Category: Narcissism

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.

‘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).

Why narcissists are at high risk of going into a narcissistic rage and becoming very angry and violent.

Narcissistic rage is a real phenomenon, a study finds.

Narcissistic people have a strong inclination to be aggressive, angry and even violent.

This is true across young and old, men and women and even in different countries.

People do not have to be pathological narcissists — even ‘normal’ narcissists show an increased propensity to aggression.

Causes of narcissistic rage

Narcissists do not need to be attacked to become aggressive, however, the risk becomes higher when they are provoked by being insulted or ignored.

Unfortunately, narcissism is a risk factor for violent acts like mass shootings (Bushman, 2017).

Shooters at Columbine, Barbara and Virginia Tech all shared a  sense of narcissistic rage.

This often stems from perceived slights to their fragile sense of self.

Professor Brad Bushman, study co-author, writes on his website:

“…I have come to the conclusion that the most harmful belief people can have is that they are superior to others.

When people believe they are superior to others, they behave very badly.

Every person on this planet is part of the human family; no person is more or less valuable than any other person.”

Narcissistic rage studies

The results come from over 400 different studies including well over 100,000 people.

Ms Sophie Kjaervik, the study’s first author, said:

“The link we found between narcissism and aggression was significant — it was not trivial in size.

The findings have important real-world implications.”

Narcissists tend to be more aggressive in all kinds of ways including verbally, physically, directly and indirectly.

Ms Kjaervik said:

“Individuals who are high in narcissism are not particularly picky when it comes to how they attack others.

That’s a highly important finding now that we live in an online world.”

Almost everyone has some degree of narcissism, even if it is not pathological, said Professor Brad Bushman, study co-author:

“All of us are prone to being more aggressive when we are more narcissistic.

Our results suggest provocation is a key moderator of the link between narcissism and aggression.

Those who are high in narcissism have thin skins, and they will lash out if they feel ignored or disrespected.”

What is a narcissist?

The key trait of a narcissist is an overblown sense of self-importance.

Some psychologists think that narcissists are split into two types:

• Grandiose narcissists: over-inflated sense of self-importance.
• Vulnerable narcissists: defensive and see others as hostile. Linked to more anxiety and depression.

Others think that genuine narcissists behave the way they do because of insecurity and not because they are full of themselves.

Grandiose narcissists, meanwhile, are better seen as a variety of psychopath.

• Violent narcissists are raised by permissive, violent parents

The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin (Kjærvik & Bushman, 2021).

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.”

Personality type and infidelity study

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).

How parents raise narcissistic children.

A permissive upbringing is one way parents raise narcissistic children, research finds.

Two other important factors are lack of affection from parents and exposure to violence in the home.

The conclusions come from a Spanish study of 591 adolescents.

Narcissistic children were likely to be aggressive towards parents when they didn’t get what they wanted.

Dr Esther Calvete, the study’s first author, said:

“On occasions adolescents assault their parents because the parents themselves have been violent towards the children or among themselves.

Through exposure to family violence, children learn to be violent.

Other times, it is the lack of affectionate and positive communication between parents and their children, the lack of quality time that is dedicated to the children, or permissive parenting styles that do not impose limits.”

Dr Calvete explained how narcissism fits into the picture:

“In some cases we can observe that element of narcissism: it concerns adolescents who feel that they should have everything that they want, right here and now.

They don’t take no for an answer.

When their parents try to establish limits, the children react aggressively.”

The researchers interviewed 591 adolescents and analysed the relationship between narcissism and aggression [see: narcissistic rage].

Education and upbringing are key to curbing these problems, Dr Calvete said:

“If the parents do not raise their children with a sense of responsibility and respect, it is easy for the children to develop problems of aggressive behaviour.

If the parents were violent when the children were small, it increases the risk of aggressive behaviour in children.

But the behaviour displayed by fathers and mothers is not the only element.

The temperament of the children is another important component, and some boys and girls are more impulsive and learn violent behaviour more easily,”

The study’s authors share one email they received from a worried mother about her aggressive son.

She wrote:

“Our son sees himself as above everything.

The other night I told him that he should stop looking at himself in the mirror, that he looked good.

And he hit the roof.

His father later told him that he had no right to talk to me in that manner.

But my son has become more and more verbally aggressive, and the situation has deteriorated into violence.

He hit my husband, who is recovering from bruised ribs and a broken jaw.

The problem is that he continues to think that he is right.

According to him, it’s he who feels threatened,”

Narcissism is at the root of these problems, the researchers say, and treatment should be directed at reducing it.

The study was published in the journal Developmental Psychology (Calvete et al., 2015).

Research reveals if society is becoming more narcissistic. Narcissism refers to excessive levels of superiority, self-love and self-centredness.

Modern Western society increases narcissism, research finds.

It could help to explain why — as some people think — society is becoming more narcissistic.

Narcissism refers to excessive levels of superiority, self-love and self-centredness.

The study compared people born and brought up in East and West Germany.

Higher levels of narcissism were found in people who grew up in the western states of Germany.

Professor Stefan Röpke, who led the study, said:

“Contemporary western societies promote narcissism.

People who grew up on the western side of the former East-West border or West-Berlin had higher levels of narcissism than those who spent their childhood in the former German Democratic Republic.

In our study, this was shown to primarily apply to ‘grandiose narcissism’, a type of narcissism that is characterized by an exaggerated sense of superiority.”

Is society becoming more narcissistic?

The study’s conclusions came from a survey of over 1,000 people born in both the Federal Republic of Germany and the former German Democratic Republic.

The largest differences in narcissism between east and west society were seen for those aged 6-18 at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

For self-esteem, the researchers found the opposite: people who grew up in eastern societies had higher self-esteem

Dr Aline Vater, the study’s first author, said:

“No difference can be found within the younger generation — people who had either not been born at the time of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, or had not yet reached school-age, and who therefore grew up within the same western society.

In this group, the levels of narcissism and self-esteem recorded are the same for respondents from both the former East and West Germany.”

Professor Röpke concluded:

“Overall, our results suggest that levels of narcissism and self-esteem are influenced by societal factors.

Western societies appear to promote increased levels of narcissism among their citizens.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Vater et al., 2018).

Is there really a ‘narcissism epidemic’ or is this not really the ‘age of narcissism’?

People are at their most narcissistic when they are college-age, research shows.

Then, people’s narcissism slowly reduces over the years, on average.

Professor Brent Roberts, who led the research, said:

“The average college student scores 15 to 16 on the NPI scale, out of a possible 40.

The average grandparent scores about 12.

Based on that, if you use that as a natural metric, most people are not narcissists.

And, perhaps most interestingly, narcissism declines with age.”

A narcissism epidemic?

The study found no evidence that there is a ‘narcissism epidemic’ among young people.

In fact, young people are slightly less narcissistic than they were twenty years ago.

Professor Roberts thinks this is just older people misremembering how brash they were at that age, and how they have calmed down over the years:

“We have faulty memories, so we don’t remember that we were rather self-centered when we were that age.”

Both millennials and younger generations are frequently portrayed as having poor character traits or of being part of a narcissism epidemic.

However, Professor Roberts said:

“But that’s just wrong.

The kids are all right.

There never was a narcissism epidemic, despite what has been claimed.”

Not the ‘age of narcissism’ at all

The conclusions come from a survey of 1,166 students compared with tens of thousands of students surveyed in the 2000s and in the 2010s.

They all completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the NPI.

This involves choosing between 40 pairs of statements.

For example, here is one:

• I just want to be reasonably happy.
• I want to amount to something in the eyes of the world.

The second is more consistent with a narcissistic view of the the self.

The study found that whether male or female, White, African-American or Caucasian, people’s narcissism shows a slow but steady decline with age.

Professor Roberts said:

“For the most part, the measure worked pretty well, but we found a few items that didn’t work consistently across different groups.

When you adjust for that, you see decreases in narcissism from the 1990s to the 2000s to the 2010s.”

So, there you have it: there is no narcissism epidemic, nor is this the age of narcissism.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Wetzelet al., 2017).

Study of 2,200 people finds that just one question will reveal the true egomaniac.

At first narcissist look better, sound more confident, have trendier haircuts and are funnier.

But soon they become a pain.

So how can you easily identify a narcissist before you get in too deep? The answer is: you just ask them.

Frequently psychologists have used a questionnaire with 40 items called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.

One study shows, though, that you can identify narcissists almost as accurately using just one question (Bushman et al., 2014).

In the study of 2,200 people of all ages, people were asked one simple question, including the part in brackets:

“To what extent do you agree with this statement: “I am a narcissist.” (Note: The word “narcissist” means egotistical, self-focused, and vain.)”

People rated themselves on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 is “not very true of me” and 7 is “very true of me”.

The results were pretty close to other measures of narcissism, which all require more questions.

It probably works so well because of the very nature of narcissism itself.

Brad Bushman, first author of the study, explains:

“People who are willing to admit they are more narcissistic than others probably actually are more narcissistic.

People who are narcissists are almost proud of the fact. You can ask them directly because they don’t see narcissism as a negative quality — they believe they are superior to other people and are fine with saying that publicly.”

The narcissist problem

While narcissists seem attractive at first, their personalities can be toxic in the long-run because they have little concern for the feelings of others.

Bushman continued:

“Overall, narcissism is problematic for both individuals and society. Those who think they are already great don’t try to improve themselves.

“And narcissism is bad for society because people who are only thinking of themselves and their own interests are less helpful to others.”

Why not try out the narcissist question on those around you right now and see what results you get?

You might be surprised how many people admit to being narcissists.

→ Read on: One recent study suggested this method for how to get a narcissist to feel empathy.

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The study found links between signatures and the darker parts of narcissism, such as authoritativeness and exploitativeness.

People with bigger signatures are more likely to be narcissists, research finds.

The conclusion comes from a study of the signatures of 500 chief financial officers.

They found that the CFOs with the largest signatures were more likely to bend the truth.

In this case by misreporting the company’s earnings or relaxing internal controls.

Dr Charles Ham, one of the study’s authors, said:

“In an ideal setting, you would be in direct contact with executives and have them take a personality test.

But that’s not usually possible.

A signature comes directly from the executive.

We used two laboratory tests to establish the link between signature size and narcissism.”

Sometimes people think of narcissism as being an advantage, said Dr Ham:

“When people think of narcissism, their first thought is Steve Jobs.

They think of it as a good trait.”

However, only some parts of narcissism are positive, such as the self-confidence.

The researchers only found links with the darker parts of narcissism, such as authoritativeness and exploitativeness.

Dr Ham said:

“We’ve looked for that silver lining, and we haven’t found it.

We didn’t predict at first that signature size would be related only to the dark elements of narcissism.

But that’s what we found.”

The signatures were taken from notarised documents provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Professor Nick Seybert, a study co-author, said:

“We controlled for factors such as gender, tenure and corporate history.

We also measured the size of CEO signatures to determine the interplay — and to see if it was really the CFO driving the oversight process.”

Other ways to spot narcissism in a signature include the use of extra lines or exclamation marks.

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Mailhos et al., 2016).