Do narcissists benefit from materialistic pursuits? Examining the relation between narcissistic tendencies, extrinsic values, and well-being

Past research consistently finds that the pursuit of extrinsic goals detracts from our happiness and well-being, and instead contributes to ill-being. Despite the robustness of this finding, recent research suggests that people with narcissistic tendencies are more likely to derive meaning from extrinsic goals. Since well-being was not assessed in that study, we conducted a high-powered (n = 576), pre-registered replication to determine whether narcissists really benefit from materialistic pursuits. Results indicate that having greater narcissistic tendencies was positively associated with perceiving extrinsic goals as being more meaningful, which in turn negatively predicted subjective and eudaimonic well-being, and positively predicted depression.