If I ruled the world, it would be a better place

science

My title is a complete joke, if I ruled the world there would be puppies and sunflowers everywhere and absolutely nothing productive would be accomplished. But enough about me.

A team of researchers from San Diego State University set out to find if college students today are more self-obsessed than previous generations. They created a Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and examined the responses of 16,475 college students from all over the country from 1982 to 2006.

The NPI included true and false questions such as as:

  • If I ruled the world, it would be a better place
  • I think I am a special person
  • I can live my life any way I want to.

The researchers found that over the years NPI scores steadily increased.  At the conclusion of the study two-thirds of students had above-average scores; which is 30 percent more than in 1982, when the test was first given out. They concluded that college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than ever before.  But what does this mean? Professor Jean Twenge, the head researcher on the study, said “narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.”

Another study by researchers at UCLA found similar results.  They surveyed college freshman on what they thought should be considered priorities in life. In their survey, almost 75 percent of college freshmen said it was important to be “very well-off financially.”

Compare that number to 62.5 percent in 1980 and 42 percent in 1966, it would appear that the team of researchers at San Diego State University were correct in their findings. However, I don’t think that’s the case.  Although based on the numbers the results seem credible, there’s some crucial errors in their research methods that call into question the validity of their findings.

First, by naming the test the Narcissistic Personality Inventory students are predisposed with the notion the test has to do with narcissism.  Having this knowledge before taking the test may have consequently altered how they answered the questions.

Second, are the 16,475 students that took the NPI a good indicator of our population as a whole?  There is no information in the study that indicates what colleges the students came from or what cities they were from.  If all of the students that took the NPI were from top tier colleges with affluent backgrounds, they are not a fair representation of the average college student in America.

This also raises the question, why did they only look at college students instead of young adults as a whole?  It would be interesting to see if this study was replicated with both young adults (not in college) and college students, would the groups score similarly?  If they did, that would beg the question if society (as a whole) is becoming more narcissistic.

There was no independent variable being tested, meaning both reverse causality and confounding variables could explain the findings in the research. In addition, there is no clear hypotheses.  This study took place over the course of 24 years with no clear direction in what the researchers were hoping to prove with their findings. This is a perfect example of the Texas sharp-shooter problem.

Essentially, it appears in this study, the researchers formed a hypothesis to be consistent with the data that they found.  In essence, they used the data to prove something they did not set out to find. Based on the apparent flaws in research design, this study appears to be a false positive, concluding something is going on when, in fact, nothing is.

However, the phenomenon they looked at is an interesting one: is our society becoming more narcissistic, and if so, what is causing this?

5 thoughts on “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place

  1. Caitlin Marie Gailey

    I think your analysis of the study was rightly deserved, I agree that there are some clear issues with the design of the experiment. One of the most glaring was the naming of the study which you mentioned. I find it frustrating that due to the increase in media our generation is under the most scrutiny. It seems that whenever the news cycle seems to slow we tend to focus on how doomed we are because of our generations and those that will follow us. It’s an interesting problem because growing up we are told we are the best and we can do anything we want to. Now that we are older we are told we are narcissistic and that we are to self absorbed. Maybe if older generations didn’t want us to turn out this way they shouldn’t have raised us with such high ideals about self worth.

    Here is an article that unfortunately propitiates this idea:
    http://www.creators.com/opinion/steve-chapman/have-we-raised-a-generation-of-narcissists.html

  2. Megan Fleming Post author

    Hi Marni,
    The idea you raised that the generation that raised our generation created this unproven, yet widely believed phenomenon that we are more narcissistic is very interesting. This made me think of the nature vs nurture idea. If in fact we are a more narcissistic generation, is it because of where we are being raised or how we are being raised? The article you linked focused on the nurture side of the argument. Here’s an article that contributes the rise in narcissism to the environment we are growing up in, attributing it to “increased pressure on children and adolescents to achieve.” http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201401/why-is-narcissism-increasing-among-young-americans

  3. Marni Leigh Silver

    The sample of this experiment being college students intrigues me, prompting me to question if this increased sense of narcissism, over achievement or self entitlement could be an effect of the way our generation has been raised. Has being brought up in a time where possibilities are seemingly endless and where we are told we can do or accomplished nearly anything backfired? Jo Ashline seems to think so in her article Parenting: Are we raising over-confident kids?” offers her advice as to how to balance encouraging a sense of self confidence within one’s child without overdoing it, but it is unlikely that many recognize the potential problem that has been instilled in our generation. Do you think that being raised in this manner this could be a potential cause our narcissm?

  4. Katherine Jane Ballantyne

    I think you were right on with your reasoning for why this issue might not be true. For one, UCLA is a really good school so it makes sense that the students are self-confident and believe in themselves. Another thing I agreed with was the idea that a bias is put on college students, rather than our age group as a whole. Of course, college kids would be more motivated because they’re at college of course! Making money, which you mentioned, of course is important to college students because people go to college to get degrees to get higher earning jobs. Nice job! Interesting post to read.

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