‘Female narcissism is often misdiagnosed’: how science is finding women can have a dark streak too

Scientists long assumed that women were simply too wonderful to be significantly psychopathic or narcissistic, and didn’t bother to study the possibility much.

Ava Green from City St George’s, University of London , has shown that while men are more likely to have grandiose narcissism, women more commonly display the vulnerable form, involving introversion, defensiveness and low self-esteem.

Men typically score higher than women on machiavellianism and its more severe cousin, psychopathy.

These traits are similar, but Machavellian people tend to have better impulse control and ability to play the long game.

Psychopaths, after all, have high levels of charm and charisma.

Women with such traits may create havoc in workplaces, relationships, families and society.

If we are to rehabilitate those who commit crimes, male or female, we need to get the psychological profiling right.

People with psychopathy are much harder to treat and more likely to reoffend than others.

We might be better off using a slightly lower cut-off score for criminal women.