Abstract
Are recent cohorts of college students more narcissistic than their predecessors? To address debates about the so-called “narcissism epidemic,” we used data from three cohorts of students (N1990s = 1,166; N2000s = 33,647; N2010s = 25,412) to test whether narcissism levels (overall and specific facets) have increased across generations. We also tested whether our measure, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), showed measurement equivalence
across the three cohorts, a critical analysis that had been overlooked in prior research. We found that several NPI items were not equivalent across cohorts. Models accounting for non-equivalence of these items indicated a small decline in overall narcissism levels from the 1990s to the 2010s (d =−0.27). At the facet-level, leadership (d =−0.20), vanity (d = –0.16), and entitlement (d = –0.28) all showed decreases. Our results contradict the claim that recent cohorts of college students are more narcissistic than earlier generations of college students.
across the three cohorts, a critical analysis that had been overlooked in prior research. We found that several NPI items were not equivalent across cohorts. Models accounting for non-equivalence of these items indicated a small decline in overall narcissism levels from the 1990s to the 2010s (d =−0.27). At the facet-level, leadership (d =−0.20), vanity (d = –0.16), and entitlement (d = –0.28) all showed decreases. Our results contradict the claim that recent cohorts of college students are more narcissistic than earlier generations of college students.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1833-1847 |
| Journal | Psychological Science |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- narcissism
- Narcissistic Personality Inventory
- cohort differences
- generational changes
- measurement invariance