The Trump Profile: Narcissistic and Predatory?

In October 2016, the U.S. presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was rocked by the revelation that, in 2005, Mr. Trump had made a series of boastful and salacious statements about his own behavior toward women that (if verified) would constitute sexual assault. Furthermore, when Mr. Trump tried to deny having ever acted in the manner that he had described on a “hot” microphone, at least a dozen women came forward to attest that, indeed, Mr. Trump had assaulted them. One might ask, “Why would Mr. Trump allegedly have behaved in such a predatory manner toward so many women?”

Given that Mr. Trump has been described as narcissistic (i.e., holding a grandiose attitude toward oneself) by psychologists and laypersons alike, I wondered if any researchers had identified an empirically robust link between narcissism and sexual assault. It turns out that Emily Mouilso and Karen Calhoun have conducted multiple studies on narcissism and sexual assault. Limiting our attention to results concerning narcissism as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979), Mouilso and Calhoun (2012) found that, in a large-scale study of male university students in the U.S., the total score on narcissism was significantly higher among individuals who had engaged in sexual assault than it was among individuals who had not engaged in such behavior. In a follow-up study of male university students in the U.S., Mouilso and Calhoun (2016) clarified that, with regard to especially maladaptive forms of narcissism (i.e., exploitativeness and entitlement) but not with regard to other forms of narcissism (i.e., authority, superiority, self-sufficiency, exhibitionism, and vanity), the total score was significantly higher among individuals who had engaged in sexual assault than it was among individuals who had not engaged in such behavior.

For a variety of reasons, I hesitate to interpret Mouilso and Calhoun’s results as definitive evidence that Mr. Trump engaged in sexual assault toward various women because Mr. Trump is a narcissist. First, as a social psychologist who studies individual differences in social behavior (especially within close relationships) across large samples of participants, I am in no position to diagnose Mr. Trump as a narcissist; such a diagnosis (if accurate) should be made by a clinical psychologist who has interviewed Mr. Trump directly. Second, even if Mr. Trump were formally diagnosed as a narcissist, I do not know of any instance in which criminal charges have been brought against Mr. Trump regarding allegations of sexual assault; within the U.S. legal system, Mr. Trump is presumed to be innocent until (or unless) he is proven guilty. Nevertheless, I believe that if Mr. Trump were proven to be narcissistic, and if one or more of Mr. Trump’s accusers could demonstrate in court that Mr. Trump’s own statements match his behavior toward them, then I would be inclined to conclude that Mr. Trump’s personality and behavior are consistent with that of a narcissist who preys on women whom he finds attractive.

Copyright Stanley O. Gaines, Jr. 2016

References

Mouilso, E. R., & Calhoun, K. S. (2012). Narcissism, psychopathy and Five-Factor Model in sexual assault perpetration. Personality and Mental Health, 6, 228-241.

Mouilso, E. R., & Calhoun, K. S. (2016). Personality and perpetration: Narcissismamong college sexual assault perpetrators. Violence Against Women, 22, 1228-1242.