gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

, the analysis of gender differences in

narcissism Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism, named after the Greek mythological figure ''Narcissus'', has evolv ...

shows that male narcissism and female narcissism differ in a number of aspects.

Jeffrey Kluger Jeffrey Kluger (born 1954) is an American editor at large at Time (magazine), ''Time'' magazine and author of thirteen books on various topics, such as ''The Narcissist Next Door'' (2014); ''Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio' ...

, in his 2014 book ''The Narcissist Next Door'' suggested that our society, still largely

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

, is more likely to tolerate male

and

aggressiveness Aggression is behavior aimed at opposing or attacking something or someone. Though often done with the intent to cause harm, some might channel it into creative and practical outlets. It may occur either reactively or without provocation. In h ...

than these of females. This assertion was voiced, although without definite proof, by a number of researchers. In 2015 a number of media outlets reportedJeffrey Kluger
"Why Men Are More Narcissistic Than Women"
/ref> a study at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

which analyzed 31 years of data of narcissism research and concluded that men consistently scored higher in the first two of three aspects of the

Narcissistic Personality Inventory The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) was developed in 1979 by Raskin and Hall, and since then, has become one of the most widely utilized personality measures for non-clinical levels of the trait narcissism. Since its initial development, t ...

leadership Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group of other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' may be practiced by legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government,''The New Fontana Dictionary of M ...

, exploitative/

entitlement Entitled or Entitlement may refer to: Social sciences and philosophy * Entitlement (fair division) * Entitlement program * Entitlement commodities * Entitlement (psychology) In psychology, entitlement mentality is defined as a sense of deserv ...

, and grandiose/

exhibitionism Exhibitionism is the act of exposing in a public or semi-public context one's intimate parts – for example, the breasts, genitals or buttocks. As used in psychology and psychiatry, it is substantially different. It refers to an uncontrolla ...

. However recent research suggests narcissistic women don't display the same traits associated with narcissism especially in men, women with narcissistic personality are less likely to be diagnosed as a narcissist, presenting more of the vulnerable type naracism The team leader of the research, Emily Grijalva, commented that on average this difference is slight (a one-quarter of a

standard deviation In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation of the values of a variable about its Expected value, mean. A low standard Deviation (statistics), deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean ( ...

) and there was almost no difference in the exhibitionism dimension (which covers such aspects as vanity, self-absorption and

attention-seeking Attention seeking behavior is to act in a way that is likely to elicit attention. Attention seeking behavior as a pathological personality trait is defined in the DSM-5 as "engaging in behavior designed to attract notice and to make oneself the fo ...

). A similar degree of difference is observed for other

personality trait In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of ''traits'', which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thou ...

s, e.g., slightly higher

neuroticism Neuroticism is a personality trait associated with negative emotions. It is one of the Big Five traits. Individuals with high scores on neuroticism are more likely than average to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry, fear, anger, shame ...

for women or slightly higher risk-taking for men."Narcissism increases the chance you'll be seen as a leader, especially if you're a man"
Emily Grijalva, Monday 9 March 2015, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' Neuroticism has been linked to vulnerable narcissism. Research has found that women tend to be more clandestine with their narcissism, with vulnerable narcissism being more common in women and much harder to diagnose: "Narcissistic women are abusing in ways that society allows. They often leverage their femininity, present themselves as soft-spoken, but it is cunning; it's premeditated" says Dr Green. Green added: "These findings show that narcissistic women are less likely to manifest the stereotypical expressions of grandiose narcissism that closely resemble masculine features of males in society, potentially due to fears of receiving backlash for violating feminine gender stereotypes. The reasons of reported gender difference were outside the scope of the study, however the authors speculated that it is rooted in historically established social conventions about what is acceptable for a particular gender and what are the traditional

social role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, moral obligation, obligations, beliefs, and social norm, norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behav ...

s for genders. A number of earlier studies (on smaller scales) reported similar bias. A further indication for the trend was a 2008 finding that the lifetime

narcissistic personality disorder Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of grandiosity, exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathy, empathize w ...

is more prevalent for men (7.7%) than for women (4.8%). A 2023 comprehensive study published in the ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'' measured gender differences in narcissism among a sample size of over 250,000 people, found that men scored higher in narcissism than women.

References

Further reading