New research says narcissism declines as one gets older
Individual differences remain steady over time, meaning those who are more narcissistic than their peers as children tend to stay that way as adults.
A new study published in Psychological Bulletin has found that narcissism tends to decrease as people age from childhood through adulthood. However, individual differences remain steady over time, meaning those who are more narcissistic than their peers as children tend to stay that way as adults.
“These findings have important implications given that high levels of 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 Ulrich Orth, Ph.D., of the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Types of Narcissism
Orth and his team analyzed data from 51 longitudinal studies to know how narcissism levels change over time. The studies included 37,247 participants aged 8 to 77, with 52% being female and 48% male. Some studies spanned several decades. Most of the research was conducted in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe, with additional studies in China and New Zealand.
The researchers categorized into three types: agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic. Agentic narcissism involves boastfulness and a need for admiration; antagonistic narcissism includes arrogance, entitlement, and unempathetic; and neurotic involves emotional instability and hypersensitivity.
In general, the study found a decline in all three types of narcis-sism from childhood to old age, with a slight decline in agentic narcis-sism and a moderate decline in both antagonistic and neurotic.
Despite these general declines, the researchers noted that the relative levels compared to peers did not change substantially over time. This means that individuals who were more narcissistic than average as children remained more narcissistic than average as adults.
“This was true even across very long periods of time, which suggests that narcissism is a stable personality trait,” Orth stated.
Given that most data came from the U.S. and Western Europe, Orth suggested future research should examine narcissism in a broader range of cultures and countries.
Orth also mentioned the need to explore 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,” he said.
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