Origins of narcissism in children Eddie Brummelmana,b,1, Sander Thomaesb,c, Stefanie A. Nelemansd, Bram Orobio de Castrob, Geertjan Overbeeka, and Brad J. Bushmane,f aResearch Institute of Child Development and Education, Department of Educational Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1001 NG, The Netherlands; bDepartment of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, The Netherlands; cCenter for Research on Self and Identity, Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, England; dResearch Centre Adolescent Development, Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, The Netherlands; eDepartment of Communication and Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1339; and fDepartment of Communication Science, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands Edited by Susan T. Fiske, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved February 12, 2015 (received for review November 7, 2014) Narcissism levels have been increasing among Western youth, and (9) and “are under a compulsion to ascribe every perfection to contribute to societal problems such as aggression and violence. the child—which sober observation would find no occasion to The origins of narcissism, however, are not well understood. Here, do” (10). Consequently, children might internalize the belief that we report, to our knowledge, the first prospective longitudinal they are special individuals who are entitled to privileges. In evidence on the origins of narcissism in children. We compared contrast, psychoanalytic theory holds that children are likely to two perspectives: social learning theory (positing that narcissism is grow up to be narcissistic when their parents lack warmth toward cultivated by parental overvaluation) and psychoanalytic theory them (11, 12). When parents lack warmth, they express little (positing that narcissism is cultivated by lack of parental warmth). affection, appreciation, and positive affect toward their child, We timed the study in late childhood (ages 7–12), when individual and they show little enjoyment of their child (13). In such an differences in narcissism first emerge. In four 6-mo waves, 565 upbringing, children might place themselves on a pedestal to try children and their parents reported child narcissism, child self- to obtain from others the approval they did not receive from esteem, parental overvaluation, and parental warmth. Four-wave their parents. cross-lagged panel models were conducted. Results support social Both theories have received preliminary support. Cross-sec- learning theory and contradict psychoanalytic theory: Narcissism tional research finds that adult narcissists are more likely than was predicted by parental overvaluation, not by lack of parental nonnarcissists to remember their parents as overvaluing and warmth. Thus, children seem to acquire narcissism, in part, by in- COGNITIVE SCIENCES lacking warmth in childhood (14; for overviews, see refs. 15 and PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ternalizing parents’ inflated views of them (e.g., “I am superior to ” “ ” 16). These findings are inconclusive, however. First, the studies others and I am entitled to privileges ). Attesting to the speci- were cross-sectional, and were therefore unable to investigate ficity of this finding, self-esteem was predicted by parental direction of effects. Second, the studies were often limited to warmth, not by parental overvaluation. These findings uncover samples of college students or adults, whereas the origins of early socialization experiences that cultivate narcissism, and may narcissism lie in childhood (17, 18). Third, the studies often re- inform interventions to curtail narcissistic development at an lied on adults’ retrospective reports of early socialization expe- early age. riences. It is no surprise that adult narcissists remember their parents overvaluing them: narcissists typically feel admired by childhood narcissism | childhood self-esteem | parental overvaluation | parental warmth | socialization many others, even in the face of disconfirming evidence (19). Addressing these limitations, we conducted a four-wave multi- informant prospective longitudinal study on the origins of he mythological figure Narcissus was a handsome, self- narcissism in children. We timed the study in late childhood, ages Tabsorbed, and vain young man who passionately fell in love with his own reflection in the water. “I burn with love for—me!” Significance Narcissus cried, “the spark I kindle is the torch I carry.” Narcissus was unable to stop looking at his own reflection, and he ultimately pined away by the waterside. Psychologists have come Narcissistic individuals feel superior to others, fantasize about to know Narcissus’ personality as narcissism. Although well personal successes, and believe they deserve special treatment. known in its extreme form as Narcissistic Personality Disorder, When they feel humiliated, they often lash out aggressively or narcissism is a personality trait in which people in the general even violently. Unfortunately, little is known about the origins population differ from one another. Narcissists feel superior to of narcissism. Such knowledge is important for designing others, fantasize about personal successes, and believe they de- interventions to curtail narcissistic development. We demon- serve special treatment (1). When narcissists feel humiliated, strate that narcissism in children is cultivated by parental they are prone to lash out aggressively (2, 3) or even violently (4). overvaluation: parents believing their child to be more special and more entitled than others. In contrast, high self-esteem in Narcissists are also at increased risk for mental health problems, children is cultivated by parental warmth: parents expressing including drug addiction, depression, and anxiety (5). Research affection and appreciation toward their child. These findings shows that narcissism is higher in Western than non-Western show that narcissism is partly rooted in early socialization countries (6), and suggests that narcissism levels have been experiences, and suggest that parent-training interventions steadily increasing among Western youth over the past few can help curtail narcissistic development and reduce its costs decades (7; see ref. 8 for an alternative view). for society. The origins of narcissism, however, are not well understood. Here, we report, to our knowledge, the first prospective longi- Author contributions: E.B., S.T., B.O.d.C., and G.O. designed research; E.B. performed tudinal evidence on the origins of narcissism in children. We research; E.B. and S.A.N. analyzed data; and E.B., S.T., S.A.N., B.O.d.C., G.O., and B.J.B. pitted two major theories against each other: social learning wrote the paper. theory and psychoanalytic theory. Social learning theory holds The authors declare no conflict of interest. that children are likely to grow up to be narcissistic when their This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. parents overvalue them: when their parents see them as more 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: [email protected]. special and more entitled than other children (9). When parents This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. overvalue their child, they see their child as “God’s gift to man” 1073/pnas.1420870112/-/DCSupplemental. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1420870112 PNAS | March 24, 2015 | vol. 112 | no. 12 | 3659–3662 Downloaded by guest on September 30, 2021 7–12, a key developmental phase during which individual dif- esteem predict maternal overvaluation one wave later (B = ferences in narcissism first emerge (17, 18). Indeed, research –0.006, P = 0.758). Thus, parental overvaluation did not predict finds that, from this age, narcissism can be assessed validly children’s positive self-views in general; it predicted children’s (17, 18). Children this age are able to form the global evaluations narcissistic self-views in particular. of themselves as a person (e.g., “I am a special person”)(20)that Inconsistent with psychoanalytic theory, lack of parental warmth underlie narcissism. Additionally, they have typically outgrown the did not predict narcissism over time. Neither child-reported nor unrealistically positive, inflated self-views that are normative for parent-reported parental warmth predicted child narcissism one younger children (20), making narcissistic self-views nonnormative. wave later (P values > 0.276), nor did child narcissism predict Although narcissists feel superior to others and feel entitled to child-reported or parent-reported parental warmth one wave later privileges, they are not necessarily satisfied with themselves as (P values > 0.157). a person. That is, narcissism and self-esteem capture two dif- In contrast, parental warmth did predict child self-esteem. ferent dimensions of the self (21, 22). As scholars put it, “High More specifically, child-reported parental warmth, unlike parent- self-esteem means thinking well of oneself, whereas narcissism reported parental warmth (P values >0.129), predicted child self- involves passionately wanting to think well of oneself” (2). Ad- esteem over time, and vice versa (Fig. 2). The finding that ditionally, high self-esteem, unlike narcissism, predicts lower children’s self-esteem is predicted by child-reported but not levels of anxiety and depression over time (23). An important parent-reported parental warmth is consistent with sociometer question,