Do You Feel You Deserve More?
The quiet belief that you are owed a little extra - and what it costs
Psychological entitlement is the steady sense that you deserve more than other people and more than you actually get. It is not the same as confidence or high self-esteem, and from the inside it rarely feels like arrogance - it feels like fairness. Research links it to frequent disappointment, conflict and lower satisfaction, and most of that cost lands on the person who carries it.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about how you usually react, not about the one occasion when you were clearly treated unfairly.
What it measures
The first bar is psychological entitlement as defined by Campbell and colleagues: a general belief that you deserve more than others. The other two are related ideas from the same research - how hard you take it when expectations are not met, and how far you expect rules to bend for you. It is narrower than narcissism, which also includes grandiosity and a hunger for admiration.
Based on: Psychological Entitlement Scale (Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline & Bushman, 2004)
Possible results
Feeling owed
Whether you believe you deserve more than the people around you.
Taking letdowns personally
Whether an unmet expectation feels like bad luck or like an injustice.
Expecting exceptions
Whether you expect rules, queues and deadlines to bend for you.
Common questions
Is entitlement the same as narcissism?
Not quite. Entitlement is one ingredient of narcissism, but narcissism also includes grandiosity, vanity and a need for admiration, and the dark triad adds manipulation and coldness on top. You can feel owed without believing you are special in every way, which is exactly why Campbell and colleagues built a separate scale for it.
Can a sense of entitlement change?
It is fairly stable over months, but it is not carved in stone. Grubbs and Exline argue that it keeps itself going because each disappointment confirms the feeling of being short-changed. Saying expectations out loud, comparing them with what others in the same position actually get, and noticing what arrives unasked all weaken that loop.
Is expecting fair treatment a form of entitlement?
No. Expecting to be paid for your work or spoken to with respect is not entitlement in the research sense. The scale targets the belief that you deserve more than people in the same position, regardless of what you have done. A very low score can even come with difficulty asking for what is plainly fair.
Sources
- Campbell, W. K., Bonacci, A. M., Shelton, J., Exline, J. J., & Bushman, B. J. (2004). Psychological entitlement: Interpersonal consequences and validation of a self-report measure. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa8301_04
- Grubbs, J. B., & Exline, J. J. (2016). Trait entitlement: A cognitive-personality source of vulnerability to psychological distress. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/bul0000063
An honest note The Psychological Entitlement Scale measures one trait, so only the first bar corresponds to it; the other two are related constructs from the entitlement literature, not validated factors of the scale. The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the published scale, so scores are not comparable to its norms. Most of the research used American university students, and people tend to under-report entitlement. This is not a clinical measure; if resentment is harming your relationships, a psychologist can help.
Try one of these next
Does Your Envy Push You Up or Pull Others Down?
The emotion nobody admits to, and the two directions it can take
What Do People Notice About You First?
Strangers decide in seconds, and they are not guessing at random
What Is Your Role in the Friend Group?
Every group has these five. You are one of them