Can You Stop a Narcissist From Cheating? Research Says Yes

✅ Today's Wednesday • 📖 6 mins read

— By Dr. Sandip Roy.

Most advice about narcissists follows a familiar arc. Recognize the signs. Set boundaries. Leave if you can.

What it rarely addresses is this: can any aspect of the behavior itself be changed? Not the personality, not the diagnosis, but the specific pattern of lying, cheating, and self-serving deception that makes narcissists so damaging to the people around them?

A 2026 study from the University of Waterloo says yes, under the right conditions. And the findings are more practical than most narcissism research tends to be.

Do Narcissists Cheat and Lie More?

The short answer is yes, and the evidence is consistent.

Grandiose narcissism, the kind characterized by entitlement, egotism, and self-absorption, is one of the most reliable predictors of self-interested, unethical behavior (Grijalva & Newman, 2015).

Research links grandiose narcissism to academic dishonesty among students, deceitful behavior among general adults, and fraudulent reporting among corporate leaders (O’Reilly & Doerr, 2020; Buchholz et al., 2020).

Narcissists cheat when there is something to gain. They lie when it protects or enhances their image. They steal, bend rules, and manipulate outcomes when the situation makes it easy and profitable.

But that last part matters more than it might seem.

Why Narcissists Are Wired for Unethical Behavior

Two core traits drive narcissistic cheating. Understanding them is key to understanding what can stop it.

• Entitlement is the first. Narcissists believe, without apparent doubt, that ethical standards do not apply to them the way they apply to others (O’Reilly & Doerr, 2020). They see themselves as exceptional and deserving of preferential outcomes. When an opportunity for personal gain appears, their sense of entitlement narrows their attention toward their own interests and reduces any awareness of harm to others.

• Impulsivity is the second, and it is less discussed. Meta-analytic evidence shows that narcissists consistently rate themselves as impulsive, and others perceive them the same way (Vazire & Funder, 2006). That impulsivity underlies several hallmark narcissistic behaviors: overly positive self-presentation, aggression, and a preference for immediate rewards over delayed ones.

Critically, impulsivity is also closely linked to unethical behavior in general.

Research shows that people tend to act in self-interested, unethical ways when decisions are fast and unreflective, and they tend to refrain when they have time to pause and think (Shalvi, Eldar & Bereby-Meyer, 2012).

For narcissists, quick decisions in high-gain situations are the perfect storm.

2026 Study: Relationship between narcissism and self-interested unethical behavior

Caitlin Belfiore and Annika Hillebrandt at the University of Waterloo ran a two-wave experiment with 164 full-time employees (Belfiore & Hillebrandt, 2026). Their central question: can situational features reduce the link between narcissism and unethical behavior?

Participants completed a narcissism measure at the start. Two days later, they were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and given an anagram task.

The twist: the third word in the sequence was unsolvable. Reporting three or more completed words was therefore only possible by cheating. Across the full sample, 42% did exactly that.

Participants in the control condition worked under standard performance-based incentives: the more words they reported completing, the more they were paid.

Participants in the reduced personal gain condition received a fixed payment regardless of how many words they reported. Their score had no effect on their compensation.

Participants in the deliberation condition were required to stay on the reporting page for a mandatory one-minute reflection period before submitting their score.

In the control condition, narcissism was a strong positive predictor of cheating. In the other two conditions, that relationship dropped to non-significant. Both situational changes worked.

Two Things That Actually Reduce Narcissistic Cheating

The study identified two specific interventions that weakened the narcissism-cheating link. Neither requires confronting the narcissist directly or asking them to change who they are.

1. Remove the personal gain incentive.

When outcomes were decoupled from the narcissist’s reported performance, the entitlement driver lost its trigger. There was nothing to gain by cheating, so the trait-congruent pull toward self-serving behavior dissipated.

In workplace terms, this translates to compensation structures that are not purely performance-based, or where personal gain is tied to long-term collective outcomes rather than individual short-term reporting. In personal relationships, it means reducing the situations where the narcissist has something immediate and tangible to gain from lying.

2. Force a deliberation pause.

When participants were required to slow down and reflect before reporting, the impulsivity driver was interrupted. The mandatory pause introduced a situational constraint that was directly misaligned with how narcissism tends to operate.

In practice, this might look like mandatory review periods before high-stakes decisions, cooling-off windows in conflict situations, or any structural requirement that prevents the narcissist from acting on the first impulse. The deliberation does not need to be long. One minute was enough in this study.

Both findings held up even after controlling for other Dark Triad traits, including Machiavellianism and psychopathy, suggesting the effects are specific to narcissism rather than dark personality traits in general.

What This Means Outside the Workplace

The study was conducted in an organizational context with full-time employees. But the underlying mechanisms, entitlement activated by opportunity, impulsivity activated by speed, are not workplace-specific.

In romantic relationships, narcissists are more likely to lie and cheat when opportunities are easy, private, and immediately rewarding. Reducing those opportunities structurally, rather than appealing to their conscience, is more likely to produce a behavioral change.

In family dynamics, narcissistic parents or siblings are more likely to manipulate outcomes when decisions happen fast, and the gain is clear. Slowing those decisions down, adding external oversight, or removing the personal reward changes the situational math.

In friendships and social groups, triangulation and reputation-damaging lies tend to happen in low-accountability settings. Increasing accountability and transparency removes the trait-congruent environment that makes those behaviors likely.

None of this means trusting the narcissist more. It means designing the environment so that their specific behavioral triggers are less likely to fire.

An Important Nuance: The study focused mainly on grandiose narcissism. Authors note that vulnerable narcissism is not typically associated with the same pattern of self-interested, unethical behavior. Also, the sample was relatively small (N = 164) and predominantly North American.

Final Words

The default assumption about narcissists is that their behavior is fixed. We assume personality is destiny. And once a cheater, always a cheater; once a liar, always a liar.

This study pushes back on that. It shows that the unethical behavior of grandiose narcissists is context-sensitive. To activate fully, it needs the right situation: an opportunity for personal gain, a need for fast decision, and no external pressure to pause and reflect.

Remove those features, and the behavior weakens. Not because the narcissist has changed, but because the environment stopped cooperating with their worst tendencies.

Now that might be something more useful than most people would expect: a lever against the narcissist’s unethical bent.

√ Also Read:

• 20 Signs of A Narcissist: Narcissistic Behavior Red Flags
• Why Narcissists Lie: How Each Type Deceives You
• Does A Narcissist Like Other Narcissists?

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