Profanity from Vanity: Predicting and Manipulating Verbal Aggression with Narcissism and Self-Esteem

Inducing aggression in laboratories remains contentious. Two experiments measured participants’ verbal aggression following a priming task designed to induce associations of “smart” or “stupid.” In Experiment 1, participants receiving “stupid” primes endorsed more verbal aggression, whereas only narcissism predicted rudeness in Experiment 2. Narcissism predicts rudeness better than self-esteem.