About the episode
The scientists analyzed data from 51 long-term studies, which, among other things, looked at the levels of narcissism in about 37,000 men and women aged 8 to 77 from various countries – mainly Western ones – over decades. They hoped to say something about how persistent narcissism is as a trait.
They also considered different forms of narcissism. In one, a person feels superior and needs the admiration of others. In the second, there is arrogance and little empathy. In the third form, emotions are exacerbated and cause hypersensitivity.
From the data, they can see that for all three forms, the level declines as we get older. Although the decline was greater for the last two forms.
However, what they also saw was that people who, on average, exhibited more narcissism than others still did so later in life. Moderate narcissists became more moderate and extreme narcissists became less extreme, but the differences between the two remained.
It’s not yet clear why narcissism declines. It may be because of the social roles we adopt as we mature. These roles—such as partner, parent, employee—can ensure that our personality moves with them. But we don’t fully understand how this works yet.
Read more about the research here: The study found that narcissism decreases with age.
