Young people really ARE more vain! Narcissism decreases with age, study finds
- Scientists have confirmed that narcissism decreases with age
- But people who are more narcissistic than their peers as children remain so.
From Regina George (Mean Girls) to Nate Jacobs (Euphoria), many of the most famous narcissists in film history are young.
Research has now shown that young people are actually more narcissistic and that this trait decreases as they get older.
However, researchers from the University of Bern argue that the differences between individuals remain stable over time.
This means that people who were more narcissistic than their peers as children often remain so as adults.
“These findings have important implications, as high levels of narcissism affect people’s lives in many ways – both the lives of the narcissistic individuals themselves and, perhaps even more so, the lives of their family and friends,” said lead researcher Dr. Ulrich Orth.
From Mean Girls’ Regina George to Euphoria’s Nate Jacobs, many of the most famous narcissists in film history have been young people.
In their study, the researchers wanted to find out whether narcissism increases, decreases or remains the same with age.
The team analyzed data from 51 previous studies, involving a total of 37,247 patients aged eight to 77 years.
In each study, the researchers analyzed one or more of three different types of narcissism: agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic.
Agentic narcissism involves feelings of grandiosity or superiority and a strong need for admiration, while antagonistic narcissism involves arrogance, a sense of entitlement, insensitivity, and little empathy.
In their study, the researchers wanted to understand whether narcissism increases, decreases, or stays the same with age. Pictured: Villanelle in Killing Eve
Finally, neurotic narcissism is associated with emotional dysregulation and hypersensitivity.
The team’s analysis found that all three forms of narcissism declined with age.
However, people’s narcissism toward 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 even the case over very long periods of time, suggesting that narcissism is a stable personality trait.’
Although the researchers did not investigate the possible causes behind these findings, they hope their research will lead to further investigation.
“One theory holds that the social roles we take on as adults—for example, as a partner, parent, employee, and so on—develop more mature personality traits, including less narcissism,” Dr. Orth adds.