Feel Entitled? Watch Out for a World of Unhappiness
Who doesn't remember the Stanford swimmer who got off very lightly after raping an unconscious co-ed? Or, if you're old enough, the preppy killer, Robert Chambers, who strangled his girlfriend and used "rough sex" as his defense. He's now in jail for 19 years on a drug charge. So what's up with all these people who feel so entitled ? (And the people who grant it to them, like judge Aaron Persky, who faced recall after his decision.) Says Joshua Grubbs, the primary author of a new paper on entitlement and a recent PhD graduate in psychology from Case Western Reserve, “At extreme levels, entitlement is a toxic narcissistic trait, repeatedly exposing people to the risk of feeling frustrated, unhappy and disappointed with life." Entitlement—a personality trait driven by exaggerated feelings of deservingness and superiority—may lead to chronic disappointment, unmet expectations and a habitual, self-reinforcing cycle of behavior with dire psycho...