What Makes the Arrogant Person so Arrogant?
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Arrogance is a trait that society often values and rewards, particularly in certain arenas such as politics and business. We often think of the successful people as those who are able to push themselves out in front of others to win whatever competition in which they’re involved. Whether it’s getting more votes, more customers, or points on the playing field, the arrogant show little care or concern for who they leave behind in the dust. If you’ve got an arrogant coworker, you know how frustrating it can be to be constantly outshined when the boss comes around with bonus checks. If you should happen to be with an arrogant romantic partner, you can feel similarly frustrated with all that pushiness and need for domination.
In an innovative series of studies by psychologist Adam Fetterman of the Knowledge Media Research Center (Tuebingen Germany) and colleagues investigated the behavior of people high and low in arrogance in response to stimuli high and low in power motivation. Their reasoning was that arrogance reflects an interpersonal quality which combines a desire to overpower others. The opposite of arrogance is affiliation, or the desire to get along with others. Their main research question “was whether tendencies to favor one class of incentives over the other might provide insights into the interpersonal features or personality.”
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