Actually, many Americans see themselves that way, too.

American flag in from of building
© jordi Borràs i Vivó / Flickr
Americans have a reputation for not exactly caring what the rest of the world thinks about them—a trait many public figures have lately been doing their best to enhance with each hysterical rant against refugees and immigrants. Turns out that message of self-absorption has long been received.

In a series of studies published this month, an international group of behavioral researchers finds a universal perception of Americans as exceptionally—even "problematically"—narcissistic. People living both inside and outside the U.S. rate the typical American much more highly on that measure than they rate themselves, their friends, or (for foreigners) the average citizen of their own country. In many cases those ratings were strong enough to meet clinical medical standards for a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Here's the upshot, via the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:
Americans and non-Americans alike perceive other Americans as highly narcissistic. This finding does not simply reflect perceptions of higher levels of agentic traits but instead reflects the belief that the typical American is grandiose, callous, and self-centered. Although an inflated view of narcissism of a typical member of one's culture is shared across a diverse set of regions and cultures, the effects are generally smaller in other regions of the world.

Comment: If by "effects are generally smaller" the author means that American narcissism doesn't really touch the lives of those living in other countries, then unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. By looking at decades of evidence that increases with each passing day, it's impossible to deny America's effects on the world community:

The study group, with the psychologist Joshua Miller of the University of Georgia as lead author, conducted a half-dozen surveys at home and abroad to determine the extent of perceived American narcissism. The standard personality tests used to draw their conclusions captured casual traits related to narcissism (e.g. "immodesty, self-absorption, entitlement, exploitativeness, and callousness") as well as official psychiatric markers designated by the DSM-V manual. The general protocol asked participants to rate themselves, an acquaintance from the same country, and the character of an average American.

Across the board, results were quite similar. Two of the surveys focused on American perceptions of Americans. One group included middle-aged folks (52 years old on average) found at a mall in Athens, Georgia; another included college students. In both cases, participants rated "the character of Americans in general" as significantly more narcissistic than they rated themselves.

That said, not all narcissism is created equal. What these study participants seemed to have in mind was a person generally characterized as antagonistic, with signs of being "immodest, self-centered, dishonest, noncompliant, callous." In another test, with an online sample, participants suggested that the sort of person they envisioned was not a young, rich celebrity, but rather a pretty normal person in terms of education, wealth, and health. To the American eye, then, U.S. narcissism is not so much Justin Bieber as Average Joe.

The findings largely held true when Miller and company expanded their research beyond the borders to include residents of Spain, China, Turkey, and the U.K. Again, even in these countries, participants rated their average countryman's narcissism as much higher than their own. But overall, they also rated the average American's narcissism as much higher still (though Turkey's ratings didn't quite reach statistical significance for the narcissism trait).

narcissism chart
© CityLab
For good measure, the researchers ran another global study, recruiting 377 adults from dozens of countries and regions, including India, Australia, Egypt, and Romania. Once again, the average U.S. narcissism score came in significantly higher than the average person imagined from the participant's own country. That was true not only for total narcissism, but also for specific aspects of that trait related to authority, "grandiose exhibitionism," and entitlement-exploitativeness.

As Miller et al point out in their conclusion, many of the narcissism ratings perceived to be associated with the "typical" American—by both fellow Americans and participants living outside the U.S. alike—reached clinical standards for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Here's their take, with PNC (short for "perceptions of national character") referring to the average American:
In fact, in all three studies (Studies 1, 2, and 5) that used American samples, the mean PNC ratings for NPD were above the diagnostic threshold for this disorder, meaning that Americans in general were rated by their compatriots as meeting criteria for pathological narcissism as articulated in the DSM - 5. ... The same was true for perceptions of Americans provided by non-American participants. The mean PNC ratings of the United States for NPD provided by citizens of other countries were also above the diagnostic threshold for all countries and regions except China.
The researchers offer a few plausible ideas why the world would see Americans as being narcissists of a higher order, even relatively speaking. One is Twitter, that cauldron of self-righteousness, visible to all but so heavily populated by U.S. users. Another is America's general standing as a global economic and military power, as well as its actions on the world stage.


Comment:

But in some sense the findings are a basic reminder that people tend to think more highly of themselves than they do of others—a point the narcissists, in their own antagonistic way, have been making all along.