You may not be a narcissist yourself but the chances are you definitely know one.

Narcissists are everywhere; they are at work, online and even in our own homes.

Jeffrey Kluger is a senior writer and editor for Time Magazine and in his new book, he has tried to illustrate how we can better interact with people who are self centered. 

Narcissists are intelligent, confident, articulate and often the centre of attention.

It is hard to not be sucked in by these attractive qualities but Kluger points out that it is important to not be overtaken by them.

There are millions of them in the United States alone, these could be entertainers, politicians and business people.

The term “narcissism,” is thrown around a lot in popular culture but what many do not realise is that it is actually a clinical personality disorder affecting 1 to 3 percent of the population.

Kluger describes how this condition persists:

“Successful narcissists have a whole lot of sex, which means they’re statistically likelier to have a whole lot of babies—at least compared to everyone else. This highly adaptive component of narcissism gives it a big edge over other disorders in getting passed down to the next generation.”

Due to the nature of this personality disorder, certain professions seem to attract narcissists like politicians or actors for instance.

Kluger states in his book that he certainly thinks you see it at almost epidemic levels in politicians.

“Richard Nixon was clearly suffering from mass-model narcissism, a level of grandiosity that conceals its direct opposite.”

He also describes another famous American president who met his downfall due to his egotistical tendencies; Bill Clinton was unable to control his own narcissistic impulses resulting in the sex scandal we are all too familiar with.