Collective narcissism and its social consequences.

2009/01/01 by Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, Aleksandra Cichocka, Roy J. Eidelson +1 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Personality Traits and Psychology #Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression #Ingroups and outgroups #Psychology #Social dominance orientation #Social psychology #Narcissism #Attribution bias #Group conflict #Aggression #Outgroup #Collective responsibility #Social identity theory #Social group #Authoritarianism #Attribution

paper · doi:10.1037/a0016904

openalex publication_date 2009/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of collective narcissism--an emotional investment in an unrealistic belief about the in group's greatness--aiming to explain how feelings about an ingroup shape a tendency to aggress against outgroups. The results of 5 studies indicate that collective, but not individual, narcissism predicts intergroup aggressiveness. Collective narcissism is related to high private and low public collective self-esteem and low implicit group esteem. It predicts perceived threat from outgroups, unwillingness to forgive outgroups, preference for military aggression over and above social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, and blind patriotism. The relationship between collective narcissism and aggressiveness is mediated by perceived threat from outgroups and perceived insult to the ingroup. In sum, the results indicate that collective narcissism is a form of high but ambivalent group esteem related to sensitivity to threats to the ingroup's image and retaliatory aggression.

Citations

• The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior
• Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes.
• Social identity theory: past achievements, current problems and future challenges
• Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others.
• On the Varieties of National Attachment: Blind Versus Constructive Patriotism
• Measuring Self‐Esteem in Context: The Importance of Stability of Self‐Esteem in Psychological Functioning
• Refining the Architecture of Aggression: A Measurement Model for the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire
• Common fate, similarity, and other indices of the status of aggregates of persons as social entities
• Psychological Entitlement: Interpersonal Consequences and Validation of a Self-Report Measure
• Toward a Measure of Patriotic and Nationalistic Attitudes
• Comments on the motivational status of self‐esteem in social identity and intergroup discrimination
• Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm.
• Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem.
• The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale
• The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem.
• Right wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and the dimensions of generalized prejudice
• Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes.
• Political conservatism as motivated social cognition.
• Relative Deprivation and Social Justice. A Study of Attitudes to Social Inequality in Twentieth-Century England
• The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.

Cited by

• Social dominance theory [wikipedia]