Attention young people: this study on narcissism concerns only you



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Children these days.

For more than two millennia, older people have claimed that their younger counterparts are solely absorbed by themselves. Young people today, it seems, are in agreement.

This is clear from a new study released Wednesday that adults aged 18-25 believe that their generation is the most alive and narcissistic in the world.

"They really believe it," said Josh Grubbs, a professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University and lead author of the paper, published in the journal PLOS One. "And they are offended by that."

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But the mere fact that they believe in it does not make the truth true, he said. Millennials and members of the next generation may simply adhere to a stereotype perpetuated by the media for which scholars are responsible.

"This speech, in part, began with us," said Dr. Grubbs. "Psychologists were the first to talk about the epidemic of narcissism."

This idea began to gain ground some twenty years ago, when some psychologists argued that historical data going back a generation showed that young adults were more and more self-absorbed.

The media taken on results, but not on repression. Other research suggests that the claims may have been exaggerated, said Dr. Grubbs. But he and his colleagues were not interested in joining this back and forth anyway. They wanted to focus on a part of the discussion that they thought would otherwise have been ignored.

"There is this huge debate in psychology for years," he said. "But no one had taken the time to simply say," What do these children think of this? "

Six years ago, they decided to conduct the research described in Wednesday's document.

During a series of questions, the researchers interviewed hundreds of students about their personality traits, their age group stereotypes and their views on narcissism and the rights conferred on them both as traits and labels for their generation.

In one experiment, researchers also collected student responses to various insulting generational labels, including the fact that they are overly sensitive, easily offended, narcissistic or authorized. In another project, the researchers collected reactions to narcissistic labels and titled, when they are formulated in positive or negative terms.

Dr. Grubbs was surprised to find that young adults had accepted the etiquette. "I was expecting more denial or skepticism, if you will," he said.

And whether or not they are more narcissistic than other generations, the results suggest that, at the very least, young adults are not universally narcissistic.

In general, people with such tendencies are more likely to see narcissism positively. This was also true of individuals with narcissistic traits in the study. But the fact that young adults were largely disrupted by etiquette – and that it was unlikely that they would be influenced when researchers qualified narcissism positively – suggests that the younger generation Is not usually very absorbed by itself.

"Maybe the whole generation is not more narcissistic, there is just variability among people," he said.

The widespread belief that young adults are more self-absorbed may have been fueled by the fact that social media has made today's narcissists much easier to find, said Dr. Grubbs.

And while the results do not match the comparison of the egos of young adults with those of other generations, Dr. Grubbs hopes they will at least encourage people to think more seriously about the ability to qualify large groups so quickly.

"Maybe being a little more cautious and kind could be an implication," he said.

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