Friendship through a narcissistic lens: The role of narcissism in perceived humor similarity among friends in Germany and the US

Theoretical perspectives on how narcissism functions in social relationships suggest that narcissistic individuals may either enhance or devalue their close others. On the one hand, because close others are generally perceived as similar to oneself, narcissists may project their own grandiosity onto them, thereby enhancing their characteristics. On the other hand, narcissists strive for uniqueness and superiority, which may lead them to devalue their close others in comparison to themselves (self-enhancement). These conflicting assumptions about the role of narcissism in social relationships have yet to be directly tested. The present study examines how narcissism relates to perceived similarity and the tendency to enhance close friends versus self-enhance over them. Using humor styles as a socially relevant indicator variable, we analyzed self- and friend-reports in samples from Germany and the United States. Our findings indicate that although individuals generally perceive themselves as similar to their friends, higher levels of narcissism are associated with lower perceived similarity. Furthermore, latent change score modeling partially supported the hypotheses that grandiose narcissism is linked to self-enhancement over close friends in adaptive humor styles, whereas vulnerable narcissism is associated with self-enhancement in maladaptive humor styles. • Narcissism is linked to lower perceived humor similarity in close friendships. • Grandiose narcissism is related to self-enhancement in adaptive humor styles. • Vulnerable narcissism is related to self-enhancement in maladaptive humor styles.