Narcissism and gift giving: Not every gift is for others

Na Kyong Hyun, Yoobin Park, Sun Woong Park

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Although previous studies have suggested that narcissism and self-esteem carry different interpersonal implications, few have examined their differences in specific motivations behind relationship behaviors. This article detailed an exploratory study to identify romantic gift-giving motivations and examined their relations to the two personality constructs. Young adults in a romantic relationship completed measures of narcissism and self-esteem, and responded to questions about gift-giving motivations both in an actual past occasion and in a hypothetical future occasion. A factor analysis found three motivations for romantic gift giving: intrinsic, maintenance, and power motivation. When self-esteem, age, and sex were controlled, narcissism was positively related to maintenance motivation in the past, and maintenance and power motivation in the future. Self-esteem was negatively related to power motivation in the past and maintenance motivation in the future, controlling for narcissism, age, and sex. Our results suggest that narcissistic individuals critically differ from those with high self-esteem in their tendency to consider gift giving an instrumental act.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)47-51
    Number of pages5
    JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
    Volume96
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016 Jul 1

    Keywords

    • Gift-giving motivations
    • Narcissism
    • Romantic gift giving
    • Self-esteem
    • Self-love

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Psychology

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Narcissism and gift giving: Not every gift is for others'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this