Scientists have confirmed that narcissism decreases with age- But peopl who are more narcissistic than their peers as children remain that way
From Mean Girls’ Regina George to Euphoria’s Nate Jacobs, many of the most famous narcissists in cinematic history are young.
Now, a study has confirmed that young people really are more narcissistic, with the trait reducing with age.
However, researchers from the University of Bern say that differences among individuals remains stable over time.
This means that people who are more narcissistic than their peers as children tend to remain that way into adulthood.
‘These findings have important implications given that high levels of narcissism influence people’s lives in many ways – both the lives of the narcissistic individuals themselves and, maybe even more, the lives of their families and friends,’ said lead author Dr Ulrich Orth.
In their study, the researchers set out to understand if narcissism increases, decreases, or stays the same with age.
The team analysed data from 51 previous studies, which included a total of 37,247 patients ranging in age from eight to 77.
In each study, the researchers analysed one or more of three different types of narcissism – agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic.
Agentic narcissism includes feelings of grandiosity or superiority and a strong need for admiration, while antagonistic narcissism includes arrogance, entitlement, callousness, and low empathy.
Finally, neurotic narcissism involves emotional dysregulation and hypersensitivity.
The team’s analysis revealed that all three types of narcissism declined with age.
However, people’s narcissism relative to their peers did not change significantly over time.
In other words, people who were more narcissistic than average as children remained more narcissistic than average as adults.
Dr Orth said: ‘This was true even across very long periods of time, which suggests that narcissism is a stable personality trait.’
While the researchers did not explore the possible reasons behind these findings, they hope their research will spark follow-up studies.
‘One theory suggests that the social roles we take on in adulthood, for example as a partner, a parent, an employee and so on, lead to the development of more mature personality characteristics, including lower levels of narcissism,’ Dr Orth added.
