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"  Oh, man: Divas. I got tired just typing the word. The modern diva, already formidable enough talking loudly about &amp;quot;all the drama&amp;quot; in the halls of high school, comes in all shapes and sizes, now exacerbated by the existence of Twitter and Facebook. Cryptic status updates that feature a song lyric and one forlorn ellipses (e.g. &amp;quot;Why can&amp;#039;t I breathe whenever I think about you...&amp;quot;). Gallery upon gallery of Photobooth selfies. We all know at least one of them. Maybe you are one of them. A friend of mine recently made the most accurate statement about a diva we know: &amp;quot;When you talk to her, you can tell that she&amp;#039;s thinking about how pretty she looks as she&amp;#039;s reacting to what you&amp;#039;re saying.&amp;quot; Zing. Nail on the head.  We&amp;#039;re used to reading profiles of female celebrities that open with &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s not your typical A-list diva.&amp;quot; Usually there&amp;#039;s some kind of significant indication towards the beginning of the profile that punctures our assumptions of the star&amp;#039;s high-maintenance behavior... but is being a Beyonc\u00E9-level diva all bad? Barbra, Bette and Cher aside, while divas (or male &amp;quot;divos&amp;quot;) may bug the crap out of you, the Wall Street Journal posits that being around &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot; divas can actually be a positive influence on you. These high-performing, high-maintenence narcissists, in demanding perfection, can teach you the benefits of valuing yourself more. (Think Mariah packing up her diamonds and clothes and leaving her cheating asshole boyfriend on &amp;quot;Shake It Off.&amp;quot;)      They&amp;#039;re also fun, positive, and willing to share the spotlight. &amp;quot;Having a healthy diva around brings a lot of sparkle,&amp;quot; says a psychologist quoted in the essay. &amp;quot;They make your world more interesting and pleasurable because you can bask in their spotlight with them.&amp;quot; Then there are the &amp;quot;unhealthy&amp;quot; divas, whose attitude springs from oodles of self-hate rather than self-love. They&amp;#039;re needy, selfish, negative, and fiercely backstabby. Their relationships with friends and lovers often burn bright for a short time, then fizzle when the people around them are unable to take it anymore. They possess the power of &amp;quot;Machiavellian intelligence&amp;quot; (i.e. manipulation) rather than the healthy diva&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;charismatic intelligence.&amp;quot; (Machiavellian principles involve &amp;quot;breaking someone down&amp;quot; to build them back up; just for a frame of reference, it&amp;#039;s one of the primary characteristics in the PUA--pick-up artist--community.) The article also suggests that diva behavior stems from evolutionary development, which makes sense when you consider Darwin&amp;#039;s survival of the fittest. Those who demand what they want flourish, and those who don&amp;#039;t are eliminated. Follow Anna on Twitter: @annabreslaw Photo via ABC "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a12367/diva-behavior-study/?click=cos_new>