evidence of nonlinearity between vulnerable and grandiose narcissism, which suggested that vulnerable narcissism increased at high levels of grandiosity. In all, 22 studies were included in the analysis for a total of over 18,000 participants.

These studies assessed grandiose and vulnerable narcissism using either the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)/ Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS) or the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory (FFNI). Jauk and his colleagues identified studies conducted within the past eight years that included specific measures of narcissism. “In the present meta-analysis, we evaluated this model drawing on a large pool of data from different labs and found support for the hypothesis that narcissistic vulnerability increases at high levels of narcissistic grandiosity.” “In two previous works, we aimed to synthesize these perspectives in a nonlinear model,” Jauk said. The researchers found preliminary support for this idea in two initial studies and then launched an individual data meta-analysis to explore further. But at high levels of grandiose narcissism, the two facets become linked. The researchers proposed that at low levels of grandiose narcissism, grandiosity and vulnerability are unrelated. Jauk and his team proposed that a potential explanation for these two differing approaches is a nonlinear relationship between the two facets of narcissism.

Inverted narcissist traits