Rivalry and Admiration-Seeking in a Social Competition: From Traits to Behaviors Through Contextual Cues

Rivalry and admiration-seeking are two distinct strategies humans use to gain status in social competition. However in vivo data is lacking about whether these behavioral manifestations of status pursuit are driven by distinct rivalry and admiration-seeking traits, as outlined by the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept (NARC), whether NARC traits interact with environmental cues as suggested by the Status Pursuit In Narcissism (SPIN) model, and whether these interactions primarily occur with trait-relevant cues (defeat in the case of trait rivalry and victory in the case of trait admiration-seeking) as proposed by Trait activation theory (TAT). We used a rigged video game tournament with three randomized blocks with defeat manipulations of varying intensity: defeats to victory ratios of 1:1 (neutral), 2:1 (moderate losing), and 3:1 (extreme losing), measuring behavioral rivalry (stealing points from opponents) and admiration-seeking (paying to boost rank in the tournament) in a sample of 434 undergraduates assessed for trait rivalry and trait admiration-seeking with the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire. We found evidence for trait-congruent main and interaction effects: whereas behavioral rivalry scaled with trait rivalry and behavioral admiration-seeking with trait admiration-seeking, trait rivalry primarily increased status-pursuit behaviors following defeats and trait admiration-seeking following victories. These results corroborate the NARC’s two-dimensional conceptualization of narcissistic grandiosity, support the SPIN model’s interactionist view of status pursuit, and extend these frameworks by outlining trait-specific environmental effects consistent with TAT.