Previous research linked counternormative tendencies (e.g., conspiracy beliefs, cyberbullying, and catfishing) to narcissism—a personality trait characterized by difficulties in experiencing psychological threats. We argue that avoidance coping with stress favours attitudes and behaviours that allow for deflecting from stressful events and releasing one's stress at the expense of others. Thus, we hypothesized that avoidance coping might explain why narcissism favours counternormative tendencies. We conducted four studies (total N = 2643) in the United States and Poland to examine avoidance coping as a mediator of the relationship between narcissism and counternormative tendencies: conspiracy beliefs (Studies 1–4), willingness to conspire (Studies 2–4), cyberbullying (Studies 3–4) and catfishing (Study 4). All studies found a consistent positive indirect relationship between various forms of narcissism and counternormative tendencies via avoidance coping. These findings suggest that counternormative tendencies might reflect using maladaptive coping strategies.

中文翻译：

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回避应对解释了自恋和反规范倾向之间的联系


以前的研究将反规范倾向（例如，阴谋论信念、网络欺凌和网络钓鱼）与自恋联系起来——自恋是一种以难以经历心理威胁为特征的人格特质。我们认为，逃避应对压力有利于允许转移压力事件并以牺牲他人为代价来释放压力的态度和行为。因此，我们假设回避应对可能解释了为什么自恋偏爱反规范倾向。我们在美国和波兰进行了四项研究 （总计 N = 2643），以检验回避应对作为自恋和反规范倾向之间关系的中介：阴谋论信念（研究 1-4）、共谋意愿（研究 2-4）、网络欺凌（研究 3-4）和网络钓鱼（研究 4）。所有研究都发现，通过回避应对，各种形式的自恋和反规范倾向之间存在一致的正间接关系。这些发现表明，反规范倾向可能反映了使用适应不良的应对策略。