The narcissist engages in sustained and piercing eye contact and normally refrains from bodily contact, physical proximity, or from entering in a discussion unless from a state of condescension, superiority and faked "magnanimity and largesse".
As a form of love-bombing
Did you feel as if they were looking into your very soul with their intense gaze? Narcissists will often use this intense stare to introduce a sense of closeness. Staring deeply into another person's eyes is intimate and even sexual.
Narcissists are always looking at the external, and they will want to see in your eyes that you adore them and accept them as being the incredible person they have projected. Perhaps most importantly, they are seeking validation.
The narcissist stares to gain dominance over you. The stare is meant to make you feel uncomfortable and make you feel as if you are in danger or doing something wrong. The narcissist never wants you to feel comfortable in your life because it will make you much harder to control and manipulate.
You may only catch a fleeting glimpse of a narcissist's predatory stare, but you'll never forget how uncomfortable it makes you. Somehow, the eyes of a narcissist go completely cold and blank, with none of the warmth or intimacy you usually get from prolonged eye contact.
In particular, eyebrow thickness and a high density of hair were most likely to be used as an accurate judge of narcissism.
Narcissists tend to display exaggerated body language and facial expressions. The 1990 study on conversational narcissism also found that narcissists tend to be overly dramatic in their hand gestures and facial expressions. They may also speak in a loud tone of voice.
Narcissists do enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror. They may spend more time grooming themselves to bolster their grandiose self-images. In this way, narcissists may be more prone to self-objectify—and identify with and to base their self-worth on their external appearance, instead of their character.
People can identify narcissists just from looking at their faces, psychologists have discovered. In fact, the eyebrows alone can reveal narcissistic traits in people, research reveals. Grandiose narcissists have thicker and denser eyebrows and people automatically pick up on this cue.
Narcissists are more likely to wear expensive, flashy clothing, have an organized, neat appearance requiring a lot of preparation, and (in females) wear makeup and show cleavage.
Narcissists engage in mirroring as a manipulative tactic to lure in and manipulate others to serve their own needs. They mirror to: Form their own sense of identity. Gain your trust and create a sense of intimacy.
Narcissists just don't have a healthy relationship to themselves to provide them with grounding and stability. They rely on feedback from the environment for their self-image. So the reflection tells them that they exist and helps define them. Without it, they don't know who they are.
Therefore, somatic narcissists are obsessed with their physical appearance and weight, often securing self-worth from their body image. On the other hand, cerebral narcissists gain their sense of value from their intellect.
In fact, narcissists prefer to target someone who is strong-willed, and who has talents or characteristics they admire, because they believe it makes them shine too. "Narcissists are drawn to those who can boost their own self-esteem and validate their sense of importance," Wasser told Insider.
Often, a narcissist will retaliate by ignoring you. This is a means to punish you for puncturing their delusions. They're also avoiding you because a narcissist's sense of self is too unstable to resolve conflict. They are putting you in a position to make you desperate for their approval.
But a new study has found an unexpected physical symptom of the trait. According to researchers, narcissists give themselves away by blushing when they're on the receiving end of only modest praise.
Feeling uncomfortable around displaying genuine emotions, the narcissist may view it as “wrong” and criticize you when you do it. They may say something like, “Are you crying over THIS!” or, “This is embarrassing!”
Perhaps it is not surprising, but researchers found that narcissists tend be more physically attractive than average.
DISSOCIATIVE GAPS AND CONFABULATION. Narcissists and psychopaths dissociate (erase memories) a lot (are amnesiac) because their contact with the world and with others is via a fictitious construct: The False Self. Narcissists never experience reality directly but through a distorting lens darkly.
Highly narcissistic men feel emotional distress rather than delight when viewing pictures of themselves, according to new research, which may help us understand how narcissism works in our social media age.
Narcissists are self-obsessed and control others for their personal gain; they're notorious for using a few specific tactics for getting and maintaining this control. First, narcissists guarantee success by targeting codependents: They also try to make others feel special using compliments and flattery.
In fact, the love language of the narcissist is to get you to do all the work of the relationship. They feel “loved” when you are proving your love and loyalty. They believe you are invested into the relationship when you invest more into them than you invest in you.
In addition to hoarding conversation time, narcissistic communicators also tend to control and direct conversation topics. They focus on what they want to talk about, the way they want to talk about it, with little or no consideration for alternate views.