New Research Shows Narcissism Declines With Age

For young people with narcissism, they may struggle with getting older as ageism can impact these individuals’ self-confidence. Specifically, these people may find stereotypes around youth and beauty a threat to their self-image as they gain features caused by old age. These features consisting of grey hairs and wrinkled skin may trigger and, even worse, increase people’s narcissism.

Unfortunately, the media plays a large part in the existence of these cultural stereotypes as they place unrealistic beauty standards on people. As a result of these unrealistic standards, narcissists may suffer an existential crisis as they lose attributes considered beautiful while getting older.

Although it’s suspected that narcissism triggered by unrealistic beauty standards impacts women over men, yet, so far, these assumptions are unproven. In truth, men also have stereotypical beauty standards in appearance and behavior that could trigger narcissism within them as well.  

What Studies Say About Narcissism and Age

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Contrary to popular belief, narcissists tend to get better as people progress through childhood to older adulthood according to a recent study. Moreover, the study also shows that narcissists stay as they are despite getting older. In particular, narcissistic children may risk struggling with their grandiosity even in adulthood. 

The research measuring narcissists with aging consists of 51 total studies that worked with precisely 27,247 people. Of the many participants, women made up 52% of the total participants compared to men with 48%. Alongside gender differences, the study chose participants between 8 and 77 years old.

Furthermore, some of these studies lasted for decades and were mostly conducted in America, Canada, and Western Europe. Comparatively, China and New Zealand would conduct a single study regarding narcissists as well.

The Three Types of Narcissism

Additionally, researchers split their studies to measure three different kinds of narcissists antagonistic, agentic, and neurotic types. Regarding these different types, each one comes with its own struggles. 

For instance, antagonistic narcissists are known for their strong obsession with admiration, while agentic narcissists struggle with superiority complexes and are most confrontational. Lastly, neurotic narcissists are hypersensitive people who are affected by emotional dysregulation.

As a result of their studies, researchers have found that narcissists, regardless of type, show improvement as they grow up. Still, while neurotic and antagonistic narcissists have shown a moderate decline in their condition, agentic narcissists usually experience a gradual decline that happens much more slowly.

The Downsides of Recent Narcissism Research

Considering the lengthy studies, researchers believe that narcissism may be a stable personality trait. Likewise, researchers found narcissists don’t show any significant change relative to their peer group. Simply put, narcissistic children tend to maintain the disorder into adulthood without any considerable decrease. 

Since most research was only conducted mostly in Western Europe and the United States, the sample size must be improved for better examination. To accomplish this goal, further research would have to take place in other countries and cultures to get a more accurate representation since narcissists live around the world.

In addition to a bigger sample size, future studies should explore possible reasons why narcissists get better with age. According to one theory, the social roles people choose in adulthood can develop new personality traits, including narcissism.

Importance of Self-Confidence in Young People

In general, life itself helps narcissists get better as they tend to learn more over time. In fact, the two most important lessons suspected narcissists can learn best from experience are humility and perspective. For instance, life experiences can remind narcissists that they aren’t the center of the universe, no matter how much their inflated ego tells them otherwise.

Ultimately, when people grow older, they gain more wisdom due to more responsibilities. By having more responsibilities, these individuals either become drained from the pressures of life or simply learn better tactics to get better results. Alongside their responsibilities, they may become increasingly less concerned about societal demands, further decreasing their narcissism. 

So, while self-confidence is essential in young people’s development, an overabundance can lead to a life of struggle. In other words, narcissism will continue to grow among the youth if they aren’t taught empathy and care along with completing their personal goals and ambitions. 

This article is intended simply to provide information. It is not intended to replace advice from a physician. 

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