In a recent investigation, we examined the relationships of left-wing authoritarianism with so-called dark personality traits (Krispenz & Bertrams, 2023; see also Costello et al., 2022; Moss & O’Connor, 2020; Zeigler-Hill et al., 2021) and measures of prosociality. We found that a strong ideological view, according to which a violent revolution against existing societal structures is legitimate (i.e., anti-hierarchical aggression), was associated with antagonistic narcissistic (Study 1) and psychopathological personality traits (Study 2). Surprisingly, in our studies, neither dispositional altruism nor social justice commitment was found to be related to anti-hierarchical aggression. After obtaining these results, we presumed that some people adhere to ideology or activism not to actually work toward the specified goals of some kind of improvement but to use it as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego-focused, sometimes even anti-social, needs. For instance, a highly narcissistic individual may pretend to make society more just for all people, while actually using social justice demands to present themselves as morally outstanding or meet their thrills (e.g., via violent escalations during protests). We refer to this assumed phenomenon as the dark-ego-vehicle principle (DEVP).

Some sociopolitical phenomena, such as contemporary forms of political activism, may potentially be understood more broadly via the DEVP. Legal trials involving celebrities point to one crucial aspect of why anti-sexual and anti-aggressive assault activism could also attract narcissists: There are prominent cases of alleged assaults in which there is no societal consensus on who did what. For example, in recent legal trials involving the actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, one judicial verdict was rendered against Depp, while another was mostly in his favor. While a systematic forensic analysis of the existing evidence hardly supports Heard’s accusations that Depp committed intimate partner violence against her (Silva, 2022), there are authors with high media coverage who publicly challenged the legal judgment that was in favor of Depp (e.g., Winter, 2022). Such societal indecisiveness in the sensitive context of men-against-women violence—where women frequently experience significant harm (Campbell et al., 2009; Smith et al., 2017)—may be perceived by self-promoters as a possibility of presenting themselves as morally above others (e.g., above Depp’s advocates and fans as well as the indecisive and uninterested mass). In other words, virtuous self-presentation, masked as political activism, may be particularly convenient for narcissists in cases of indecisiveness. There is not only a basically moral question at stake (i.e., harming others) but also well-known attitudinal variance in society, providing narcissists reliably with applauders as well as with targets, who can be easily stigmatized as being morally inferior compared to the narcissistic virtuous self-presenter.

In this study, we seek exemplary evidence for the DEVP in the context of anti-sexual assault activism and with regard to narcissistic personality traits. Such an investigation appears to be relevant, as it can be assumed that those who have or are at risk of sexual assault experiences would likely not be optimally supported by narcissistic individuals who are inclined to put their own egos above all else, who show a lack of empathy, and who can be manipulative and exploitative (Hepper et al., 2014; Konrath et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2017). Notably, this research is not based on an elaborated theory, as an appropriate theory is not yet available. Rather, it is one basic step within the laborious process of theory construction methodology, which has a bottom-up nature in which inquiry moves from phenomena to explanation (Borsboom et al., 2021). At the moment, we consider ourselves to be at the point in Borsboom et al.’s (2021) theoretical circle, where we aim to reliably identify new empirical phenomena by means of data collection for the purpose of developing and refining a prototheory via abductive interference. Therefore, we have yet to refer carefully to a principle in terms of the assumed dark-ego-vehicle process instead of a theory. In the following, we present the reasons why greater involvement in anti-sexual assault activism may be related to higher narcissism.

Narcissism

High narcissistic personality traits (also simplified as narcissism in the text) are considered to belong to the dark triad (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy; Paulhus & Williams, 2002) and the dark tetrad (the dark triad supplemented by sadism; Paulhus et al., 2018) of personality or an even more extensive set of dark personality facets (Marcus & Zeigler-Hill, 2015). In light of the usual conceptions of these dark personality traits (Furnham et al., 2013), we will focus on subclinical narcissism—that is, we will refer to continuous distributions in broader community samples instead of those of individuals who are currently under clinical or forensic supervision.

In selecting a conceptualization and operationalization of narcissism for our study, we were guided by the recently published study of Zeigler-Hill et al. (2021), who, like us, addressed a political–psychological issue. These authors state that beyond the ongoing debate regarding the best strategy for conceptualizing narcissism, there is at least some consensus that extraverted, antagonistic, and neurotic narcissism are valid aspects of narcissism. Zeigler-Hill et al. (2021) also argued that this three-dimensional conceptualization of narcissism may be useful for gaining a nuanced understanding of narcissism within the political realm.

Therefore, we followed Miller et al. (2016) in that the defining characteristics of individuals high in narcissistic traits (here called narcissists) can be subsumed under the following three factors: (1) antagonistic narcissism (i.e., inclinations to manipulate and exploit others, self-perceived entitlement, arrogance, reactive anger, distrust, lack of empathy, and thrill seeking), (2) extraverted narcissism or agentic extraversion (i.e., inclinations to acclaim seeking, authoritativeness, grandiose fantasies, and exhibitionism), and (3) neurotic narcissism (i.e., inclinations to experience shame, low indifference, and a need for admiration). As outlined further in this study, we assumed all three aspects of narcissism to be relevant with regard to using anti-sexual assault activism as a vehicle for one’s satisfaction of narcissistic needs.

Linking Anti-Sexual Assault Activism to Narcissism

We follow previous conceptions of sexual assault, which define it as “a sexual act that is committed or attempted by another person without freely given consent of the victim or against someone who is unable to consent or refuse” (Basile et al., 2014, p. 11; Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, p. 653). Sexual assault is a serious societal problem, given its frequency and harmful effects on victimized individuals (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, 2021) and the fear it poses on potential victims (Riggs & Cook, 2015). Therefore, anti-sexual assault activism may be an obvious choice for people who authentically possess altruistic motivations (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, 2021).

However, narcissists may perceive this sort of activism, due to its societal and moral importance, as useful for their self-portrayal. As outlined in the introduction, we believe that both applauders and targets are easily available to narcissists who engage in anti-sexual assault activism. It is worth noting that higher narcissism has been found to be related to higher virtue signaling, that is, “symbolic demonstrations that can lead observers to make favorable inferences about the signaler’s moral character” (Ok et al., 2021, p. 1635). Virtue signaling is likely one way in which narcissists demonstrate and accomplish their self-perceived superiority to themselves and others—in this respect, in moral terms. We consider virtue signaling to be based on all three dimensions of narcissism because virtue signaling may at least be related to acting out arrogance, feelings of entitlement, the inclination to manipulate others, and the desire for acclaim and admiration. We will now further specify why anti-sexual assault activism may be used as a vehicle to satisfy extraverted and antagonistic narcissistic needs in particular.

First, activism may provide narcissists with ego-focused opportunities to self-present in a positive light, take a leadership role, become an authority, and gain some notoriety in social media and broadcasting (extraverted narcissism). For instance, previous research (Konrath et al., 2016) found that narcissism scores were the highest for people who posted a video online of their alleged prosocial behavior (“ALS ice bucket challenge”) while not additionally donating money for prosocial purposes in relation to comparison groups (e.g., those who only donated money but did not post a potentially attention-grabbing online video). Moreover, Greenwood et al. (2013) found high narcissism to be associated with motivations for and fantasies about being famous but not associated with prosocial motivations. Another relevant point is that higher narcissism was related to higher left−/right-wing authoritarianism and a stronger orientation toward social dominance in past research (Krispenz & Bertrams, 2023; Pincus et al., 2009; Raskin & Terry, 1988; Zeigler-Hill et al., 2021). Studies such as these suggest that narcissists strive for a glorious image and dominance but, at the same time, are not honestly interested in the condition of others.

Second, with such a sensitive and moral–emotional topic as sexual assault, there is a fundamental potential for social conflict. For instance, prominent cases of aggressive assault—such as the recent Depp versus Heard trial—can generate antagonistic groups in the (social) media, which emotionally (if not aggressively) dispute what and whom to believe (Young, 2022). We assume that such emotional conflict satisfies one’s narcissistic desires for seeking thrill and acting out reactive anger when someone disagrees (antagonistic narcissism). In support of our assumption, a recent comprehensive meta-analysis (Kjærvik & Bushman, 2021) has found a robust link between narcissism and all sorts of aggression (i.e., indirect, direct, displaced, physical, verbal, and bullying).

The Present Study

Based on the aforementioned considerations, we preregistered the hypothesis that greater involvement in anti-sexual assault activism is associated with higher narcissism. Such a finding would be in line with the DEVP. However, it is noteworthy that we do not assume that involvement in anti-sexual assault activism is narcissistic per se. While we think that some narcissistic individuals use this kind of activism to satisfy their ego-focused narcissistic needs, we do not deny that altruism is one crucial motive underlying the involvement in anti-sexual assault activism (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, 2021). To acknowledge its important role in the context of anti-sexual assault activism, we considered altruism as a covariate.

Another covariate that we included was adult sexual assault history (i.e., the frequency of personal victimization as an adult), which can be another motivating factor for individuals to get involved in anti-sexual assault activism (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, 2021). Furthermore, we considered sexual harassment myth acceptance as an important covariate. Among other aspects, these myths refer to the belief that women typically exaggerate or even fabricate sexual harassment claims (Lonsway et al., 2008). Sexual harassment proclivity, which involves sexual harassment myth acceptance (Bartling & Eisenman, 1993), has been found to be slightly related to narcissism (Zeigler-Hill et al., 2016). Age was another covariate because we examined our hypothesis in an age-diverse sample, and narcissistic traits are susceptible to change over one’s life course (Cramer, 2011). We also included gender as a covariate, as gender differences in specific narcissism facets have been reported (Grijalva et al., 2015) and because women and men are differently affected by sexual assault (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2021).

Finally, we also considered the interaction between narcissism and gender to explore its potential impact on anti-sexual assault activism. We could not make a specific prediction in this regard, as we a priori considered two potential phenomena as plausible: On the one hand, as men are noticed as less often and intensely affected by sexual assault than women (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2021), male narcissists could attempt to use supposedly selfless activism as a virtue signaling strategy to garner admiration (Luchner & Tantleff-Dunn, 2016). Thus, anti-sexual assault activism could particularly attract narcissistic men. Therefore, the relationship between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism could be more pronounced for men than for women. On the other hand, male and female narcissists may compete with each other for attention within the context of anti-sexual assault activism. In this case, female narcissists could more successfully banish male narcissists from the desired leadership positions by using manipulative strategies. For instance, they could accuse narcissistic men of “mansplaining” (Joyce et al., 2021; Koc-Michalska et al., 2021) whenever they try to present themselves grandiosely during meetings. Experiencing that their primary interest in ego-focused goals (e.g., receiving public admiration) has remained unfulfilled, male narcissists would then likely withdraw from their involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. Thus, the relationship between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism could be more pronounced for women than for men.

Methods

Open Science and Complying with Ethical Standards

This study was preregistered prior to data collection at https://aspredicted.org. The preregistration, complete materials, and raw data are available at https://researchbox.org/751 and https://researchbox.org/753 (but note that the Prolific IDs have been deleted from the raw data files to maximally protect the participants’ personal rights). This study was approved by the local ethics commission of the University of Bern (number: 2022-05-00006). Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their participation in this study.

Participants

We re-recruited the participants from a diverse US sample (N = 391) of one of our recent studies on left-wing authoritarianism (Study 1, Krispenz & Bertrams, 2023; for the preregistration, complete materials, and raw data, see https://researchbox.org/751), in which we assessed narcissistic traits, dispositional altruism, gender, and other sociodemographic variables, as well as other variables not related to this study. The previous data collection was undertaken via the research-oriented crowdsourcing platform Prolific (https://www.prolific.co); therefore, we were able to reinvite the participants three weeks later and match their responses regarding their involvement in anti-sexual assault activism, adult sexual assault history, sexual harassment myth acceptance, and momentary age via their anonymized Prolific ID. In total, we obtained 423 cases (including individuals’ data that could not be matched). From this sample, some exclusions were made prior to the data analysis. Overall, we excluded the data of 110 individuals if self-reported Prolific IDs did not allow for matching or due to predefined criteria (e.g., failed attention checks; for details, see the preregistrations). We were able to match and use previous and new data from 313 individuals (i.e., N of the final sample of the present study). This sample size was sensitive to effects of ρ2 = .05 (seven predictors; 80% power; α = .05, two-tailed) and effects of ρ2 = .06 (11 predictors; 80% power; α = .05, two-tailed) (G*Power 3.1 analysis; Faul et al., 2009). The collected sociodemographic data of the participants are shown in Table 1. The participants were compensated with £2.70 at the first time of measurement and with £1 at the second time of measurement.

Table 1 Sample Demographics
Full size table

Procedure

The survey was announced as “Attitudes and Behaviors Study” (May 2022) and “Attitudes and Behaviors Study 2” (June 2022). All instructions and measures were provided online using Qualtrics survey software. For a different research question, the participants completed standardized measures of narcissistic traits and altruism in May 2022. Per random assignment, they either first completed the measure of narcissistic traits (i.e., ego focus) or altruism (i.e., prosocial focus). They also provided sociodemographic information. Three to four weeks later, in June 2022, the participants also responded to the measures of their current age, adult sexual assault history, sexual harassment myth acceptance, and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. At both measurement times, attention check measures were applied. At the end of each data collection process, the participants were thanked, debriefed, and paid.

Measures

The internal consistencies (McDonald’s ωs) of the measures used in the present sample are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics and Correlation
Full size table

Attention checks. In May 2022, the participants were instructed not to answer the question “Who was the first president of the United States of America?” (response options: “Abraham Lincoln,” “George Washington,” and “Thomas Jefferson”) and click “continue” instead to demonstrate that they gave attention to the instructions (Bertrams & Schlegel, 2020). In June 2022, the participants were instructed in the same way with regard to the statement “I breathe oxygen every day,” presented with a 7-point response scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) (Jones & Paulhus, 2014). Participants who provided a response in at least one of the two instances were excluded from the analyses, as mentioned above.

Involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. We applied the Involvement in Anti-Sexual Assault Activism Scale (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2021). This scale has been developed recently, drawing on a qualitative study of anti-sexual assault activism and on the experiences of one of the scale’s authors of being involved in anti-sexual assault activism. Strauss Swanson and Szymanski (2020, 2021) provided quantitative evidence supporting the validity of the scale. The scale consists of 20 items that address anti-sexual assault behaviors on different levels of involvement (e.g., “I am involved in one or more anti-sexual assault organizations and/or groups,” “I participate in anti-sexual assault demonstrations, boycotts, marches, rallies, protests, and/or sit-ins [e.g., Take Back the Night Rally, Women’s March, SlutWalks],” and “I participate in large-scale anti-violence activist movements [e.g., #MeToo, Times Up, national Title IX organizing efforts]”). The items were answered on a 7-point scale ranging from very untrue of me (1) to very true of me (7). Higher scale total scores indicated one’s higher involvement in anti-sexual assault activism.

Adult sexual assault history. We used a one-item measure from Strauss Swanson and Szymanski (2021): “How many times have you experienced sexual contact without your consent (i.e., because you were pressured, coerced, incapacitated, forced, or made to have sexual contact)—as an adult?” The answers were given on a 5-point scale ranging from never (1) to very often (5).

Sexual harassment myth acceptance. We applied the 20-item Illinois Sexual Harassment Myth Acceptance Scale (Lonsway et al., 2008). This scale covers multiple aspects of the personal beliefs in myths in the context of the sexual harassment of women: fabrication/exaggeration (e.g., “As long as a woman doesn’t lose her job, her claim of sexual harassment shouldn’t be taken too seriously), ulterior motives (e.g., “Sometimes women make up allegations of sexual harassment to extort money from their employer”), natural heterosexuality (e.g., “Most women are flattered when they get sexual attention from men with whom they work”), and woman’s responsibility (e.g., “Women can usually stop unwanted sexual attention by simply telling the man that his behavior is not appreciated”). As recommended by the authors of this scale, the items were scrambled (i.e., presented in randomized order), and four additional filler items were integrated. The participants completed the items on a 7-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Higher values on the 20-item total score represented a stronger acceptance of myths concerning sexual harassment against women.

Altruism. The participants completed the Self-Report Altruism Scale (Rushton et al., 1981). This scale assesses dispositional altruism with 20 items that refer to the frequency of the participants’ altruistic behaviors on different levels of dedication (e.g., “I have delayed an elevator and held the door open for a stranger,” “I have helped an acquaintance to move households,” and “I have given money to a charity”). Responses were given on a 5-point scale ranging from never (1) to very often (5). A higher value on the Self-Report Altruism Scale indicated a higher degree of dispositional altruism.

Narcissistic traits. We used the 60-item Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory-Short Form (Sherman et al., 2015). According to the findings of Miller et al. (2016), this inventory measures three different factors of narcissistic traits:

  1. (1)

    Antagonistic narcissism (i.e., exploitativeness [e.g., “It’s fine to take advantage of persons to get ahead”], lack of empathy [e.g., “I don’t worry about others’ needs”], entitlement [e.g., “I deserve to receive special treatment”], arrogance [e.g., “Others say I brag too much, but everything I say is true”], manipulativeness [e.g., “I’m pretty good at manipulating people”], reactive anger [e.g., “I hate being criticized so much that I can’t control my temper when it happens”], distrust [e.g., “When someone does something nice for me, I wonder what they want from me”], and thrill seeking [e.g., “I will try almost anything to get my ‘thrills’” ]),

  2. (2)

    extraverted narcissism (i.e., acclaim seeking [e.g., “I am extremely ambitious”], authoritativeness [e.g., “Leadership comes easy for me”], grandiose fantasies [e.g., “I often fantasize about someday being famous”], and exhibitionism [e.g., “I get lots of enjoyment from entertaining others”]), and

  3. (3)

    neurotic narcissism (i.e., shame [e.g., “When I realize I have failed at something, I feel humiliated”], reversed indifference [e.g., “When people judge me, I just don’t care”], and need for admiration [e.g., “I often feel as if I need compliments from others in order to be sure of myself”]).

The answers were given on a 5-point scale ranging from disagree strongly (1) to agree strongly (5). For the analyses, we calculated the 60-item total score of narcissistic traits as well as the three subscale scores for antagonistic narcissism (32 items), extraverted narcissism (16 items), and neurotic narcissism (12 items). In any case, higher values represented higher narcissistic traits.

Results

Data Analysis Strategy

For the preregistered main analysis, we applied multiple regression analysis to predict involvement in anti-sexual assault activism by the total score of narcissism (i.e., narcissistic traits). The .05 significance level (two-tailed test) was applied. The following covariates were included in the regression model: age, gender (female vs. male), adult sexual assault history, sexual harassment myth acceptance, altruism, and the term for the interaction between narcissism and gender. As the model included an interaction term, the continuous predictors were z-standardized (Frazier et al., 2004). In terms of the narcissism × gender interaction, we applied the well-established recoding procedure (Frazier et al., 2004) to conduct simple slope analyses. This allowed us to interpret the different relationships between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism for females and males separately. As a preregistered secondary analysis, we repeated the main analysis with the three factors of narcissism included in the main model (i.e., antagonistic, extraverted, and neurotic narcissism) and their interactions with gender instead of the total narcissism score and its interaction with gender. For all regression and correlation coefficients, we report 95% confidence intervals based on bootstrapping (bias-corrected and accelerated; 1000 bootstrap samples) as indicators of the robustness of the relationships found (Field, 2014).

Preliminary Analyses

The means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the applied measures are displayed in Table 2. Higher involvement in anti-sexual assault activism was found to be statistically significantly associated with younger age, being female, having more frequently experienced sexual contact without consent as an adult, and less sexual harassment myth acceptance. Moreover, it was also found that the more participants were inclined to help others (i.e., the higher their altruism), the stronger they were involved in anti-sexual assault activism. In line with our research hypothesis and the DEVP, higher narcissism total scores were statistically significantly associated with stronger involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. This association appears to be attributable to extraverted narcissism but not to antagonistic or neurotic narcissism. Further bivariate correlations that may be relevant for interpreting the overall pattern of results are that higher degrees of narcissism in total, antagonistic narcissism, and extraverted narcissism were related to stronger sexual harassment myth acceptance.

Preregistered Main Analysis

With the exception of adult sexual assault history, all variables statistically significantly predicted respondents’ involvement in anti-sexual assault activism in the multiple regression model (Table 3). Notably, over and above all the other included predictors, altruism was a statistically significant predictor of involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. The most important finding of the present study is that higher total scores of narcissism were statistically significantly related to stronger involvement in anti-sexual assault activism; however, this relationship was qualified by the statistically significant narcissism–gender interaction: Higher total scores of narcissism were statistically significantly associated with stronger involvement in anti-sexual assault activism for the women in this sample (see the upper part of Table 3) but not for the men (see the lower part of Table 3). Figure 1 displays this interaction by showing the simple slopes for female and male participants separately.

Table 3 Multiple Regression Analysis Regressing Involvement in Anti-Sexual Assault Activism
Full size table
Fig. 1
figure 1

Regressing Involvement in Anti-Sexual Assault Activism on the Interaction between Narcissism Total Score and Gender (Simple Slopes)

Full size image

Preregistered Secondary Analysis

For a more differentiated view of the role of narcissism, we repeated the main analysis but replaced the total score of narcissism with the three narcissism subfactors (i.e., antagonistic, extraverted, and neurotic narcissism; Table 4). As depicted in the upper part of Table 4, for female participants, higher extraverted narcissism predicted stronger involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. In addition, for female participants, a tendency was observed that higher antagonistic narcissism predicted stronger involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. This relationship was not statistically significant but approached significance. No such relationship or tendency was observed for male participants (see the lower part of Table 4). However, note that the respective interaction terms (i.e., antagonistic narcissism × gender; extraverted narcissism × gender) only approached but did not reach statistical significance. Neurotic narcissism was not a statistically significant predictor of involvement in anti-sexual assault activism.

Table 4 Multiple Regression Analysis Regressing Involvement in Anti-Sexual Assault Activism
Full size table

Unregistered Secondary Analysis

For the description of our sample (Table 1), we asked for the participants’ political orientation using a single-item scale ranging from extremely left-wing (1) to extremely right-wing (7). Based on a reviewer’s suggestion, we investigated whether the participants’ political orientation would moderate the relationship between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. For this purpose, we regressed the involvement in anti-sexual assault activism on age, gender, adult sexual assault history, sexual harassment myth acceptance, altruism, the narcissism total score, the narcissism total score × gender interaction, the narcissism total score × political orientation interaction, the gender × political orientation interaction, and the three-way narcissism total score × gender interaction × political orientation interaction. All predictors except gender were z-standardized. Neither political orientation (p = .07), nor the two-way interactions involving political orientation (p = .30 and p = .76), nor the three-way interaction (p = .93) were predictive of involvement in anti-sexual assault activism.

Discussion

In the present study, based on the theory construction methodology (Borsboom et al., 2021), we aimed to seek initial evidence of what we call the DEVP (Krispenz & Bertrams, 2023). This principle says that people with high degrees of dark personality traits are attracted to certain ideologies and forms of political activism, not primarily for pretended altruistic reasons but to satisfy their own selfish needs. These needs, such as a narcissist’s extraordinary desire for high social importance and distinction (Mahadevan & Jordan, 2022), are grounded in their special personalities. We examined the DEVP with regard to narcissism and in the context of anti-sexual assault activism. Sexual assault is a serious and damaging societal problem (Campbell et al., 2009; Smith et al., 2017; Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, 2021). We argue that victimized and potentially threatened people should know that narcissistic individuals could be attracted to be involved in anti-sexual assault activism. Given the ego-focused, low empathic, and occasionally pseudo-prosocial nature of narcissism (Greenwood et al., 2013; Hepper et al., 2014; Jankowiak-Siuda & Zajkowski, 2013; Konrath et al., 2016), we highly doubt that such activists primarily have the best interest for concerned people in mind.

The Present Findings

The preregistered hypothesis of this study was that a higher degree of narcissism predicts a higher degree of involvement in anti-sexual assault activism over and above some covariates that were considered to be relevant in this context (i.e., altruism, adult sexual assault history, sexual harassment myth acceptance, age, and gender). Moreover, the potential interaction between narcissism and gender was taken into account. Preliminarily analyzed bivariate correlations pointed in the expected direction, as greater involvement in anti-sexual assault activism was slightly but statistically significantly related to a higher total score of narcissism. However, the main analysis confirmed the hypothesis only for women but not for men. Specifically, the narcissism–gender interaction was statistically significant, indicating that the relationship between involvement in anti-sexual assault activism and narcissism was significantly different for the women in comparison to the men in our sample. Further, respective simple slope analyses revealed that greater involvement in anti-sexual assault activism was statistically significantly associated with higher narcissism for women, while no such statistically significant relationship was found for men. These findings were robust over and above the covariates, which were all statistically significantly related to individuals’ involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. Readers may be interested in the fact that the findings did not change when only narcissism, gender, and their interaction without the covariates were entered as predictors in the regression model.

Secondary analyses, in which we differentiated between the three facets of narcissism, yielded that extraverted narcissism (i.e., acclaim seeking, authoritativeness, grandiose fantasies, and exhibitionism) was the crucial factor in explaining the relationship between involvement in anti-sexual assault activism and narcissism. There was also a statistically nonsignificant tendency for greater involvement in anti-sexual assault activism to be associated with higher antagonistic narcissism, whereas such activism was clearly unrelated to neurotic narcissism. Compared to the total score for narcissism, the moderating role of gender was less clear with antagonistic and extraverted narcissism, as the respective interaction terms with gender only approached statistical significance but did not reach it.

In sum, we found empirical evidence for the assumption that greater involvement in anti-sexual assault activism is related to higher narcissism, which supports the idea of the DEVP. However, the expected relationship was limited (regarding the narcissism total score) or tended to be limited (regarding extraverted narcissism) to women. This finding could be attributable to psychological mechanisms, as illustrated in the introduction. As women are more strongly affected by sexual assault than men (Smith et al., 2017) and feminist approaches are linked to anti-sexual assault activism (e.g., Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020), women (rather than men) may be expected to take the visible front ranks in anti-sexual assault activism (e.g., as the ones who publicly speak out). We suspect that male narcissists principally would like to occupy these positions for virtue signaling and status reasons (Mahadevan & Jordan, 2022; Ok et al., 2021). However, when trying to put themselves in front, they are likely to compete and conflict with female narcissists with such needs. In the specific context of sexual assault, narcissistic men’s displayed virtue and legitimacy can easily be questioned by accusing them of “mansplaining” (Joyce et al., 2021; Koc-Michalska et al., 2021) or patronizing women in other ways. Thus, narcissistic women, compared to men, may have a greater chance of satisfying their narcissistic needs and a lesser likelihood of becoming frustrated in this regard. Therefore, lacking empathy for authentic altruism (Hepper et al., 2014; Jankowiak-Siuda & Zajkowski, 2013; Konrath et al., 2016), narcissistic men are assumed to withdraw from anti-sexual assault activism, as it does not pay out for them. Such a process could explain why, in this study, higher degrees of involvement in anti-sexual assault activism were related to higher degrees of narcissism only in women.

Two ancillary results should also be explicitly mentioned. Importantly, altruism was a robust predictor of anti-sexual assault activism. This is not a contradiction in terms of the current hypothesis and findings on narcissism. It must be clearly stated that the DEVP does not mean that activism per se is narcissistic. It says that narcissists can be attracted by some forms of activism; however, as the current findings underline, people also get involved in anti-sexual assault activism due to altruistic motives (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020, 2021). Another notable result was that higher narcissism was related to higher sexual harassment myth acceptance. Thus, on the one hand, narcissism was associated with being active against sexual assault, which affects women in particular (Smith et al., 2017), and on the other hand, it was associated with the contrary belief that women typically fabricate sexual harassment allegations (Lonsway et al., 2008). We think that this pattern is in line with our assumption that narcissistic activists are not empathically motivated to engage in anti-sexual assault activism but rather for ego-focused reasons. Therefore, under the umbrella of narcissism as a variable, anti-sexual assault activism should principally be compatible with an unemphatic view of the sexual harassment of women. It is relevant in this regard that sexual harassment myth acceptance was higher for men than for women in the current sample; however, there was still a tendency for more compared to less narcissistic women to accept sexual harassment myths more strongly. Previous research has also found that women with dark personalities are inclined to carry such myths against other women (Brewer et al., 2021).

We also investigated if the relationship between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism could be more pronounced for politically left-oriented than for politically right-oriented individuals, or if the relationship may be even reversed for those on the right side of the political spectrum. There may be many forms of activism (e.g., pro-choice abortion activism) where the relationship between narcissism and involvement in activism should be different for the political left in contrast to right-wingers. However, regarding sexual assault, we assume no such differences between the political left and the right. In line with this assumption, a recent study on media framing of campus sexual assault (O’Boyle & Li, 2019) found that liberal (left) and conservative (right) oriented newspapers were similar in the frequency of mentioning individual causes and solutions for sexual assaults and the frequency of referencing to societal causes. In line with our expectations, we did not find evidence that political orientation moderated the relationship between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism.

Implications

This study had one primary aim: to test the DEVP relating to a kind of activism that could attract ego-focused narcissists. In our view, this study is basic research at an early stage of theory construction methodology (Borsboom et al., 2021). In this respect, we consider the current findings a promising fundament to further investigate in which other contexts the DEVP can have explanatory value and which detailed processes are involved. According to Borsboom et al. (2021), in this bottom-up way, further theory development will progress.

At this point, we should explain in depth why we speak of a principle and not a theory. As we realized that our recent empirical results on left-wing authoritarianism (Krispenz & Bertrams, 2023) suggested that dark personalities could be attracted to certain ideologies or political activism for ego-focused reasons only, we quickly noticed that a number of moderating variables are likely to play a crucial role in the same. A few essential ones are as follows: the overall prestige of the ideology or activism in a society, the distribution of supporters and opponents of this ideology or activism in the culture under study, the kind of peer groups that are present pro and contra the ideology or activism, and how likely individually sufficient rewards are for advocating pro and contra for this ideology or activism. Therefore, we believe that, at the moment, the dark-ego-vehicle idea is best conceptualized as a rough overarching principle rather than as a spot-on theory from which specific hypotheses can directly and unerringly be derived. We believe that in examining the DEVP, it is necessary to argue very carefully in each case why specific particular dark personalities should be attracted to particular ideologies or political activism. It is also possible that dark personalities are repelled by certain ideologies, as these are unlikely or even counterproductive to satisfying their specific needs. Nevertheless, we are convinced that the DEVP is a fruitful departure for a better understanding of both dark personalities and societal phenomena.

Certainly, much more research is needed, and the present study cannot be considered as more or less than a starting point. In view of these considerations, we refrain from elaborating on the practical implications of this study. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that some public figures may be speaking and acting merely in their own best interests but not of those who are actually affected by discrimination, oppression, and violence.

Limitations and Future Directions

This study is limited for several reasons. First, even though the sample was much more diverse (see Table 1) than typical psychological research samples in the past (Sears, 1986), it was not perfectly representative. We used Prolific’s option for selecting a representative sample of US nationals when recruiting the original sample (Krispenz & Bertrams, 2023). However, the data of participants with failed attention checks, for example, had to be excluded from the analyses, and 19.9% of the original sample did not participate at the second measurement time. These facts necessarily reduced the representativeness to some degree.

Furthermore, the present findings are based on self-report measures, which have been criticized (Baumeister et al., 2007). We acknowledge the value of both established self-report measures and measures involving less self-awareness of the participants. Recently, novel empirical findings have pointed to the usefulness of self-report data. Saunders et al. (2022) found that self-reported self-discipline was a significant predictor of goal attainment six months later, whereas relevant neurological data were not predictive. Still, self-reports are distal measures of actual behaviors.

Relying solely on self-reports may also be problematic, as correlations could be artificially inflated due to common method variance. This methodological problem arises particularly when the examined variables are assessed at the same point in time (Chang et al., 2010; Lindell & Whitney, 2001). In our study, there was a time lag of three to four weeks between the assessment of narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism. In addition, these two variables were assessed using measures that differed in the response formats and abstraction levels of the items. As such aspects of the study design help to prevent common method variance (Chang et al., 2010), we are confident that the relationship between narcissism and involvement in anti-sexual assault activism is not merely a methodological artifact. In addition, the Harman single-factor test, as described by Zhang et al. (2022), suggested that common method bias did not seriously affect the results of this study.

Another point is that more empirical research on the nomological network of dark triad personalities with regard to their “vehicles” (i.e., ideologies and activism) has still to be undertaken. This study provides some relevant information, as altruism and sexual harassment myth acceptance have been addressed. However, further investigation could be conducted concerning mediating variables and psychological processes. For instance, while virtue signaling and virtuous victim signaling have been found to be associated with dark personalities (Ok et al., 2021), how such instrumental social signaling could function as a potential ego-focused motivator for some forms of activism has not yet been examined. At the moment, we consider ourselves to be engaged in the first generation of our research question: Does X relate to Y (Zanna & Fazio, 1982)? Concretely, are higher levels of ideological engagement and political activism of certain kinds associated with higher dark personality scores? We intend to first accumulate further evidence from other contexts on this question. Afterwards, the second-generation research question “What moderates and what mediates the previously found relationships?” will be tackled.