Telling kids they're special may foster narcissism: study

Miami

CHILDREN who are told they are special by their parents are more likely to become narcissists, according to a study on Monday that aimed to uncover the origins of extreme selfishness.

The research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, is based on 565 children in the Netherlands who were surveyed over the course of a year and a half, along with their parents.

Children whose parents described them as "more special than other children" and as kids who "deserve something extra in life" were more…