Narcissists would ideally want to date themselves. geralt / Pixabay There are three main stages in a narcissist's relationship: idealize, devalue and discard.

As the partner of a narcissist, the relationship starts off being everything you ever wanted and ends with you being cast aside, feeling worthless.

Breaking up with a narcissist is hard, but many people who've done it report that they finally understood how badly they were treated once the relationship was over, and vowed never to fall for the same tricks again.

However, others find themselves repeatedly attracted to these people, no matter how many times they've been discarded. The reasons for this vary; sometimes personal psychological factors cause people to fall for narcissists, while some narcissists are just very good at appearing desirable.

A 2016 study published in the European Journal of Personality asked 90 people to go on dates, and rate each other's appeal as potential short- and long-term partners. The results of nearly 700 dates showed those with the highest scores on the study's narcissism scale were more likely to be considered "desirable" by those who dated them.

Here are three reasons people find narcissists so appealing, as well as three ways to avoid the cycle of getting sucked into relationships with them.