Active Ignorance - Dan Cassenti, Novelist

Concept: One telling sign that a person is a narcissist is “active ignorance.” Reality often stands in the way of narcissists maintaining their distorted beliefs. After all, how can anyone maintain views that they’re never responsible for any negative outcome, can’t make mistakes, and have no causal relationship with another person’s troubles? The evidence will almost always oppose their belief, at least to some extent. The narcissist’s solution to maintaining their desired self-views is to ignore and deny reality. A passive approach to ignorance is the equivalent of a leaky filter and can work with some issues. Still, passive ignorance is inadequate for the sheer volume of contradictory evidence that counters the narcissist’s beliefs. Instead, a narcissist needs to apply active ignorance.

Testing someone who you suspect of narcissism: Disagree with someone you suspect of narcissism (the more minor the issue, the better). If this person shrugs off your disagreement, especially stating respect for your difference of opinion, they provide evidence against your theory. If they push back to whatever extent, add points for your theory, with more points for how far they go to force you into alignment with their view.

Examples

A politician claims he won an election where all evidence and advisors indicate he lost.
Leaving a room when an expert who could dispute the narcissist’s claims enters it.
Verbally abusing a person who presents a logical argument disagreeing with the narcissist in a blatant attempt to silence that individual.

Advice: Narcissists can’t stand mistakes or misalignment with their beliefs. Watch out for those who do whatever they can to protect those beliefs, including ignoring reality.

Narcissism Encyclopedia

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