Narcissism and sex differences

[ArabeIIaScott]

I was reading this article

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-narcissism-science-confronts-a-widely-misunderstood-phenomenon/

'Up to 6 percent of the U.S. population, mostly men, is estimated to have had narcissistic personality disorder during some period of their lives.'

And went to look for more on sex differences in narcissism.

This large study, of over 30,000 people, showed narcissism is far more common in males:

https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/medical/comorbidity/prevalence-correlates-disability-comorbidity-dsm-iv-narcissistic-personality-disorder-wave-2-nesarc/

'Prevalence of lifetime NPD was 6.2%, with rates greater for men (7.7%) than for women (4.8%).'

There also seem to be differences in the way NPD manifests in men and women:

'NPD was associated with mental disability among men but not women.'

Further reading suggested that 'gender' or sex stereotyping may also affect how narcissistic traits affect people and how accepted they are by others.

More from the Sci American article:

'In another revealing fMRI study, Jauk and his Graz colleagues found that men (but not women) with higher levels of grandiose narcissism showed more activity in parts of the anterior cingulate cortex associated with negative emotions and social pain when viewing images of themselves compared with images of close friends or strangers.The bodies of narcissists bear evidence of elevated stress. Studies indicate that men with more narcissism have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol than those with less narcissism.'

Slightly surprised to see this publication carry an article that talks matter of factly about sex and sex differences, btw.

I would dearly love to see some research that looks at the intersection of trans identities and narcissism.

That’s very interesting as in popular culture I feel like we hear about way more narcissistic women (a la Tony Soprano’s nightmare mother) than men.

There is some research, but the quality of it and results/conclusions seem to vary wildly.

My dissertation was in personality disorders, and I think it’s important to note that they are very much in dispute as a diagnosable condition. There is no “test” for narcissism, rather it is categorised by behaviours which means society, upbringing and socialisation plays a massive part. It’s not like major depression or schizophrenia where you can see changes in brain function and activity

Thanks, Littlepink. Maybe that's why the research seems to have such wide variation in results.

Yes, a certain paraphilia is arguably the epitome of eroticised narcissism.