Baby boomers are more sensitive than millennials, according to the largest-ever study on narcissism

Authored by insidermag.net and submitted by Savings_Camel7459
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Most people become less narcissistic as they get older

Romantic relationships, work, and parenting are all experiences that can make a person less narcissistic, Chopik said. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Generally speaking, as individuals in the study got older, they became less sensitive and the researchers found hypersensitivity sharply declined after a person turned 40.

But when the researchers looked at generation-specific trends, they noticed that overall, older generations were more sensitive than younger generations.

According to Chopik, this could be due to generation-specific events that shaped study participants’ outlooks on life.

In the United States, for example, “baby boomers may be more narcissistic than other generations because they grew up in a time when the government provided privileges like social security,” Chopik said, noting that the increase in narcissistic traits between boomers and younger generations is still relatively small.

There were some caveats to the study. For example, the researchers relied on existing data sets to reach their conclusions rather than personally following people of different generations for decades. Chopik also noted that narcissism can be measured various ways and they only used one of those methods, which could have skewed the results.

The study still offers insight into an age-old trope that suggests younger generations are inherently more self-centered than older ones.

“Based on our study, there’s weak evidence that this [younger] generation is the worst in human history,” Chopik said, adding that he hopes his team’s findings quell parents who fear their teenagers’ narcissistic behaviors will never change.

“We know younger people on average are more narcissistic, but that goes away as they age. People will live their own lives and have experiences to lower that narcissism and mature,” Chopik said.

count023 on June 4th, 2021 at 02:53 UTC »

Wow, who would have guessed, the Me Generation are sensitive little snowflakes.

Justaguywholovescake on June 4th, 2021 at 02:22 UTC »

Born on third base and thought they hit a triple.

luckygiraffe on June 4th, 2021 at 02:11 UTC »

Anyone who's worked in retail sometime in the past decade already knew this.