To think that narcissism is more common in men than women?

[HardyTurtle]

It seems like men are more frequently diagnosed as narcissists or display narcissistic traits - lack of empathy, entitlement, grandiosity. Is this biological, social conditioning or just a bias in how we label narcissism?

I’ll introduce you to my ex MIL. She is a horror show and her son too, but she has other sons who are nothing like her. I think plenty of women are narcs too, and worse

The only typical narcissist I met was a woman. They're just better at covering their manipulative behaviour.

I think women are far more manipulative then men.

I think narcissistic woman can be covert narcissists , they are sneaky , subtle manipulative and controlling all whilst getting away with it , controlling through disguise of love and help

If you look on mumsnet then the opposite seems true. It is always mum or MIL or sister or sil who are labelled narcissistic. It is an inheritable trait, so I always wonder if the OPs see it in themselves...

Agree with this. “After everything I did for you” women. Force themselves upon you to intertwine themselves in your life before they destroy it.
At least male narcissists are obvious with it so you know what you’re dealing with.

I suspect that they simply present differently. Women are better mimics so find it easier to hide it plus there are more pressures on women to conform to a norm and 'be nice' so they wouldn't get away with blatant naccissism like men do.

Sociapathy/psycopathy though...wouldn't be surprised if that was more common in men though. in fact just googled it its 6:1 in favour of men. Again though, women may be better at hiding/conforming and the tests may focus on a typical male presentation.

Just googled this and NPD is diagnosed at 3:1 in favour of men. I think my point still stands though, who knows if we are getting valid data on this. I wonder at the circumstances why people would even get a diagnosis. If e.g. prisoners are more likely then the general population to get an assessment then that would skew the stats in favour or men.

Im trying to think why someone would seek a diagnosis for this intentionally. Surely this would be against their will in many cases.

This is written like an exam question. Did you forget to do your homework OP

Its acutally a misconception that most narcissists are men. There are several forms of narcissism which manifest in very different ways. You seem to be thinking of the traditional grandiose narcissist, but covert and vulnerable narcissists are actually more common.

Vulnerable narcissists are the ones who have a perpetual victim mentality. No matter what you're going through they always manage to make it about themselves.

You are correct. So full disclosure: my mother was a narcissist. I didn't realize this until well into adulthood. I just thought she was controlling and paranoid.

It turns out there's actually several forms of narcissism which each have different behaviours or manifestations. The traditional grandiose narcissists aren't actually that common. Covert narcissists (the ones good at hiding it) are far more common. They'e completely different people in public then they are behind closed doord.

Don't come for me but I think alot of narcissistic behaviour sprouts from disregulation from undiagnosed nuero diversity. I'm not excusing abusive behaviour though, plenty of that about.

You are asking your question on a majority female forum OP. Hardly an unbiased viewpoint here.

There have actually been studies on this and you're correct: pyscologists seem to have a consensus the most female narcissists are the covert or vulnerable kind.
Coverts are good at hiding what they really are in public and go in for subtle manipulation. Vulnerable narcs are the worst in my opinion: they're the ones with a perpetual victim mentality.

My mother had both covert and vulnerable traits: she was very charming, friendly and outgoing in public, but once you got to know her the incessant complaining, criticism and micromanaging would begin. I lose count of the number of friends and even family members she alienated with her behaviour.

She's also regularly rile people up or deliberately pick fights even with strangers, and then throw her hands up and say she was the victim when you reacted.

Sometimes the sense of entitlement that comes from a patriarchal society is confused with narcissism.

I’m not sure. I’ve met 2 people who i think were definitely narcissists, potentially another and all 3 were women. My mother being one of them, total textbook narcissist. The pp who said about people not seeking diagnosis was spot on. My mother wouldn’t have recognised that anything was wrong with her. She was perfect in her mind and everyone else was defective. My dad asked the family GP about getting some sort of diagnosis for her and the GP said unless she sought help there’s nothing he could do.

I sometimes think my Dd is displaying a lot of traits and apparently there is potentially a genetic element to it.