Imagine you have a friend in your college with whom you spend most of your time and do almost everything together. However, when college is over you both get different jobs. So, when you met again you saw a complete change in his attitude. Now, he brags a lot about his achievements, and his behavior towards you has not been the same. He disregards your opinions and feelings. Then you may think that he is being “Arrogant” now.
However, what is this arrogant nature that completely changes his friend’s behavior? Why did this nature come up and change him completely? In this article, we will understand the psychology behind this arrogant nature.
The Roots Of Arrogance
Before understanding the root cause of arrogance, it is crucial to know what arrogance is. People may often get confused with arrogance and confidence. However, these two are completely different. Arrogance is an attitude where a person thinks of himself as superior, is confident a lot about their abilities, and treats others as inferiors. This is often considered a negative trait, as it lacks empathy and others’ feelings. The root cause of arrogance could be a sense of insecurity or superiority, low self-esteem, or fear of competition.
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Low Self-Esteem:
Arrogance can be the person masking up his/her fears. This can often be seen as a form of overcompensation that can create serious issues in the person’s personal as well as professional lives. People who think that they are lacking or not well aware of certain abilities might create a sense of superiority just to make up for their perceived flaws. But if we see the root cause of the arrogance then we can think that it is the fear that makes this trait more dangerous. This fear could be anything like the fear of failure, being judged, or not meeting societal standards.
It allows people to use this tendency as a defense mechanism because it allows them to hide their inner feelings and display their greater superiority over the disregard of other feelings or opinions.
Although this attitude is considered negative, it can also be seen as a protective factor. As mentioned earlier, pride can mask insecurity and protect against weakness. Any time a person lacks self-confidence, it can lead to low self-esteem. Individuals can therefore use arrogance as a defense mechanism. People can be reluctant to criticize and responsibility. They can easily put their blame on others. Another thing that can be seen in an arrogant person is that they hide them being vulnerable. Whenever there is a situation where they are feeling emotionally overwhelmed they use their arrogance as a shield and maintain their control and power over that situation.
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Narcissistic Personality Traits
We have so far known the fact that an arrogant person would have a lack of empathy towards others and always themselves as superior and belittle others’ work. This can create a sense of grandiose self-importance in a person. In life, there will be instances where things go the way we planned and sometimes they don’t. But these traits make people take credit whenever there is a success and blame others if anything goes wrong.
Another trait they possess is not taking any criticism against them and thinking they’re entitled to special treatment.
Whenever people give their opinion they dismiss it and think that their time is being wasted here.
How Arrogance Presents Itself
So far we have talked about the root causes of arrogance. In this section, we’ll talk about how these traits present themselves in day-to-day life.
Boastfulness And Exaggeration:
To begin with, boastfulness and exaggeration are the common things being displayed in this trait. Boastfulness can be seen as bragging as people talk only about their achievements in a very exaggerated way. They talk only about the good parts and try to gain admiration without showing the flaws in them. People who have higher status and power may use this to belittle others. They can use it to maintain their control over a situation.
Also Read: Life of a Narcissist: Grandiosity or self-inflation?
Need For Admiration And Respect:
Moreover, the constant need for admiration and respect often goes hand in hand whenever there is a talk about arrogance.
Since the insecurity and fear factor always remain in the arrogant person. Therefore, they may feel like dominating themselves everywhere to prove their worth. Their behavior also gets changed when someone does not believe what they’re saying and this includes irritating and aggressive towards others. By showing arrogance they think people give them admiration and respect for them. But the situation goes the opposite of it and can make others feel negative about these people.
Effects Of Arrogance
Arrogance has been in the negative light since it is so harmful behavior that we talked about therefore it is obvious that it has many effects on our life.
Damaged Relationship:
As in relationships people often make mistakes and accept them. But if a person thinks that they can never be wrong and doesn’t listen to other points of view. That’s what an arrogant person does. This creates a gap between them and often misunderstanding starts happening between them. Lack of communication starts falling down the relationship. This makes other people feel as if their point of view doesn’t matter at all and they can feel neglected. Apart from these, it can also create a lack of trust in the relationship. Because if the other person is only talking about his perspective and not letting others put their point of view and not willing to compromise it. then it can make them feel that they are not listening properly and can create insecurity.
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Limited Self Awareness:
It is important to be self-aware about yourself because in this way a person can know about themselves but when it gets limited, it makes them arrogant. This trait can make people not look over their strengths and weaknesses and work on them. This can make people think that they’re always right and there is no need to listen to other opinions.
Additionally, when the person is not aware of their behavior, then they don’t if their actions are hurting others or not. This way they can act disrespectfully without realizing what impact it’ll leave on others. They cannot view the world rightly, there is always an imbalance that can make them alienated from others.
In conclusion, arrogance can be overcome once a person is open to criticism and others’ opinions and is humble toward others. Being away from this path can lead you towards self-worth, fearlessness, and valuing your as well as others’ strength that can help to make the world a better place.
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