Narcissism Is Now Officially Bad For Your Health

We all know that over-inflated ego and any form of narcissism can be rather bad for your social life and quite toxic when it comes to relationships, but it seems that this quality may also harm your general health, especially if you are a man.

Researchers over at the Universities of Michigan and Virginia have found that men who were found to be narcissistic, and especially the ones who scored high in 2 destructive qualities – entitlement and exploitativeness, actually had much higher levels cortisol (a stress hormone which causes heart problems and leads to high blood pressure).

“We generally see narcissism as a personality trait that’s bad for others but not narcissists. It’s bad for people in relationships with them,” said Sara Konrath, an assistant research professor at the University of Michigan. “This study was a way of getting under their skin to see if there are physical consequences.”

Narcissism and Dominance

Even though the data researches gleaned didn’t explain why only men seem to be prone higher stress response to narcissism, Konrath says that it is probably because men are predisposed to be more arrogant and display dominance more than women, which leaves men particularly vulnerable to this occurrence.

“They’re at especially high risk because someone who admits they’re stressed out is going to get help, but they’re not likely to. There may be a cost to this jerkiness. It’s a little sad they’re a group that wouldn’t get help if they needed it.”
Still feeling narcissistic?