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Narcissists aren't not going anywhere anytime soon, says science.
By Amanda Chatel — Last updated on Feb 25, 2023
I think many of us can agree that one of the most annoying, aggravating, irritating personality traits in the world is narcissism.
A narcissist is a person who always lets you know when they've arrived and when they finally leave, after they’ve exhausted everyone around them with tales about how wonderful and superior they are, there's a collective sigh of relief.
Narcissists are the absolute worse. All we have to do is look at Kanye "Yeezus" West to see that.
But the problem with narcissists is that they're not going anywhere anytime soon.
Although we'd like the narcissistic part of the population to die off, the chances of that happening are pretty obscure. Why? Because they have more sex than the rest of us! I know, I know. It's an awful, heartbreaking truth that can’t be changed.
And the extra problem is that narcissism is a "highly adaptive component," so it's far easier than other disorders to be passed on to future generations.
If you take two narcissists, who truly believe they are the greatest things to have ever existed, then allow them to procreate, that offspring with those two egotistical parents praising them and putting them on a pedestal 24/7 their entire lives, is going to make for one wretched child and even more wretched adult. I have chills just thinking about it.
Why narcissists get way more action than everyone else:
But why do narcissists have more sex? Because they're so into themselves, so of course they do.
Or, as Jessica Tracy, a professor at the University of British Columbia explains, "When you’re talking about truly pathological narcissism, it's hard to say why it hasn’t been eradicated from the gene pool. But when you’re talking about the more everyday kind, it's equally hard to see how it ever would disappear since it’s so adaptive. All you have to do is replicate yourself, and narcissists are very good at doing that." Ugh. See what's going on here? North West is going to be even worse than her parents! Yes, I'm predicting that for her future!
But the thing is, as much as narcissists tend to be seen as pariahs in the community with their cocky ways, both men and women are still drawn to them, at least sexually.
It's the confident woman in the room and the "bad boy" guy who rarely go home alone at night. Realistically though, who wants to deal with that type of ego on a regular basis? Not I, and probably not you either. In fact, that's why narcissists have yet to rise to "a position of wholesale domination of the species."
It's the rarity of a true narcissist, despite their penchant for procreating, that keeps us from being overrun by them, and that's a good thing. It's one thing to be confident and has high self-esteem, but it's another thing to truly believe you're better than the rest. That type of thing is intolerable unless, of course, you meet one of your own. I'm looking at you, Kimye.
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Amanda Chatel is a writer who divides her time between NYC and Paris. She's a regular contributor to Bustle and Glamour, with bylines at Harper's Bazaar, The Atlantic, Forbes, Livingly, Mic, The Bolde, Huffington Post, and others.