Not all narcissism is alike. A study of 1,524 students reveals why that matters

By Dr. Chinta SidharthanReviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc.Nov 10 2026

Are confident, approval-seeking students happier than their more defensive peers? Two studies involving more than 1,500 university students examine how different narcissistic traits relate to mood, self-doubt, and satisfaction with academic life.

Study: Two faces of narcissism among university students: Associations between narcissistic rivalry, narcissistic admiration, subjective well-being, and student satisfaction. Image Credit: Yossakorn Kaewwannarat / Shutterstock

Self-promotion and self-defense represent two distinct strategies for maintaining a grandiose self-image, and in grandiose narcissism these correspond to admiration and rivalry, which may relate differently to university students' well-being and satisfaction with their studies. In a recent study published in the journal Social Psychology of Education, researchers Stephanie Hanke and Kathrin Jonkmann, from the Department of Psychology at FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany, explored how two dimensions of grandiose narcissism relate to student well-being.

Narcissism in academia

Grandiose narcissism, marked by inflated self-views and a strong need for admiration, draws public and scientific attention because its effects on mental health appear contradictory. Some work links it to lower stress and higher life satisfaction, while other work points to unstable emotions.

One model separates narcissism into admiration, defined as an assertive effort to win approval, and rivalry, a defensive effort to guard against criticism. Admiration tends to attract positive social responses, whereas rivalry tends to provoke conflict and mistrust. Few studies split narcissism this way, and most measure broad outcomes such as overall life satisfaction. Far less is known about how these traits relate to specific settings such as universities, where admiration and rivalry may affect students' perceptions of their academic experiences.

The current study

In this study, Hanke and Jonkmann carried out two online surveys of undergraduate students at the university to examine associations between narcissism, subjective well-being, and student satisfaction.

A substantial share of the student body studied part-time or held jobs, and the participants were older than typical undergraduate samples. The study was conducted with approval from the university's ethics committee, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. The final sample set for the first survey included 632 students, and the second had 892 participants. Most participants were women, and the average age was about 33 years in the first study and 32 in the second.

In both studies, participants completed self-report questionnaires. Narcissistic admiration and rivalry were measured with the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, which included nine statements for each trait, rated on a six-point scale.

In the first study, life satisfaction was assessed with the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and self-doubt was measured using a translated subscale of the Subjective Overachievement Scale. Student satisfaction was captured by five questions about the chosen field, academic support, lecturers, classes, and overall contentment, averaged into one score.

In the second study, life satisfaction and mood level were measured with two subscales of the Habitual Subjective Well-Being Scale. Student satisfaction was measured with the short form of the Study Satisfaction Questionnaire, which covered three areas: coping with study-related stress, study conditions, and study content. The researchers preregistered their hypotheses and planned analyses, then used path analysis to test how traits were associated with several outcomes at once while accounting for the overlap between admiration and rivalry.

Major findings

The results showed that rivalry, the defensive side of narcissism, was linked to poorer well-being and lower academic satisfaction, whereas admiration, the self-promoting side, was linked to better well-being and more positive views of certain academic experiences.

Across the two studies, students with higher rivalry scores reported lower life satisfaction and, in the first study, more self-doubt. In the second, they reported lower mood levels. In the first study, rivalry was also linked to lower overall academic satisfaction. In the second, it was associated with less satisfaction with study content, conditions, and coping with academic stress.

By comparison, students with higher admiration scores reported greater life satisfaction and better mood, along with less self-doubt. After accounting for the overlap between admiration and rivalry, admiration also predicted higher overall student satisfaction in the first study and greater satisfaction with study content in the second. These positive academic associations were unexpected, as the authors had predicted no such relationship. Without accounting for rivalry, the survey results showed almost no connection between admiration and academic satisfaction.

In the primary analyses, admiration showed no significant links to how satisfied students were with their study conditions or their ability to cope with academic demands. Small positive associations became statistically significant after adjusting for age and gender. These supplementary analyses were not preregistered. The authors suggested that admiration may be most closely related to satisfaction in areas where students can demonstrate competence and engage with ideas, and less where outcomes depend on workload and institutional structures.

Rivalry and admiration together explained only a small share of the variation in student satisfaction, about 3% in the first study and 7% to 9% in the second, which suggested that many other factors shaped students' satisfaction. Because the surveys collected information at only one point in time, they could not establish cause and effect.

The reliance on self-reports may also have introduced social desirability and self-perception biases. The samples were predominantly female, and because the participants at this university were older than typical undergraduates, the authors advised caution when applying the findings to younger students.

Conclusions

Overall, the study showed that the two dimensions of grandiose narcissism related to students' well-being in different ways. Rivalry was consistently tied to poorer well-being and lower satisfaction with studies, while admiration was associated with better well-being and greater satisfaction with study content.

The authors suggested that emotion regulation training and cognitive reappraisal may help students manage threat and difficult emotions, which could reduce conflict and support better academic experiences. These approaches were proposed as possible interventions, but were not tested in either study.