This Seemingly Narcissistic Habit May Actually Be Good For You

There are a number of famous third-person talkers in the universe right now: First and foremost, we have former President Donald Trump, a man that slips into third person so often, you’d think he was referring to an entirely different man named Donald Trump. Case in point?

• “They all want the endorsement of Trump,” he said of his political influence in 2021. “It’s a very important treasure.”
• “You wouldn’t even be hearing about immigration if it weren’t for Donald Trump,”he said of the evergreen issue in an interview with NBC during the 2016 election.
• “Somebody please explain to Michelle Obama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren’t for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama,” a petulant tweet of his read in August 2022, after the former first lady said criticized a then in-office Trump.

Trump talks ― and writes ― in third person so often, The Washington Post was able to cobble together a one-minute, 46-second video of his best third-person moments in 2019. (Imagine how long the clip would be now.)

But our former president isn’t the only person who has a penchant for slipping into third person. It’s not just a Boomer thing, either. Fans of the third person can be found across generations.

LeBron James, an elder millennial, did so in 2010, when he announced he was leaving his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, for a spot on the Miami Heat: “I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James and what LeBron James was going to do to make him happy.” Alix Earle, a Gen Z influencer with over 6.4 million followers on TikTok, gets self-referential often online, referring to herself as “Big Al” in her “get ready with me” stories.

When we’re little, many of us speak in third