Today’s generation of college students is the most self-centered in the history of America, a new study reveals. The study, the largest of its type ever conducted, examined responses by over 16,000 college students across the nation from 1982 through to 2006. Over almost a quarter-century, the scores have steadily risen to the point where, now, two thirds of the students believe they are above average.

Such news should hardly be surprising. After all, when parents are discouraged to properly discipline their children, when teachers have to prioritize a student’s self-esteem above his or her education, when the word no is a word to be avoided at all costs, along with the color red and checks on a student’s work—when societal political correctness precludes telling a person he is wrong from the time he is a young child—there is little reason to be surprised that a “me generation” has emerged. Indeed, many of the researchers’ conclusions do little more than point out what, to any objective person, is blatantly obvious.

For example, in response to the practice of endlessly repeating to children that they are special, the lead author of the study, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, asserts that “Kids are self-centered enough already.”

Associated Press reports that the study, titled “Egos Inflating Over Time,” points out that narcissists “tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.” The study asserts that narcissists “are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors.”

The authors of this study contend that society’s drive to raise the self-esteem of young people may in fact be producing the opposite results to what a brainwashed public has been led to believe. The trend that has emerged, say the psychologists who conducted the study, could be detrimental to personal relationships and American society as a whole.

The authors point to the “self-esteem movement” that began in the 1980s as the cause of self-esteem gone out of control. Twenge cites the example of pre-schoolers commonly being indoctrinated through singing “I am special, I am special. Look at me” to the melody of “Frere Jacques.” She also points to today’s technology as fueling the “look at me” attitude via Internet sites such as MySpace and YouTube. W. Keith Campbell of the University of Georgia, a co-author of the study, points to permissiveness on the part of parents as being part of the problem.

These factors are entirely valid. However, these experts fail to comprehend the root cause of our increasingly self-centered society. In today’s upside-down society—where so often, good is considered evil and evil good—the very elements of human nature that cause problems are promoted and venerated.

The late educator Herbert W. Armstrong pinpointed where this human nature comes from: Satan the devil. The way of the devil is “based on self-centeredness, on vanity, lust and greed, on envy, jealousy, the spirit of competition, hatred, violence and destruction, on darkness and error, instead of light and truth, on ugliness instead of beauty” (Mystery of the Ages).

It is only when people choose to live opposite this way that the attitudes being displayed by the “me” generation—and by humanity as a whole—can be eradicated. Read Repentance Toward God and Mystery of the Ages to learn about the way of life that produces all things good: the way of give and outgoing concern.