A new study suggests that individuals who score highly on antagonistic narcissism are more likely to endorse illegal and violent actions in the abortion debate on both sides of the U.S. divide, according to researchers Ann Krispenz and Alex Bertrams of the University of Bern. The work uses a framework they call the Dark-Ego-Vehicle Principle to explain why some people join movements as vehicles for aggression rather than out of conviction about the issue itself.
The researchers describe the dark-ego-vehicle principle (DEVP) as positing that people with socially aversive traits participate in activism to satisfy ego-focused needs, such as aggression, rather than to advance the cause itself. They stress that the principle should not be read as tied to a single ideology, but as capable of drawing antagonistic narcissists toward either left- or right-leaning activism if the involvement serves their self-centred aims.
Antagonistic narcissism is identified as the hostile, self-serving core of narcissism, characterised by arrogance, manipulation, entitlement, lack of empathy, reactive anger and thrill-seeking. It is distinct from extraverted narcissism, which is more about charisma and leadership, or neurotic narcissism, which centers on insecurity and shame.
Early tests of the principle emerged from a 2023 study linking antagonistic narcissism and psychopathic traits to support for violent left-wing revolution, with concern for social justice and helping others playing little part. The pair later associated narcissistic traits with greater involvement in environmental activism, and in 2024 extended the pattern to sexual minority and gender identity movements. A separate 2024 study linked dark personality traits to environmental activism as well.
Krispenz and Bertrams argue the DEVP is ideologically impartial: hostile narcissists may be drawn to any political cause that provides an outlet for aggression, whether on the left or the right. Following a 2024 longitudinal study linking dark traits to antisemitic attitudes across the political spectrum, the authors tested whether the pattern applies to abortion activism in a U.S. sample.
“Our hypothesis was based on the Dark-Ego-Vehicle Principle,” the researchers told PsyPost. “The DEVP assumes that individuals high in dark personality traits participate in prosocial activism if and as long as they can instrumentalize their participation to satisfy their ego-focused needs (e.g., for aggression). However, the scope of application for the DEVP should not be restricted to a specific political/ideological side; rather, individuals high in dark personality traits should be drawn to either form of activism as long as it allows for the satisfaction of their own dark-ego needs. Thus, we investigated the validity of this assumption regarding both pro-choice and pro-life activism in a U.S. sample.”
The study recruited a diverse U.S. adult sample through the online platform Prolific, leaving out incomplete responses, duplicates, failed attention checks and respondents undecided on abortion. The final sample comprised 872 adults, with an average age of 43; 501 identified as pro-choice and 371 as pro-life. The researchers preregistered their main hypotheses and analyses.
Participants completed a 60-item personality questionnaire measuring antagonistic narcissism, alongside extraverted and neurotic narcissism, on a five-point scale. They also indicated their willingness to engage in legal, nonviolent activism (for example, travelling to a peaceful rally) and illegal, violent radicalism (such as attacking security forces) on a seven-point scale. The survey also measured everyday altruism and three ideological attitudes: left-wing authoritarianism, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation.
Across the full sample, participants generally preferred peaceful action to violence, with an average 4.12 out of 7 for legal activism compared with 2.26 out of 7 for radicalism. Antagonistic narcissism averaged 2.07 out of 5, with no statistically significant difference between pro-choice and pro-life participants on this trait. The researchers found a strong association between antagonistic narcissism and willingness to engage in illegal and violent abortion-related actions, a correlation of .41 overall, rising to .37 among pro-choice individuals and .46 among pro-life respondents.
“We found a meaningful and positive relationship of antagonistic narcissism and abortion-related radicalism intention,” the researchers noted. “Thus, on both political/ideological sides (i.e., for pro-choice as well as pro-life activism), narcissistic individuals seem to participate in abortion-related activism for the satisfaction of their antagonistic needs (e.g., for aggression).”
The link between antagonistic narcissism and radicalism remained robust after statistically controlling for age, gender, altruism, extraverted narcissism and neurotic narcissism. The association also persisted when the authors accounted for participants’ willingness to engage in peaceful activism. Peaceful activism intention correlated moderately with altruism across the sample (0.33), suggesting that lawful advocacy tends to sit with a helpful disposition.
Earlier analyses had shown altruism to be linked with abortion-related activism, but its positive association with radicalism weakened once peaceful activism was taken into account, while antagonistic narcissism stayed a strong predictor.
Before testing the two camps separately, Krispenz and Bertrams predicted that the link would be stronger among pro-choice supporters, reasoning that conservatives on the pro-life side typically value law and order. The overall strength did not differ significantly between groups, and an exploratory analysis revealed different shapes in each camp: a linear rise with antagonistic narcissism for pro-choice participants, and a curved, U-shaped pattern for pro-life participants.
Among those scoring low to moderate on antagonistic narcissism (about 71% of respondents), pro-choice individuals expressed higher radicalism intentions. At the highest levels of antagonistic narcissism, pro-life radicalism intentions rose sharply to match the pro-choice group, though this curvature was sensitive to analytical methods and relatively few participants sat at the very top of the scale.
“The difference in curvature between the groups weakened to a statistical trend when the researchers reran the analysis using a method less sensitive to extreme scores,” the authors noted. They also highlighted that most respondents did not approach extreme narcissism levels, with around 13 percent scoring well above the sample average.
“The most important takeaway is that the association between antagonistic narcissism and radicalism intentions was found among people on both sides of the abortion debate,” Dominika Adamczyk, a researcher at the Political Cognition Laboratory of the Polish Academy of Sciences who was not involved in the study, told PsyPost. “I think this is interesting because it suggests that, when trying to understand extreme political engagement, we should look not only at people’s political views, but also at individual psychological characteristics.”
Adamczyk also linked the findings to broader work suggesting narcissism can be associated with extreme political views on both sides of the spectrum, while noting that much previous work has focused on conservative attitudes. The current study extends that approach by examining intentions to engage in radical political action among people with opposing views.
The authors caution that the results do not prove that abortion stances or activism are inherently radical or narcissistic. Altruism remained a factor linked to activism on both sides, and peaceful engagement correlated with prosocial intent. They warn that political engagement, including violent and non-violent activism, is shaped by group dynamics and social context as well as individual traits.
“Our results show that abortion-related activism on both ideological sides can be attractive for antagonistic narcissists,” the researchers explained. “The potential for illegal and violent behaviour of such narcissistic individuals may seriously harm the activism, for example by causing irreparable reputational damage to the activist movement.”
They note methodological constraints, including the cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported intentions rather than observed behaviour. The authors emphasise that the study cannot establish causality.
“I have high confidence in the observed associations,” Adamczyk said. “The study has a relatively large sample, preregistered hypotheses, and the findings remained robust after controlling for several relevant variables. However, I would be more cautious about interpreting what causes this association. I see the results as convincing evidence of an association, but not as a definitive explanation of why it occurs.”
Future work could track real-world activist groups over time and test other polarising debates to see how antagonistic personalities operate in different cultures. The researchers said they are expanding the DEVP work to examine the need for chaos—“the desire for the destruction of the established order and societal structures”—and are adapting the need-for-chaos scale for German, French and Italian samples to explore protests in those contexts.
“The most important takeaway is that the association between antagonistic narcissism and radicalism intentions was found among people on both sides of the abortion debate,” Adamczyk added, emphasising the value of looking beyond political stance to psychological traits when analysing extreme political engagement.
The study, “Ideological impartiality of the dark-ego-vehicle principle: antagonistic narcissism is associated with pro-choice as well as pro-life radicalism intention,” was authored by Ann Krispenz and Alex Bertrams.
