Ethical Shots for the Self-Important: Can We Vaccinate Narcissists Against Lying?
Monday, March 31, 2025.
In the eternal battle between good and evil—or at least between honesty and the little fibs we tell to keep our reputations polished—science may have found an unexpected ally: narcissists themselves.
Yup, you read that right.
A recent study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that people high in narcissism, long believed to be ethical lost causes, can in fact be nudged toward honesty.
The secret?
A psychological “vaccine” that doesn’t come in a syringe but in the form of cleverly crafted messages. Instead of poking the arm, it pokes the ego.
Narcissism: The Inflated Balloon We Can’t Stop Studying
Narcissism, for those lucky enough to be unfamiliar, is marked by grandiosity, entitlement, and a relentless craving for admiration.
It’s the personality trait that makes group projects unbearable and Instagram insufferable.
Narcissists tend to bend rules—not because they’re evil, but because they believe the rules weren’t meant for them.
Yet, oddly enough, they also care about looking like good people.
This cognitive contradiction is where the researchers struck psychological gold.
Moral Disengagement: The Mental Gymnastics of Justifying Bad Behavior
The study, led by Daniel N. Jones at the University of Nevada, Reno, focused on moral disengagement—a term that describes the mental shortcuts people use to make unethical behavior seem okay. Common examples include:
“Everyone else is doing it.”
“It’s not really hurting anyone.”
“I didn’t technically lie, I just didn’t correct the misunderstanding.”
These mental tricks allow people to preserve their self-image while behaving badly. In short, it’s the spiritual cousin of, “I’m not yelling, I’m just being passionate.”
The Inoculation Approach: A Shot of Truth Before the Lies Begin
Here’s where it gets clever.
The researchers used a psychological “inoculation” method ( one of my favorite intervention frameworks).
Like a flu vaccine that gives you a tiny bit of the virus to build immunity, this intervention gives people a whiff of bad justifications—then knocks them down with counterarguments.
In three experiments involving 972 participants, people were randomly assigned to read one of two short messages.
One was your classic ethics-code reminder, urging integrity, accountability, and personal responsibility—think HR onboarding packet. The other warned readers about the kinds of justifications people use to excuse unethical behavior and debunked them on the spot.
Guess which one worked better for narcissists?
Study 1: Canadians, Coin Flips, and Cognitive Dissonance
The first study, with 443 Canadian university students, found that narcissistic study subjects reported stronger ethical intentions after reading the inoculation message.
The effect was exclusive to narcissism—it didn’t work on participants high in psychopathy or Machiavellianism. (Translation: If you lack empathy or treat life like a chessboard, this intervention probably won’t touch you.)
Study 2: American Business Students Meet the Digital Coin of Truth
Next came a test of actual behavior. Researchers told 224 American business students to flip a virtual coin for extra credit.
The trick? They could cheat by flipping until they got the answer they wanted. Narcissists who got the inoculation were significantly less likely to cheat than those who just got the code-of-ethics boilerplate.
Psychopaths? Cheated anyway. Machiavellians? Cheated better.
Study 3: Can This Moral Serum Last a Week?
In the third study, 305 participants were tracked for a week.
Those high in narcissism who read the inoculation message reported fewer lies a week later. This suggests the intervention has some staying power—not bad for a two-minute read.
Interestingly, the inoculation didn’t boost feelings of honesty; it just reduced actual lying. So while they may not feel more ethical, they’re behaving more ethically.
Hey, we’re talking narcissist here. Ordinarily profoundly difficult to work with clinically. Let’s not nitpick—progress is progress.
Why It Works: Narcissism’s Achilles Heel—Public Image
Narcissists want admiration, and they want to see themselves as admirable.
That makes them surprisingly vulnerable to interventions that target self-justifications, especially if those rationalizations start to feel, well, tacky.
Unlike psychopaths, who genuinely don’t care, or Machiavellians, who see ethics as a shell game, narcissists still want to look like heroes, even if their inner monologue sounds like a Bond villain’s TED Talk.
But Beware: Not All Minds Benefit from the Serum
Here’s the dark twist: for people who already have strong internal motivations to behave ethically—or who score low on narcissism—this same inoculation might backfire.
By introducing them to rationalizations they’d never considered, it may unintentionally provide new justifications for dishonesty.
As the researchers delicately put it: one-size-fits-all ethics training is a terrible idea.
Implications: Customize the Cure
Ethics training, it turns out, shouldn’t be based on blanket statements about virtue. Instead, it should be tailored to the cognitive terrain of the person you're trying to reach.
Narcissists: benefit from pre-emptively challenging the excuses they’re likely to make.
Ethically Motivated Folks: might just need a quiet reminder that their integrity still matters.
Dark Triad Extremists? Well… maybe just keep them away from the company’s financials.
As Jones and colleagues summarize: “Those high in narcissism may behave ethically under the right circumstances.” Which is meaningful research, and basically deserving of a standing ovation.
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Jones, D. N., Beekun, R., Schermer, J. A., MacDonald, K. B., & Compton, J. (2025). Inoculating against moral disengagement creates ethical adherence for narcissism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.https://doi.org/10.xxxx/pspb.2025