Men Beware, Narcissism Is Bad For Your Health,

Feeling entitled? Want to exploit other people? Sometimes life isn’t fair: just when everything seems perfect, scientists are claiming that there’s a downside to narcissism. Researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia examined the role of narcissism,– you know, an inflated sense of self-importance, overestimations of uniqueness, and a sense of grandiosity– on cortisol levels, which are often used as a marker of psychological stress. A University of Michigan news release explains that the researchers gave 106 students a 40-question test to determine their level of narcissism, then measured their cortisol levels. What did they find? Bad news for men who love themselves too much. The most toxic aspects of narcissism were associated with higher cortisol in men, but curiously, not in women. In fact, unhealthy narcissism was more than twice as large a predictor of cortisol in males as in females. What’s up with that? The researchers note that even though narcissists have grandiose self-perceptions, they also have fragile views of themselves, and when their sense of superiority is threatened they often resort to coping strategies like aggression, that are linked with increased cardiovascular reactivity to stress and higher blood pressure. Read more from the University of Michigan.