March 17, 2002 4:35 PM

Dr. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Case Western University, completed a study showing that rejection decreases self control.

Baumeister's previous work, detailed in Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty argues that it's unwarranted high self-esteem that pushes people to violence. Some have quibbled with his research, insisting that it's narcissism, and not simply positive reinforcement that causes the violent behavior.

Putting these two things together, one can see a picture of narcissistic individuals being rejected by peer groups losing self control and committing atrocious acts of violence.

Sound familiar?

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