A new research shows that the best way to know if a person is a narcissist is to ask him.

According to Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology from Ohio State University, said that narcissistic people are almost proud of the fact that they are narcissists.

Bushman said these people believe that narcissism is not a negative quality, they have superiority complex and are fine saying it in public.

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In study, Bushman and his colleagues used a method called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, which involves 40 questions that can help determine if a person is narcissistic or not.

The questions measure the various components of narcissism like vanity, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, authority, superiority, self-sufficiency and entitlement.

The researchers found that narcissistic people do not have much empathy for others.

However, Bushman and his colleagues agree that a better understanding of narcissism has wider societal implications. For example, they found that narciccists are not capable of empathy, a characteristic that allows people to be charitable.

He said identifying narcissistic people is one step to solve individual and societal problems.

"[Narcissists are] those who think they are already great don't try to improve themselves," Bushman said. "And narcissism is bad for society because people who are only thinking of themselves and their own interests are less helpful to others.".

Despite their findings, the researchers believe that their methodology is not the be all and end all of all narcissism evaluations.

Bushman said there are other extensive tests about narcissism that can tell what type of narcissism a person has.

Narcissism is a psychological condition focused on egotistical admiration of one's own physical attributes.

The term Narcissism came from Narcissus, a character from a Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection in the water.

TagsNarcissism, psychology, Research