A new study by the researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Management has found that men are more narcissistic than women. The press release revealed that the study looked into data from more 475,000 participants compiled over 31 years and several researches on narcissism done in the last three decades.

They observed that throughout all the studies conducted men were found to be more narcissistic, scoring higher in narcissism. This pattern was similar among all the age groups. Emily Grijalva, PhD, assistant professor of organization and human resources in the UB School of Management stated that narcissism was linked to several problems and it also affected personal relationships. The narcissistic person most often would be aggressive and show a lack of ethical behaviour, she stated.

The trait had its own advantages as well, describes Grijalva. Self esteem, emotional stability and strong leadership qualities are associated with narcissism, she explained. The study mainly focused on gender differences in narcissism. Specifically three aspects of narcissism were taken into account: “leadership/authority, grandiose/exhibitionism and entitlement”

They found that in entitlement and leadership/authority there was a huge difference between man and women. In the former, it was seen that men felt more important and believed that they were entitled to certain privileges, the press release stated. It also revealed that this particular aspect makes a man more likely to take advantage of others and exploit them, when compared to a woman.

In the latter, researchers found that men are more assertive and have a stronger desire for power. "But there was no difference in the exhibitionism aspect, meaning both genders are equally likely to display vanity or self-absorption," Grijalva states.

The stark difference in how one views himself comes from how the society views different genders. Contrasting degrees of narcissistic traits in men and women are due to gender stereotypes and the roles and expectations that a gender has been associated with. Grijalva explains that women are always criticized for being aggressive and authoritative; this reaction of society towards feminism and leadership has led to the suppression of a woman’s display of narcissistic behavior.

She aims at directing future studies towards understanding how several social, cultural and biological factors shape these gender differences.

The study is going to be published in the journal, Psychological Bulletin.

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