Why does a narcissist seek to make his partner jealous?

One of the traits that reveals a narcissist is that he seeks to make his partner jealous.. Everything indicates that these types of people carry out actions such as flirting with someone in the presence of the other or leaving clues of possible infidelities. Causing insecurity in the other person is a way to manipulate them.

This conclusion was reached by a study titled Do narcissists purposely try to provoke jealousy in their romantic partners? An examination of motives for deliberately inducing jealousy among narcissism subtypes.. This was published in the scientific journal Personality and Individual Differencesin 2014.

The research found that provoking jealousy is important for a narcissist, as it puts his partner in a position of vulnerability. Thus, it facilitates control and manipulation in the relationship. The usual thing is that they are not even interested in being unfaithful, but rather in provoking doubts, so that they create the conditions to weaken their partner.

Study on the narcissistic need to generate jealousy

The aforementioned study was carried out by Gregory Tortoriello, Joshua D. Foster and W. Keith Campbell, researchers affiliated with the University of Alabama in the United States. The objective was to examine whether narcissists They try to cause jealousy in their romantic partners deliberately and analyze the underlying reasons for doing so.

The investigation was carried out with 237 participants, all university students. Of these, 54% were women and 46% were men. Volunteers completed questionnaires and personality measures to assess narcissism and tendencies toward jealousy in their romantic relationships.

It’s important to put attention on, As the sample consists only of university students, the results do not generalize to the entire population. Furthermore, it is possible that the behaviors and motivations related to narcissism and jealousy vary in other age groups or contexts different from the one considered for exploration.

How was the study carried out?

To carry out the research, a group of volunteers, young men and women, were recruited from within the campus. Basic data was then collected about the participants, such as age, gender, and average length of romantic relationships.

The next step was an evaluation of the possible narcissistic traits in each of them. In this way, participants filled out questionnaires and personality measures. The forms included widely used scales, such as the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Narcissistic Personality InventoryNPI) and considered the following aspects:

vanity, authority, pretension, exploitation, superiority, exhibitionism, self-sufficiency.

Next, each volunteer’s tendencies to cause jealousy were evaluated. To achieve this purpose, specific questionnaires were applied. They explored the underlying motives and strategies used by the participants with the purpose of inducing jealousy in their partners.

Finally, a statistical analysis of the collected data was performed to examine the relationships between narcissism and jealousy provocation; also to identify the underlying reasons and differences between subtypes of narcissism.

The NPI only assesses the adaptive (subclinical) dimensions of narcissism.

The results of the study

The main conclusion of the study is that Individuals with narcissistic tendencies are prone to deliberately trying to generate jealousy, in their romantic partners. This is more accentuated in those people whose narcissistic traits approach the pathological.

This form of manipulation can mediate the emergence of psychological abuse. In fact, research from The Journal of Psychology indicates that vulnerable and grandiose narcissism are associated with psychological abuse in couple relationships. Of both categories, the latter was directly linked to this type of abuse, while the former was only indirectly linked.

Regarding the findings of the study carried out by academics from the University of Alabama, three basic motivations for such behavior were detected:

Self-esteem reinforcement: Narcissists tend to feel better about themselves when they make their partner jealous; They are perceived as more valuable and important.Control: They felt that if they managed to provoke jealousy in their partner, they also gained greater control over the relationship and this, in turn, allowed them to feel more powerful.Desire for attention: If they manage to make their partner jealous, they begin to pay more attention to them. They were not concerned whether such attention was based on insecurity and not greater affection or love interest.

The above suggests that The narcissist may seek to generate jealousy as a strategy to satisfy his or her attention needs.reaffirm their self-esteem and exercise control over their partners.

Important: these results are not generalizable

It is important to note that this study focused specifically on the context of romantic relationships and did not cover all dimensions of narcissism, nor all possible motivations for generating jealousy.

By not taking into account the different aspects of this type of personality, the results may not be representative for the entire population of narcissistic people. Therefore, they should not be generalized.

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