What happens to narcissist people as they grow older? Science has the answer

Narcissistic people tend to get more agreeable, generous and empathetic as they age from childhood through older adulthood, new research into the particular personality trait has revealed.Narcissism is usually associated with a person having a sense of entitlement and superiority over others.

The study published by theAmerican Psychological Association notedthat the difference among individuals, however, remainsstable over time. This meanspeople who were more narcissistic than their peers as children tend to remain that way as adults.

Methodolgy

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To arrive at the conclusion, the researchers collected data from 51 studies (some conducted over decades)that analysed how the narcissism levels amongst an individual changed over time. As many as 37,247 participants with age groups ranging from eight to 77 took part in the study.

The researchers looked for three types of narcissists viz.Agentic narcissists (feelings of grandiosity),Antagonistic narcissists (arrogance, entitlement) and Neurotic narcissists (emotional dysregulation, hypersensitivity).

They studied the participants from the three types, based on questionnaires, and found that, generally, narcissism scores declined with age.

“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,” lead author Ulrich Orth atthe University of Bern in Switzerland told journal Psychological Bulletin.

The changes among the aforementioned types were slight and gradual. While there was an odd individual who showed the change more strongly, researchers stated that you wouldn't"expect someone you knew as a very narcissistic person to have completely changed".

Signs you are around a narcissist, according to experts:

• They crave drama all the time. Chaos and conflict are their bread and butter
  
• Half-hearted apologies that do not mean anything. Most narcissists do not take responsibility for their poor behaviours, making the other person feel bad about themselves
  
• They effectively shift the blame on the other person by manipulation.
  

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Explaining the scope of expanding the research, the experts said most of the dataanalysed in the study was from the United States and Western Europe.So future research could examine narcissism across a broader range of countries and cultures to better fit with the idea that narcissism decreases with age, albeit not in great magnitude.

(With inputs from agencies)