Is narcissistic anger fueled by neuroticism? the relationship between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, neuroticism, and trait anger

The aim of the present investigation was deeper understanding of the distinction between two types of narcissism (grandiose and vulnerable) in their relation to dispositional anger. Prior research indicated that vulnerable narcissism is associated with higher level of dispositional anger in comparison to grandiose narcissism. Furthermore, vulnerable narcissism was shown to correlate with neuroticism to a large extent. Thus, we expected that the magnitudes of correlation between vulnerable narcissism and anger will be higher than between grandiose narcissism and anger. Moreover, we hypothesized that neuroticism would mediate the relation between vulnerable narcissism and anger. In the current study we examined the relationship between two types of narcissism, neuroticism, and various aspects of dispositional anger in four independent samples ( n s = 121–233). The obtained results confirmed our expectations. Vulnerable narcissism association with anger was more pronounced than the correlation of anger with grandiose narcissism. Additionally, we found that neuroticism mediated the vulnerable narcissism – anger link.