Aggression and alternative responses following performance feedback: The influences of self-esteem, narcissism, feedback valence, and evaluative standard

The present study investigated self-esteem level and stability, as well as narcissism, as potential predictors of aggression following negative performance feedback on a resource dilemma task. In addition, the influence of the evaluative standard employed for providing feedback was investigated. Analyses were conducted for 120 undergraduate students (60 male, 60 female). Feedback valence and evaluative standard were experimentally manipulated and randomly predetermined. Results revealed that, as expected, individuals with high levels of narcissism tended to be aggressive before feedback, although this association was not significant after controlling for self-esteem or empathy. More importantly, participants with relatively high levels of narcissism tended to significantly increase their aggressiveness after receiving negative feedback. Overall, lack of empathy also tended to predict aggression, particularly prior to feedback. Although negative feedback was associated with greater increases in aggression overall than positive feedback, controlling for individual difference variables (e.g., narcissism) resulted in this effect no longer being statistically significant. This finding appears to underscore the importance of personality for predicting increases in aggression in response to negative feedback. In general, feedback delivered from an ipsative (i.e., improvement-based) standard was associated with less aggression than feedback delivered from a normative or idealized (i.e., goal-based) evaluative standard. The implications of these findings for further investigations of aggressive behavior, their relevance for both males and females, and the implications for interventions surrounding how individuals respond to feedback are discussed.