Older generations often complain about the younger generations.

“Young people today are so narcissistic, entitled, vain, and self-centered!”

Similar statements are made about each new generation. It appears these characteristics may not be describing the current generation of young people so much as young people in general.

While there isn’t exactly a cure or treatment for narcissistic personalities, these traits may lessen or change as people age.

Can Personality Change As We Get Older?

Typically, personality traits are assumed to be fairly consistent throughout a person’s entire life.

However, some traits are malleable and modifiable.

It might not be a dramatic transformation like when Scrooge was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, but personality can change over time with the right circumstances.

There’s a general tendency for everyone to become more conscientious, more agreeable, and more emotionally stable as we get older. There’s also a pattern of people becoming less open to change and more rigid in their thinking and beliefs.

While some of our personality traits stay the same, others may slowly evolve.

How Narcissism Can Diminish With Age

We can mature and grow, learn new strategies for managing our emotions and behavior, and change how we think about ourselves and others.

Getting older involves different social interaction situations, and these experiences can help us become more emotionally intelligent and aware. It can lead us to become more accepting of others and ourselves as we age, less critical and judgmental, and more compassionate.

In addition, older individuals have had more time to accumulate life experiences, giving them a more complex and nuanced view of the world.

This increased life experience can also lead to people becoming more reflective, insightful, and introspective as they age.

Raising a family appears to be one of the main experiences that can lead to people becoming more emotionally intelligent and less narcissistic.

In other cases, narcissism might get worse. This is often due to how the associated traits can be reinforced in people in positions of leadership or power. It can also get worse due to increased stress or frustration from unfulfilled affirmations.

As we age, it’s crucial to adapt and continue working on ourselves. If you notice personality traits in yourself that you don’t like or are causing problems in your life, it’s never too late to work on changing them and becoming a better person.