35 Nerve-Wracking Times When People Complained About Free Gifts

The sense of entitlement is strong with these folks. They clearly believe that the world owes them without giving anything in return.

Entitled people have a tendency to adopt goals based around their own self-image, often leading them into conflict with others.

While they may be able to put up an exterior of being nice and well-mannered on the outside, research shows that it's all just for show; deep down inside this is usually not how they truly feel about themselves or other individuals around them.

One study even suggests that entitlement can be dangerous. In 2018, researchers from Case Western Reserve University found that entitled people are more likely to experience chronic disappointment, unmet expectations, and a self-reinforcing cycle of behavior which puts them at risk for harm psychologically or socially.

Think of it like this: when someone thinks of themselves as superior, anything that challenges their worldview is met with defensiveness and anger. This creates a vicious cycle: the more they are challenged by society's limitations, the angrier they become at these "injustices."

However, social psychologist Jane Adams highlighted that every now and then we mistake entitlement for a sense of self-confidence projected by competent, assured, often charismatic others.

And sometimes, a bit of a fleeting, situational rush of entitlement might even be a good thing. "It can increase creativity and lead to novel, unusual solutions to problems, the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that organizations and employers encourage," Adams pointed out in Psychology Today.

"Pejoratively labeling an individual or a generation as entitled sometimes reveals more about us than it does about them," Adams continued. "Our unwillingness to recognize another's meritorious worth or hard-earned success, which indicates how often we think with our beliefs rather than about them."

The social psychologist said that a good example of this is how Hillary Clinton was viewed as entitled when she ran for political office, but not when she was actually in it.

Researchers at Harvard and Cornell who studied 99 undergraduates and 98 MBA candidates found that entitled people don't follow instructions, because they see them as unfair.

"They would rather take a loss themselves than agree to something unfair," said the authors, who correlated high scores on entitlement measurements with difficulty complying with the 'rules' of the experimental task. Attempting to understand why students ignored them (selfishness, control, or punishment), they found that fairness was the primary reason.

Entitled people want to be different from others. But just as frequently they come across as indifferent to others. That's why they often provoke such negative responses in those they encounter, especially those they don't personally know.

If you suspect that you might also be acting like a spoiled brat sometimes, there are things you can do to overcome it:

• Recognize the feeling of entitlement. Refuse to let it impact your life. If you have a hard time recognizing the feeling, think about other times when you felt entitled and then notice how much that feeling resembles what you're feeling now.
• Understand that you are not entitled to anything. Unfortunately, the world does not owe you anything. Life is unfair and it's your job to make the best of what you get in life, not to complain about what you deserve but don't have.

• Find ways to help others without expecting anything in return. How can you serve others without expecting anything in return? Simple: volunteer your time. If you want something in return for your services, consider that what you're getting is "happiness" from knowing that you have helped those less fortunate than yourself.
• Learn the difference between needs and wants. People with a sense of entitlement have a problem distinguishing between needs and wants. This makes it very difficult to make healthy, sound decisions since you constantly want more than you need. Instead, focus on what you truly need in life and cut out what you simply want.

• Focus on what's in your control rather than what isn't. You can only control your own thoughts, feelings, actions, and responses. Stop focusing on what other people are doing or how they are responding to situations. Instead, focus on changing the things that you have some influence over in your life.
• Practice gratitude for everything good in your life, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem at the time. Consider everything you have in your life right now: a home, family or friends, good health, etc. Take a moment to be grateful for everything that you have and realize that there are a lot of people out there who would love to trade places with you.

• Think about how your sense of entitlement is affecting other people in your life. How have other people been affected by your sense of entitlement? Have you unintentionally made them feel guilty or resentful because they didn't live up to your expectations? If so, remember that other people have their own lives to live and their own feelings. A person's actions toward you aren't necessarily directly tied to how much you mean to them.
• Take care of yourself and be kind to yourself because nobody else will do it for you. It might seem counterintuitive, but one way out of self-entitlement is to be kinder to yourself. When you are feeling entitled, it can be difficult or impossible for you to take care of your own needs. Instead, you might fall into a place of self-neglect because you are expecting others to take care of you.

Following these steps might not entirely cure your sense of entitlement, but they should reduce it to a point where you won't be complaining to people who want to give you free gifts.