When you think of people high in narcissism, it’s likely you imagine them as viewing themselves on such a high pedestal that no personal attacks on them would ever reach their awareness. Perhaps you have occasional interactions with just such an individual, who parades around with an air of self-confidence and superiority, seeming to rise above other people’s opinions. All of this bluster would suggest this person wouldn’t detect the sneers that this behavior provokes. But what if this snootiness was merely a façade?

Narcissism is conceived in personality theory as consisting of both the grandiose variety (as this person seems to have) and the vulnerable (which this person seems not to have). Another, three-part view of narcissism doesn’t make this distinction but instead divides this quality into agentic (grandiose), neurotic (vulnerable), and antagonistic. Yet a third approach redefines vulnerable narcissism as consisting of a combination of hypersensitivity and self-centeredness. Yes, the vulnerable narcissist is worried about what others think but still remains “grandiose” enough to want to grab all the attention in any given situation.

How Is Hypersensitive Narcissism Measured?

Dating back to 1997, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS) is intended to tap into both hypersensitivity and self-centeredness (Hendin & Cheek, 1997). However, as noted in a new study FernUniversität in Hagen’s Sabrina Schneider and colleagues (2025), though the scale is used extensively, data are lacking on the HSNS, particularly as it relates to personality theories emerging in the more than 25 years since its introduction. At the same time, when the HSNS is administered, it tends to be scored as a unitary quality, a practice that may not hold up to statistical scrutiny. Other data are missing, too, including the HSNS’s generalizability across different groups and languages. Schneider and her coauthors decided to rectify this situation by deconstructing the HSNS while also testing its validity with a German-speaking sample.

One important consideration the authors note is the fact that the HSNS was developed prior to the newest view of personality disorders known as the Alternate Model of Personality Disorders, which views narcissism not as a categorical quality but as a variation in maladaptive traits. The HSNS also came about before the six-factor HEXACO personality model and before the refinement of the Five-Factor Model. Both of these propose a set of personality trait dimensions that could combined to help refine the understanding of narcissism.

Putting scales together and then testing how they relate is important to the work of personality psychologists to provide theoretical clarity as well as to reduce measurement messiness. What good is it to come up with an intriguing concept if you can’t properly measure it? Schneider and her coauthors propose that, through the refinement of the HSNS, they can help advance the understanding of narcissism, both for clinical and theoretical purposes.

The 10-Item Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale

By now, you might want to learn how you could take the HSNS and use it to gauge either yourself or perhaps someone you know. Although the HSNS was administered in German, the authors summarized its 10 items in their supplemental material. Each item is rated from 1 (very uncharacteristic) to 5 (very characteristic):

1. I can become entirely absorbed in thinking about my personal affairs, my health, my cares, or my relations to others.
2. My feelings are easily hurt by ridicule or the slighting remarks of others.
3. When I enter a room, I often become self-conscious and feel that the eyes of others are upon me.
4. I dislike sharing the credit of an achievement with others.
5. I feel that I have enough on my hands without worrying about other people’s troubles.
6. I feel that I am temperamentally different from most people.
7. I often interpret the remarks of others in a personal way.
8. I easily become wrapped up in my own interests and forget the existence of others.
9. I dislike being with a group unless I know that I am appreciated by at least one of those present.
10. I am secretly “put out” or annoyed when other people come to me with their troubles, asking me for my time and sympathy.

Their statistical analysis was based on the responses of a total online sample of 3,655 German adults, averaging in their mid-20s and early 30s. In addition to the HSNS, the authors also administered a series of personality inventories, including measures of psychological disorders consistent with the AMPD.

After testing alternate statistical models, items 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9 fell into the same factor, which the authors label as Oversensitive-Neurotic. The remainder represented the Ecocentric-Antagonistic. However, item 9 was related to egocentrism as well as oversensitivity.

Apart from this slight overlap, the bulk of the findings support the two-factor approach to the HSNS, while also showing its usefulness in relation to other personality measures and psychopathology. With respect to the maladaptive features of narcissism, the authors relate the two dimensions, respectively, to externalizing and other-oriented personality problems and self-oriented problems. The other good news about the HSNS is that it’s short and seems to fit in with current conceptualizations of related personality traits.

Can You Ever Sympathize With the Hypersensitive Narcissist?

Reading those HSNS items again, you can readily see that people who ascribe to the Egocentric-Antagonistic scale can be pretty difficult to relate to. That person prancing around with an air of superiority is not one you’d want to confront. However, what you might not be as likely to spot is the narcissistic individual plagued by feelings of inadequacy. Even the term “hypersensitivity” implies the benefits of treating such a person with kid gloves. Ridiculing them would only make them more miserable.

However, the two scales of the HSNS, though statistically distinct, also bore slight relationships to each other, especially item 9. Maybe some kid gloves, or at least empathy, might be warranted for the person who seems so overtly egocentric but harbors a degree of hypersensitivity.

To sum up, getting along with a person high on narcissism can be a challenge. However, this more nuanced understanding of narcissism provided by the HSNS can help you find at least some pathways to empathy.