Narcissistic personality features across the life span

Abstract

The present research examined the associations that age had with narcissistic personality features in two cross-sectional studies involving community members from the United States (Study 1; N = 3414) and Israel (Study 2; N = 2723). Age had a negative linear association with extraverted narcissism and antagonistic narcissism in both studies. Age did not have a negative linear association with neurotic narcissism in either study, but it did have a quadratic association with neurotic narcissism in both studies that suggested a flattening of the negative association among older individuals. Communal narcissism and collective narcissism were also included in Study 2 and age had negative linear associations with both of these additional aspects of narcissism. Taken together, these results suggest that there are age-related trends that indicate a general tendency for narcissistic personality features to be lower in older individuals than younger individuals. Discussion will focus on the implications of these findings for the understanding of age-related trends in narcissism across the life span.