Are Americans Really More Narcissistic?

Pacific Standard:

Many people around the world claim Americans have an unusually high opinion of themselves. But, according to a new study, accusations of narcissism may actually be a bit overblown.

Americans and non-Americans alike share “the belief that the typical American is grandiose, callous, and self-centered,” write a team of psychologists led by University of Georgia professor Joshua Miller in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. However, the same surveys that reveal that perception also suggests the average American may not be nearly as narcissistic as everybody thinks.

Psychologists and cultural observers have been fascinated with narcissism at least since the 1970s—the “Me Decade,” as Tom Wolfe put it—and the concern with narcissism hasn’t let up. In fact, it seems to be heating up, in part due to psychologist Jean Twenge’s somewhat controversial argument that young Americans today are more narcissistic than ever before.

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