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It\u2019s almost clich\u00e9 for people to talk about how we\u2019ve all become narcissists, because social media has corrupted our sense of self and reshaped us into grandiose, selfie-obsessed, image-crafters. And, as Time<\/em> printed on its front cover in 2013<\/a>, this is particularly assumed to be the case for the \u2018me, me, me\u2019 generation: millennials.<\/p>\n But, are we actually more narcissistic today or is this just an age-old scepticism about kids these days that builds on stereotypes and misplaced nostalgia?<\/p>\n First of all, what exactly is narcissism, and is it inherently bad? In May 2021, Ohio State University academics Sophie Kj\u00e6rvik<\/a> and Brad Bushman<\/a> published a review of 437 studies on narcissism which together included 123,043 participants.<\/p>\n In the simplest sense they defined narcissism as \u201centitled self-importance\u201d. To slightly expand this, they explained \u201cPeople with high levels of narcissism think they are special people who deserve special treatment. They have an exaggerated and inflated sense of their own importance.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously, in 2014, Bushman co-created a scale which was surprisingly good at measuring whether someone was a narcissist and consisted exclusively of a response to the question: \u2018to what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist?\u2019 It turns out that lots of narcissists know that they are narcissists and some are even quite proud of it.<\/p>\n Read more about psychology:<\/strong><\/p>\n Since then Bushman has changed how he talks about narcissism. Something the researchers stress in the 2021 article is that they did not call anyone in their research a narcissist and instead said that people were \u201chigh\u201d or \u201clow\u201d on narcissism.<\/p>\n Does this mean that we should all abandon the term narcissist? Perhaps. As they explain \u201cCalling someone a narcissist implies that narcissism is a dichotomous variable, which it is not. Even\u2026 narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is continuous.\u201d We are all somewhere on a scale, and most of us have some narcissistic traits.<\/p>\n There is more than one type of narcissism. Put more accurately, there is a core part of narcissism \u2013 entitlement \u2013 and at least two important dimensions. Both the wider public and academics themselves have focused almost entirely on the dimension called grandiose narcissism. As Kj\u00e6rvik and Bushman explain \u201cIndividuals high in grandiose narcissism tend to have high levels of self-esteem\u2026 self-assuredness, imposingness, attention seeking, entitlement, exhibitionism, self-indulgence, and disrespect for the needs of others.\u201d<\/p>\n The other, often overlooked, dimension is vulnerable narcissism, which is marked by low self-esteem and is \u201ccharacterized by hypersensitivity to evaluations from others, defensiveness, bitterness, anxiousness, self-indulgence, conceitedness, arrogance, and an insistence on having one\u2019s own way,\u201d explain Kj\u00e6rvik and Bushman.<\/p>\n Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism can look the same on the surface but come from very different places. It\u2019s the difference between posting a selfie because you feel like you look incredible and everyone needs to see your face (which would be grandiose) and posting a selfie because you are feeling down and are looking for some external validation (which would be vulnerable).<\/p>\n The behaviour is the same, posting a selfie, but the reasons behind the behaviour are almost opposites. No individual act should make you score high on narcissism, but the more behaviours like this you engage in the more likely you are to be classified as such.<\/p>\n While there has been research which has found that there can be some benefits of narcissism, including that it can make people more likeable in the short term, there is also a darker side.<\/p>\n Kj\u00e6rvik and Bushman found that there was a significant relationship between narcissism and aggression, regardless of whether people were higher on grandiose or vulnerable dimensions. They also found that narcissism was related to lots of different kinds of aggression, including physical and verbal aggression, bullying both online and offline, and they argue that it is a risk factor for violence.<\/p>\n This relationship might be more complicated than it first seems, however, and other research has found that only vulnerable narcissism seems to be linked with something called \u201cnarcissistic rage\u201d which is an explosive mix of anger and hostility. Still, if the me me me generation actually exists, then this is bad news.<\/p>\nShould we call people narcissists?<\/h2>\n
What are the different kinds of narcissism?<\/h2>\n
Is being high on narcissism inherently bad?<\/h2>\n