Revealed: The key sign your partner is a NARCISSIST

Daily Mail​

11 hours ago

From a constant need for attention to always checking their looks in the mirror, there are plenty of signs that your partner might be a narcissist.
But if you really want to know the secrets of someone's psychology, scientists say there is one surprising sign you should look for.
Psychologists from Georgia Southern University compared narcissistic traits to how people felt about their favourite celebrities.
And if your partner is an Oasis superfan or a die-hard Swifty, then it might be bad news.
The researchers found that the more someone admires celebrities, the more likely they are to have a trait called 'vulnerable narcissism'.
That means they are more likely to have a fragile ego, a deep fear of rejection, low self-esteem, and a preoccupation with self-image.
This was also true for people who saw themselves as more alike with their favourite celebrity.
The more vulnerable narcissist traits someone had, the more similar in terms of appearance, behaviour, and personality someone thought they were to a celeb.
Previous studies have suggested that celebrity culture is having a growing impact on individual psychology.
As we are more exposed to public figures through platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, the lives of celebrities have begun to feel much closer to our own.
Some researchers believe that these one-sided relationships, known as parasocial interactions, could have a big impact on someone's self-image and emotional well-being.
To investigate this connection, researchers from Georgia Southern University recruited 215 mainly female undergraduate students and surveyed them on their values and attitudes.
Each participant answered questions about their feelings towards celebrities, materialistic values and narcissistic traits, alongside questions about how similar they felt they were to their favourite celeb.
Celebrity worship was measured on a scale, known as the Celebrity Attitude Scale, ranging from low levels of admiration for their work to intense obsessions.
At the highest end of the scale, the focus on a celebrity veered into potentially dangerous territory with an expression of willingness to commit crimes for them.
Narcissism, meanwhile, was measured in both its forms - the more emotionally sensitive vulnerable narcissism and the more assertive grandiose narcissism.
Unlike vulnerable narcissists, grandiose narcissists are characterised by their exaggerated self-confidence, charisma, sense of entitlement, and inflated sense of self-importance.
The analysis, published in the International Journal of Psychology, revealed that only the vulnerable form of narcissism was significantly related to celebrity worship.
'Notably, perceived similarity and vulnerable narcissism were uniquely predictive of celebrity worship,' they wrote.
Previous studies have suggested that the type of car you drive can also indicate you might be a narcissist.
Analysis of 2,000 motorists revealed that BMW drivers show the most narcissistic tendencies.
Meanwhile, people who opted for personalised licence plates were also more likely to score highly for narcissism.
BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES? YOU'RE PROBABLY A NARCISSIST, RESEARCHERS SAY
People who doubt the moon landings are more likely to be selfish and attention-seeking, according to a 2015 study.
Over the course of three online-based studies, researchers at the University of Kent showed strong links between the belief in conspiracy theories and negative psychological traits.
Writing in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, the team explained: 'Previous research linked the endorsement of conspiracy theories to low self-esteem.'
In the first study, a total of 202 participants completed questionnaires on conspiracy beliefs, asking how strongly they agreed with specific statements, such as whether governments carried out acts of terrorism on their own soil.
Alongside this, they were asked to complete a narcissist scale and a self-esteem assessment.
The results showed that those people who rated highly on the narcissism scale and who had low self-esteem were more likely to be conspiracy believers.