How aging transforms self-centred behaviours.
The type of narcissism that is linked to bullying and violence among women differs from men.
Aging: the ultimate antidote to narcissism?
“They’re thinking really negative, hostile, critical things about other people.”
“They’re thinking really negative, hostile, critical things about other people.”
Narcissistic perfectionists — like the late Steve Jobs — are arguably the worst type of narcissists.
They are grandiose, see themselves as special, have a high sense of entitlement and extremely high expectations of others.
Plus, they love to criticise.
Logan Nealis, the study’s first author, said:
“A narcissistic perfectionist parent demands perfect performance from his daughter on the hockey rink, but not necessarily from anyone else out there.
They’re getting a sense of vitality or self-esteem through the perfect performance of other people, and they bask in that glow vicariously.”
For the research, students were asked to keep 28-day diaries.
The results revealed that narcissistic perfectionists were socially toxic.
Dr Simon Sherry, study co-author, said:
“Our most consistent finding across the two studies is that narcissistic perfectionism is associated with social negativity in the form of anger, derogation, conflict and hostility.”
Dr Sherry continued:
“When you look at what appears to be happening between the ears of a narcissistic perfectionist, you see they’re thinking really negative, hostile, critical things about other people.
They maintain this superior sense of themselves: ‘I’m perfect, I’m awesome, and you’re not so you’re defective.”
The study’s authors analyse the biographies of famous narcissistic perfectionists, include former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs:
“According to one biography, [Jobs] expected perfection from others in an entitled, demanding, and hyper-critical manner.
Employees reported going from ‘hero to zero’ in Jobs’ estimation after even minor mistakes; employees also noted Jobs routinely derogated them in front of co-workers.”
Logan Nealis said:
“If you have high expectations of someone, that may well be a positive thing—if it’s paired with a warm, nurturing interpersonal style.
But high expectations paired with feelings of grandiosity and entitlement to the perfect performance of others creates a much more negative combination.”
Dr Sherry continued:
“We may be characterizing a problem of our times.
It may very well be that we live in an age of entitlement where grandiose demands are often made in everyday life.
Narcissistic perfectionists have a need for other people to satisfy their unreasonable expectations… And if you don’t, they get angry [see: narcissistic rage].
Making them more aware of the impact [their actions] ultimately have on others might—keyword, “might”—spark change.”
The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Nealis et al., 2015).
The trait can make people hostile, so that depression is harder to treat.
Infidelity often has a highly corrosive effect on relationships.
Infidelity often has a highly corrosive effect on relationships.
Narcissism is one of the strongest predictors that someone will cheat in their relationship, research finds.
Narcissists are likely to be vain, egocentric and over-confident — they like to show off their bodies, talk about themselves and put other people down.
Two other personality factors that predict people’s infidelity are unstable emotions and psychopathy.
People who are unstable are unreliable, careless, badly organised and find it hard to resist temptation.
Psychopaths, meanwhile, are irresponsible, spontaneous and manipulative.
The authors write:
“One of the strongest predictors is Narcissism.
Women high on Narcissism predict that they will flirt with, kiss, and date other men, as well as have one night stands, brief affairs, and serious affairs with other men.”
The results come from a study of 107 married couples who reported on their relationships and any infidelity.
Naturally, people who were dissatisfied with their relationship were more likely to have affairs.
Similarly, couples who had many complaints about their partners were also more likely to have an affair.
Complaints that predicted adultery included alcohol abuse, eyeing up other people, jealousy, condescension and being too possessive.
After narcissism, the authors explain that…
“…two equally strong predictors of mild and serious infidelity are low Conscientiousness and high Psychoticism.
These variables are correlated, and share the common component of impulsivity and inability to delay gratification.
And like Narcissism, Conscientiousness and Psychoticism are stronger predictors of women’s anticipated infidelities than men’s anticipated infidelities.
These findings suggest that a personality style marked by impulsivity, low dependability, and low reliability in general carries over…”
Infidelity often has a highly corrosive effect on relationships, the authors write:
“Infidelity may be the most destructive source of conflict inflicted on a marriage.
Despite its destructive impact, infidelities are estimated conservatively to occur in about half of all marriages.”
The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Buss & Shackleford, 1997).
How to spot a narcissist, how to tell it from high self-esteem, how the trait is related to eating disorders and how to deal with a narcissist.
How to spot a narcissist, how to tell it from high self-esteem, how the trait is related to eating disorders and how to deal with a narcissist.
Most people are at least somewhat narcissistic since, like all personality traits, narcissism exists on a continuum.
Narcissism refers to being self-centred, boastful and preoccupied with one’s own needs which, when you think about, is not all that uncommon.
From some angles, for example, high self-esteem can look like narcissism.
Indeed, researchers even find that ‘normal’ narcissism can be beneficial in some respects.
However, at the extremes, narcissism is a personality disorder that causes serious problems in personal relationships, at home and at work.
A narcissistic partner, relation or boss can be very difficult to cope with.
Here are 9 psychology studies from the members-only section of PsyBlog on the personality trait of narcissism.
(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)
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The kinds of things that narcissists buy.
The kinds of things that narcissists buy.
Narcissists tend to buy products for themselves that make them stand out, research finds.
For example, they were more likely to buy a leather case that could be personally engraved, or a ‘limited edition’ of an electronic gadget.
Exclusivity and individuality is what a narcissist is looking for in a product.
Dr Aiden Gregg, who led the study, explained:
“Narcissists seek to self-enhance.
One way to do so is by buying products for symbolic as well as material reasons — for what they mean as well as what they do.
Our early results show that narcissists’ interest in consumer products, whether bought for themselves or for others, is strongly driven by the power of those products to positively distinguish them.
Narcissists feel better about themselves because they think they have succeeded in individualising or elevating themselves.”
Across three studies people were asked to imagine buying various items.
Time after time the narcissists chose things that were exclusive or that could be personalised.
For example, narcissists showed greater interest in a shirt that could be customised.
The study also looked at the type of gifts that narcissists buy for others.
These also tended to be more exclusive, suggesting they want others around them to be special or different as well.
Dr Russell Seidle, commenting on the study, said:
“As expected, narcissistic consumers demonstrate a preference for scarce products that correspond with their views of themselves as unique individuals.
Interestingly, these same consumers show a lower tendency to critically evaluate the actual characteristics of these goods.
That is, scarcity in and of itself seems to be the main driver of their purchasing behaviour.
These findings help to shed light on the importance of the symbolic value of purchasing decisions, which for these consumers seems to outweigh even the practical usefulness of the product being bought.”
The study was published in the journal Journal of Consumer Psychology (Sedikides et al., 2007).
Although normal narcissists are self-centred, they have a psychological edge.
Although normal narcissists are self-centred, they have a psychological edge.
‘Normal’ narcissists have a mental toughness that helps them succeed, research finds.
Normal narcissists are those that are more narcissistic than average, but are not clinical narcissists.
The study of 340 Italian adolescents found that, although young narcissists were self-centred, they did better on their exams than their IQ levels suggested.
Narcissists are not cleverer, but they are more assertive and confident — this allows them to make up for deficiencies elsewhere.
Dr Kostas Papageorgiou, who led the research, said:
“Narcissism is considered as a socially malevolent trait and it is part of the Dark Triad of personality traits — narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.
Previous studies indicate that narcissism is a growing trend in our society but this does not necessarily mean that an individual who displays high narcissistic qualities has a personality disorder.
In our research, we focused on subclinical or “normal” narcissism.
Subclinical narcissism includes some of the same features of clinical syndrome — grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, and superiority.
Dr Papageorgiou explained the traits of a narcissist:
“If you are a narcissist you believe strongly that you are better than anyone else and that you deserve reward.
Being confident in your own abilities is one of the key signs of grandiose narcissism and is also at the core of mental toughness.
If a person is mentally tough, they are likely to embrace challenges and see these as an opportunity for personal growth.”
Dr Papageorgiou believes that mental toughness is the key:
“People who score high on subclinical narcissism may be at an advantage because their heightened sense of self-worth may mean they are more motivated, assertive, and successful in certain contexts.
Previous research is our lab has shown that subclinical narcissism may increase mental toughness.
If an individual scores high on mental toughness this means they can perform at their very best in pressured and diverse situations.
We should think in a more nuanced way about narcissism, says Dr Papageorgiou:
“It is important that we reconsider how we, as a society, view narcissism.
We perceive emotions or personality traits as being either bad or good but psychological traits are the products of evolution; they are neither bad nor good — they are adaptive or maladaptive.
Perhaps we should expand conventional social morality to include and celebrate all expressions of human nature.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Papageorgiou et al., 2018).
One personality trait has a very strong link to infidelity.
One personality types has a very strong link to infidelity.
Narcissists are the personality type most likely to steal another person’s partner, research finds.
Signs of a narcissist include that they are selfish, arrogant and extraverted.
Believing they are special and thinking themselves more important than others means they do not care if someone already has a partner.
Narcissistic types typically experience less guilt than others and so have less of a problem taking advantage.
Typical questions that identify a narcissist include strongly agreeing with the statement “I think I am a special person.”
Dr Amy Brunell, the study’s first author, said:
“They seem to not discriminate between those in relationships and those who are single.
It could be that they just go after whoever appeals to them without regard for relationship status.”
The conclusions come from a survey of 247 young adults.
The results showed that people of a more narcissistic type were more likely to have relationships with those who already had partners.
A couple of follow-up studies suggested that narcissists do not specifically target people in relationships.
In other words, narcissist types ignore the fact of whether someone is single or not.
Dr Brunell said:
“It is likely people are simply interested in the target and not necessarily as concerned that the target is in a relationship.”
Other personality factors that predict being unfaithful are psychopathy and unstable emotions.
Psychopaths tend to be spontaneous, irresponsible and manipulative.
Emotional instability is linked to being badly organised, careless and unreliable.
Dr Brunell concluded:
“Understanding the behavior of narcissists is important because it helps us better understand the people who are in our lives — and the types of people we don’t necessarily want in our lives.”
The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Brunell et al., 2018).
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