Moderating impact of narcissism on the link between contextual variables and perceptions of fairness

The present study explores how the personality variable, grandiose narcissism, moderates an individual's fairness perceptions when presented with situations involving different contextual variables (outcome severity and target knowledge). In two studies, individuals were presented with scenarios common to everyday life and asked to rate their perception of the outcome. Results indicate that fairness perceptions for individuals who score higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) are lower when the outcome was severe and when the referent involved had knowledge of the situation. However, lower fairness perceptions were not seen for these outcomes for individuals who score lower on the NPI. The consequences of how narcissism may moderate perceptions of fairness in specific contextual situations are discussed with suggestions for future studies. •Two studies were used to measure an individual's fairness perceptions in specific scenarios.•Focus of the studies was on grandiose narcissism.•Narcissism moderated relationship between the severity of outcome and fairness perceptions.•Narcissism moderated relationship between the knowledge of the target and fairness perceptions.