50 Insane Requests That Reeked Of Sheer Entitlement

Few people like someone h**h on an entitlement horse. Such individuals are often rude, inconsiderate, and tend to feel like for some reason only known to them, the entire world should cater to their needs.

Since they also often feel like people owe them something, they’re not always subtle about asking for favors or handling requests (as this list clearly shows). That’s what makes something that could work like social glue—lending a helping hand or doing favors can strengthen people’s relationships—do more harm than good.

Studies suggest that even though a request or a favor usually entails imposing some sort of a burden on the person on the receiving end, it can end up benefiting the relationship between the people involved.

“In an experiment, both Japanese and American participants who were asked for help from a confederate increased their liking of the confederate relative to the baseline. Sociable impression of the confederate and perceived closeness of the relationship also increased relative to the baseline. There was, however, no such increase when participants helped the confederate without receiving a direct request. This study suggests that despite the potential risks to relationships, asking favors can provide opportunities for requesters to build and promote relationships,” a study read in part.

Many people would likely agree that even if you’re the one who has to do someone a favor, it can end up bringing the two of you closer together. However, that arguably only works if the person in need of help asks for it in a courteous manner rather than demands it, driven by their heightened sense of entitlement.

Discussing entitlement in a piece for Psychology Today, the founder of Compassion Power, Dr. Steven Stosny, suggested that people’s sense of entitlement has reached new heights over the last decade. “Historically, people felt entitled to think and say whatever they liked and to do anything that did not impinge on the rights of others. In less than a decade, we’ve expanded the sense of entitlement to control what other people think and say out loud,” he explained, adding that nowadays, some people’s views are: “If I don’t like the way you think or what you say, you have no right to think or say it.”

Dr. Stosny continued to point out that entitlement tends to inflate one’s ego to unrealistic levels where it becomes highly vulnerable to disconfirming impressions of others. “It requires a certain amount of impression management and self-deception to maintain,” he noted. “It’s fed through confirmation bias but remains highly vulnerable to disconfirming feedback from others. It becomes fragile. It feels defensive when being aggressive and attacked when attacking.”

The expert shared that in his experience, entitlement—together with defensive anger—usually expands to hide a deeper sense of unworthiness.

While it might seem that some entitled people will never change their ways, Better Help suggests that a person might overcome a sense of entitlement. Some of the ways to do that are trying to stop comparing themselves to others (they might benefit from bearing in mind that they don’t have to compete with others and that they can accomplish their own goals), thinking about their personal goals and ways to achieve them, and trying to learn not to be discouraged by temporary setbacks.

It’s also advisable for people with a heightened sense of entitlement to try to see things from another person’s point of view, to strive to live more in the present, and to practice treating others with respect, compassion, and gratitude. According to Better Help, “If they are genuinely kind to others and commit to acts of selflessness without expecting a favor in return, others may feel a desire to return the same goodness to them.”