psychology
This surprising habit is how you recognize narcissistic people
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It is often not that easy to expose a person with narcissistic tendencies. But according to a study, there is a surprising feature that could help.
Basically, people with narcissistic tendencies are characterized by a number of personality traits: They constantly need attention and confirmation, disregard the boundaries of those around them and often show no empathy whatsoever. But according to some recent studies, what a person eats and drinks – and when – could also be very revealing.
What do people with narcissistic traits eat?
A team of researchers led by Professor Renaud Lunardo from the Kedge Business School in Bordeaux, France, has… A total of three studies examined how food decisions are related to personality structures such as narcissism. The participants were explained what health benefits and risks certain foods have.
“The idea came to me through previous work on narcissism,” explains Renaud Lunardo. “It showed that most narcissistic people drink more wine than others – simply to show off.” The scientist’s basic idea was that wine is particularly well received socially because it is a complex drink. He therefore wanted to test whether this connection also applies to other foods, such as particularly healthy foods that also enjoy a very high social status.
The 644 participants in the first study were offered wine with the information that it has health-promoting properties due to the polyphenols it contains, but that it can be very harmful in large quantities. In the second study, the participants were offered chocolate, including the information that it was not necessarily healthy overall, but that it contained antioxidants that can protect the cells.
Why narcissistic people might be more likely to consume unhealthy foods
The people in the two studies who were surveyed as having narcissistic tendencies (though not necessarily eligible for a clinical diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder) consumed both more wine and more chocolate. According to the study authors, this is probably because they greatly overemphasized health benefits and downplayed the risks. That confirmed the result previous studies, that narcissism can be accompanied by an optimism bias. This means that people with narcissistic tendencies tend to overestimate their own susceptibility to positive events and underestimate their own susceptibility to negative events.
In other words: Narcissistic people apparently tend to assume that the health dangers of chocolate and wine will not affect them, but that the potential positive effects will certainly come into their own.
In the third study, 333 Americans were asked to imagine that someone was offering them the relatively unknown durian fruit. In one scenario this should happen when you are alone at home, in a second scenario when you are out with friends and colleagues. The participants were informed by the researchers that durian is very good for heart health, but at the same time it smells unpleasant. The result: Because they apparently focused more on the negative effects such as the smell in society, people with narcissistic tendencies were less likely to eat durian in a group setting.
Study suggests connection between personality and eating behavior
So does this mean that any person who enjoys eating or drinking foods with ambiguous effects on our health has narcissistic tendencies? Or any person who chooses different foods with others than alone?
Of course not, what we eat when and what we choose in which scenario ultimately depends on very different factors. But this and previous studies show that people who exhibit narcissistic personality traits often make dining decisions differently based on how their eating behavior might appear to others and how it might potentially affect their health, often being a bit overly optimistic about possible outcomes Approach the effects of a food.
Sources used: mindbodygreen.com, onlinelibrary.wiley.com, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov