Shy, but why? Vulnerable narcissism and avoidant personality in terms of explicit and implicit interpretation bias and social acceptance

Although vulnerable narcissism (VN) and avoidant personality (AP) share many characteristics, almost no research has been done to examine their differences. In this study, we examined the notion of VN and AP having similar overt presentations that stem from different underlying mechanisms. VN’s and AP’s relationships with explicit and implicit self-appraisals (i.e., interpretation biases, IB) were examined, under control/social acceptance conditions. Under the control condition, higher AP predicted negative explicit IB and no implicit IB, and higher VN showed the same trend. Following social acceptance, higher AP predicted negative explicit IB and positive implicit IB, whereas higher VN did not predict explicit IB, but predicted negative implicit IB. Results partly supported the hypotheses, and suggested that under neutral conditions, individuals tending towards AP or VN may present similarly. However, they differ in their response to positive social feedback, with AP benefiting from it, and VN having an increased negative implicit view of oneself. These results suggest that VN is a pathology of a more deeply disordered, unstable self-esteem, that may negatively respond to help efforts of positive affirmations made by others.