The eating habits that reveal your partner may be a narcissist

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

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Psychologists have zeroed in on a series of eating habits that could give you a clue that the person sitting across the dinner table might just be a narcissist.

They found eating meat was a telltale sign linked to the personality disorder — particularly if the person provides a 'hierarchical justification' like 'humans are at the top of the food chain,' researchers said.

Scientists theorized that narcissists' preference for meat stemmed from 'Dark Triad' personality traits 'associated with more negative attitudes toward animals.' 

'Psychopathy,' too, they noted, 'linked to behaviors demonstrating animal cruelty.'

A performative preference for healthy foods while in social situations was another trait associated with narcissists, and a tendency to overestimate the health benefits of treats like red wine and dark chocolate as well as so-called 'superfoods,' in private.

'Grandiose narcissists exhibit a great desire to maintain a pretentious self-image,' the researchers found, leading to 'a stronger focus on health-related hazards when narcissists were exposed to a social environment.'

However, Many of these distinctions between narcissistic and ordinary eating habits vanished when the researchers looked a women exclusively. 

This divergence between the sexes might be linked to past evidence suggesting that 'dieting may work primarily as a female strategy in mating and status competition,' as one team of psychologists in China theorized.

According to a growing body of research, performative or showy preferences for healthy foods while eating in social situations was one trait linked to narcissists, including tendencies to overestimate the health benefits of treats, like red wine and dark chocolate, and 'superfoods'

According to a growing body of research, performative or showy preferences for healthy foods while eating in social situations was one trait linked to narcissists, including tendencies to overestimate the health benefits of treats, like red wine and dark chocolate, and 'superfoods'

For carnivores, the research linking narcissism to meat-eating came from a series of studies published by German psychologist Dr. Rayna Sariyska-Garvels and her colleagues in 2019.

Their work focused not just on the clinical definition of narcissism, but related 'Dark Triad' traits like manipulative behavior or 'Machiavellianism,' and psychopathy.

Dr Sariyska-Garvels' work linked eating habits to narcissism via tracking of seven core emotional systems that are detectable in the brain and grounded in neurobiological testing: seeking, care, play, lust, anger, fear and sadness. 

Of these seven emotional systems, 'seeking' and 'care' were strongly associated with the consumption of fruits and vegetables, while the other five ('play,' 'lust,' 'anger,' 'fear' and 'sadness') were not.

'Care, sadness [and] fear,' the team wrote in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, 'were negatively associated with the consumption of red meat and pork.'

'Anger,' by contrast — a core emotion most linked to narcissism and other Dark Triad traits like traits Machiavellianism and psychopathy — was 'positively associated with meat eating,' according to Dr Sariyska-Garvels and her coauthors.

A total of 1,140 participants took part in the first half of the study and 444 participants in the second half, each filling out an 'Eating Behavior Questionnaire,' an 'Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale' test, and a 'Short Dark Triad Scale' test.

People who score at least 3.08 on a one-to-seven narcissism scale, perceived much higher health hazards in a durian fruit when they were exposed to the fruit in a social situation (figure above). Scientists picked the Asian fruit because it was unfamiliar to most western test subjects allowing them to better control the information

People who score at least 3.08 on a one-to-seven narcissism scale, perceived much higher health hazards in a durian fruit when they were exposed to the fruit in a social situation (figure above). Scientists picked the Asian fruit because it was unfamiliar to most western test subjects allowing them to better control the information

As with other studies, however, this apparent link was only present when male study subjects were factored-in. 

One 2022 study found male narcissists showed a higher tendency for 'uncontrolled eating' (38.9 percent correlation) and 'emotional eating' (30.8 percent correlation).

'An explanation for the obtained results,' wrote psychologist Dr Liping Shi, the study's lead author, 'is that narcissism is positively associated with impulsivity.'

But the Dark Triad trait of Machiavellianism actually helped women avoid the 'reckless eating behaviors' documented in similarly manipulative men, Dr Shi noted in his 2022 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

WHAT ARE THE 'DARK TRIAD' PERSONALITY TRAITS?

The Dark Triad is a name given to three personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

When all three traits are found in a single person, it implies a malevolent personality.

All three dark triad traits are conceptually distinct, but have been shown to have an overlap.

Narcissism is characterised by grandiosity, pride, egotism, and a lack of empathy.

Machiavellianism is characterised by manipulation and exploitation of others. It is also often linked to a cynical disregard for morality, and a focus on self-interest and deception.

Psychopathy is characterised by continuing antisocial behaviour, impulsivity, selfishness, callousness, and remorselessness.

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Dr Shi attributed this to two factors, with the first being societal pressures on women to be thin. 

The second derived from past studies that 'found that those high in Machiavellianism have strategic planning and a longer-term orientation.' 

'Perhaps these characteristics may promote a slow life strategy,' Dr Shi wrote, 'and thereby diminish uncontrolled eating behaviors.'

Nevertheless, research in the journal Psychology and Marketing last year brings a note of caution for those hoping to spot a friend, a loved one or a colleague's narcissism via the person's eating habits out in the open. 

While narcissists appeared to be overly optimistic regarding the alleged health benefits of foods — including dubiously healthy treats like wine, chocolate and nuts — the tendency for them to over-indulge seems to only hit in private. 

In the case of chocolate, the study's narcissist participants showed a 25 percent higher likelihood of viewing chocolate as more healthy, but particularly in private. 

The explanation is that, while narcissists are often keen to enrich themselves or indulge in their hedonistic pleasures, they are also status-seeking and wary of 'threats to their self-image,' according to the researchers, Renaud Lunardo and Jana Gross.

'Individuals high in narcissism in social situations adopt a protection strategy of their self-image,' Lunardo and Gross wrote, 'focusing more on food health hazards and consequently refraining more from consuming such foods.'

So, those looking for dietary clues to a narcissist may need to be as sneaky and manipulative as a narcissist themselves.

Narcissists were also more likely to overindulge in foods that they perceived as high-octane boosts that could 'help achieve performance goals,' according to their study, which Lunardo and Gross attribute to the the personality type's competitive nature.

'Some foods high in calories, sugar, and fat that can be perceived as energy, or "fuel" for the body,' they also noted, 'are attractive to narcissists.' 

This category included products branded as 'superfoods,' based on research published in the Journal of Consumer Research — anything that gives the narcissist an edge in the game of status and resource competition, they argue.

To further prove their point, Lunardo and Gross also tested their public/private theory against a type of food that their test subjects were unfamiliar with, in order to avoid any preconceived health notions: durian fruit.

Scientists, who teach at the KEDGE Business School in France, picked the Asian fruit because it was unfamiliar to most western test subjects, thus allowing them to better control the flow of information. 

Participants who score at least 3.08 on a one-to-seven narcissism scale, perceived much higher health hazards in a durian fruit when they were exposed to it in a social situation than in private, helping confirm the narcissist's obsession with social status.

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