But after hearing over and over that narcissistic self-absorption and perfectionism are fueling the current surge in cosmetic surgery, researchers at Canada’s Dalhousie University decided to dig a little deeper. To do so, they recruited 305 female undergraduates and asked each of them to complete a well-established diagnostic questionnaire that measured narcissism and perfectionism, as well as a questionnaire that measured interest in cosmetic surgery.
The researchers found that neither narcissism nor perfectionism predicted interest in cosmetic surgery. However, women who scored high on both diagnostic measures showed the strongest interest in cosmetic surgery of any woman in the study.
The implications of this study could be profound—for cosmetic surgeons. The authors speculate that cosmetic surgeons’ patients may be demanding and demanding to a fault—and, by diagnosis, “almost impossible to please,” no matter how successful their cosmetic surgery was objectively.
Next: How would 305 plastic surgeons fare on measures of depression, anger, and desire for a new career?
