The friend who turns every conversation into their boastful monologue, a colleague who craves constant validation, or a boss who’s demanding. The question might come up, are they narcissistic for life, or is it going to fade at all? Well, science now has answers.
Do narcissists grow kinder?
The researchers found that age does have an effect on narcissistic behavior. As per the Times of India, people tend to be less self-absorbed as they age from childhood through adulthood. However, here’s the twist. The differences among individuals remain stable over time.
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For instance, the obnoxious kid who dominated the classroom will likely still be the most self-absorbed person in the room decades later. The researchers found that people who are more narcissistic than their peers as children tend to remain that way as adults.
TOI quoted lead author Ulrich Orth, PhD, of the University of Bern, “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,” as saying in a release.
The researchers reportedly analyzed data from 51 longitudinal studies to measure how participants’ levels of narcissism changed over time. The studies had 37,247 participants (52% female and 48% male) ranging in age from 8 to 77.
Some of the studies followed the participants for a decade. Most of these studies were conducted in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe, with one in China and one in New Zealand.
Three types of narcissism
Agentic narcissism: Feelings of grandiosity or superiority and a strong need for admiration
Antagonistic narcissism: Characterized by arrogance, entitlement, callousness, and low empathy
Neurotic narcissism: Linked to emotional dysregulation and hypersensitivity
The researchers found that all three types of narcissism declined from childhood through old age, with a small decline for agentic narcissism and a moderate decline for antagonistic and neurotic narcissism. They also found that people’s narcissism relative to that of their peers did not change significantly over time.
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“This was true even across very long periods of time, which suggests that narcissism is a stable personality trait. Most of the data analyzed in the study were from the United States and Western Europe, so future research should examine narcissism across a broader range of countries and cultures,” Orth said.
The researchers are planning to explore the reasons behind why narcissism declines with age. “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,” Orth concluded.
