Narcissism is viewed as both a heritable trait and an activated state, but little research has explored how narcissism manifests in populations from an evolutionary perspective. Relying on two nationally representative US samples, we explore how narcissism may be mobilized or manifest in populations that undergo major environmental changes such as migration. More specifically, we treat immigrant generational status as a naturally occurring experiment and explore the differing levels of narcissism of new migrants, first, second and successive generations. We find new immigrants and first-generation Americans have the highest levels of narcissism, but those rates steadily decrease with later generations. Overall, narcissism appears to either be activated in populations under conditions of need, scarcity, stress, and survival, or be a key motivator for people who choose to migrate. Critically important, and from a generational perspective, narcissism declines to the new population level as migrants settle into their new environments.
O’Rourke et al. (2026) studied this question.