Study: Narcissistic Personalities On The Rise

You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you.

Are we more vain these day? Too much self-esteem? YouTube's slogan is "Broadcast yourself", Time magazine declared that the 2006 Person of the Year was "You" complete with a mirror on the cover.

There are studies on this, believe it or not. Some say yes, some say not so much.

A blogger known as the Last Psychiatrist favors the more damning study, which found that scores by college students on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory have risen 13 percent since 1980; that two thirds of students in 2006 scored higher on the survey than students in 1980; and (ouch!) that the 2006 students were no less narcissistic than 200 celebrities profiled in yet another recent study.

What do the studies say is the consequence, for instance, of all this narcissism among our kids?

"A trend among college students toward "hooking up" rather than...relationships;"

81% of students thought " getting rich was among their generations most important goals" (rich is the new porn);

51% said it was getting famous

Not the craziest data ever. The studies say Narcissism doesn't mean you're bad, though, just that you think you're the main character in your own movie. Maybe that movie is about a woman who works for a non-profit but manages to date the President. [In defense, crime is down; volunteerism is up.]

So the consequences are debatable, the cause is more illusive:

I don't know what caused those kids to be more narcissistic than the 80s kids, but I do know what happened to those 90s kids after college: they became adults. And they became the custodians of the world, and, they demanded entertainment that suited them. Music, movies, internet, technology-- all that was aimed at them, not the next group of college kids. Unfortunately for the next college kids, there was nothing else to watch. The 30 year old in 2000 wanted to watch Survivor and The Bachelor, so everyone had to watch Survivor and The Bachelor, and it's changed cognition: even kids who have never watched those shows still uses the phrase "voted off" and "immunity."

And the 35 year old in 2005 became a parent, and that parent wanted school vouchers and great healthcare, but also lower taxes and to be able to eat out at restaurants once a week. ('The kids are with my mother.") Those parents want easy credit and a bigger house.

The study concludes:

"This trend is going to continue, frankly, until we either have a major recession, war, or my generation dies."

Do all three have to happen at the same time? We have 2 of the 3.

Source: The Last Psychiatrist