Spiritual training is assumed to reduce self‐enhancement, but may have the paradoxical effect of boosting superiority feelings. It can, thus, operate like other self‐enhancement tools and contribute to a contingent self‐worth that depends on one's spiritual accomplishments. In three studies (N=533, N=2223, N=965), a brief measure of spiritual superiority showed good internal consistency and discriminant validity. As predicted, it was distinctly related to spiritual contingency of self‐worth, illustrating that the self‐enhancement function of spirituality is similar to other contingency domains. It was correlated with self‐esteem and, more strongly, with communal narcissism, corroborating the notion of spiritual narcissism. Spiritual Superiority scores were consistently higher among energetically trained participants than mindfulness trainees and were associated with supernatural overconfidence and self‐ascribed spiritual guidance. Our results illustrate that the self‐enhancement motive is powerful and deeply ingrained so that it can hijack methods intended to transcend the ego and, instead, adopt them to its own service.

中文翻译：

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精神优越感的探索：自我提升的悖论

精神训练被认为会减少自我提升，但可能会产生增强优越感的矛盾效应。因此，它可以像其他自我提升工具一样运作，并有助于建立取决于个人精神成就的偶然自我价值。在三项研究 (N=533, N=2223, N=965) 中，对精神优越感的简要测量显示出良好的内部一致性和区分效度。正如预测的那样，它与自我价值的精神偶然性明显相关，说明精神性的自我提升功能与其他偶然性领域相似。它与自尊相关，更强烈地与公共自恋相关，证实了精神自恋的概念。精神优越性分数在积极训练的参与者中始终高于正念学员，并且与超自然的过度自信和自我归因的精神指导有关。我们的结果表明，自我提升的动机是强大而根深蒂固的，因此它可以劫持旨在超越自我的方法，而是将它们用于自己的服务。