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To gain a better understanding of these interactions, we got in touch with Dr. Steven Stosny, founder of Compassion Power in suburban Washington, DC, and author of several books on improving relationships.
"There are two major types of entitlement," he told Bored Panda.
"In the first, the entitled feel superior. If not acknowledged as having superior rights and privileges, they may feel inferior. Superiority and inferiority are opposite sides of the same coin."
"The second type is compensatory. Those who suffer from it see themselves as victims of unfair treatment and therefore entitled to special privileges as compensation. 'It's so hard being me. I shouldn't have to wait in line too.'"
As you can see from the pictures, we can run into entitled people at school, work, and other areas of everyday life. Researchers Emily Zitek and Alexander Jordan studied the behavior and published their findings in Social Psychological and Personality Science.
All in all, Zitek and Jordan conducted six experiments. They first tested how 1,259 individuals would behave during a basic word search task where it was essential to follow instructions. The researchers found that those with a high sense of entitlement were less likely to comply with the given directions.
From there, they tested different scenarios to see whether punishment, framing the task as optional, or reducing the perceived personal cost would lead them to comply. None of these tactics worked.
Entitled people do not follow instructions because they would rather take a loss themselves than agree to something they perceive to be unfair to them, the researchers concluded.
So what do we do when we run into these people?
Stosny, author of Living and Loving After Betrayal and How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It, said that one of the best strategies is to "ignore their sense of entitlement and act according to your own sense of fairness."
However, if you do find yourselves in a conflict with them, try not to take their coping mechanisms personally.
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"Confronting them or arguing with them creates pointless power struggles, which are likely to increase their sense of entitlement," Stosny added.
"Ignoring it is the best policy."
In professional environments, Zitek and Jordan — the authors of the aforementioned study — advise framing instructions to the entitled in ways that make them seem fairer or more legitimate. (Making sure they're satisfied could help operations run smoothly, at least for the time being.)
The authors offered another tip: "If the instructions come from an in-group member such as a peer instead of from an authority figure, perhaps entitled individuals would be more likely to view the instructions as fair and therefore follow them."
