Narcissists can be empathic towards sufferers

People with narcissistic tendencies can be empathic towards a person who's suffering given they have the right focus, says research by the University of Surrey.

The study examined participants in three different situations. The first study analysed how sympathetic they were to someone of their own gender suffering from a relationship break-up, where the results showed that those with high narcissism lacked empathy for the distressed person.

However, in the second study, which focused on a woman who had suffered domestic violence from a male perpetrator, half of participants were specifically asked to imagine how that person feels. The results showed that individuals high in narcissism were capable of higher empathy when instructed to take that person's perspective.

This result was further tested via the participants' heartbeats, as increases in heart rate are known to indicate an empathic response to other people's emotions and suffering, where narcissists showed a significantly lower heart-rate than non-narcissistic participants. But when asked to take the character's perspective, the narcissists' heart-rates increased to the same levels as those with very low narcissistic tendencies.

Lead author Dr Erica Hepper said that the results clearly show that if narcissists are encouraged to consider the situation from their teammate or friend's point-of-view, they are likely to respond in a much more considerate and sympathetic way, which is good for their own wellbeing, as well as for the people around them.

The research provides a crucial breakthrough because if narcissists have the physical capacity to feel empathy, interventions could be designed to help them do so in their everyday lives, benefiting the society as a whole.

The study was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.