The Paradox of In‐Group Love: Differentiating Collective Narcissism Advances Understanding of the Relationship Between In‐Group and Out‐Group Attitudes

Abstract

Objective The present studies test the hypothesis that the overlap between collective narcissism and positive in‐group identification conceals the opposite relationships these variables have with out‐group derogation. Method Five surveys were conducted in different cultural and national contexts, using different samples and different intergroup contexts (Study 1, Polish student sample, N = 85; Study 2, British student sample, N = 81; Study 3, Polish representative sample, N = 979; Study 3, Polish student sample, N = 267 and Study 5, British student sample, N = 241). Results The results of suppression analyses systematically indicate that when the positive relationship between collective narcissism and in‐group positivity is controlled for, the non‐narcissistic in‐group positivity predicts less out‐group negativity, whereas collective narcissism predicts more out‐group derogation. Conclusions The results advance our understanding of constructive and destructive forms of in‐group positivity and their different consequences for intergroup attitudes.

Understanding defensive and secure in-group positivity: The role of collective narcissism

“…Participants are asked to think about a particular social group when completing the scale. The Collective Narcissism Scale can also be used in its shorter version (Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, & Bilewicz, 2013), which was originally prepared for inclusion in a large nationally representative survey (Bilewicz, Bukowski, Cichocka, Winiewski, & Wójcik, 2009 Those who score high on the scale tend to evaluate their in-group positively at the explicit level but not the implicit level-they do not automatically associate in-group symbols with positively valenced stimuli. They also tend to be convinced that others do not hold the group in high regard Study 4, Polish students).…”

What inverted U can do for your country: A curvilinear relationship between confidence in the social system and political engagement.

“…Although voting can serve to express support for the status quo, political campaigns often promote agendas designed to improve the present state of affairs, even if proposed changes are only incremental or have the larger aim to restore the way society is assumed to have worked in the past (e.g., see Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003). This dataset was analyzed by Bilewicz, Winiewski, Kofta, and Wójcik (2013), Cichocka, Winiewski, Bilewicz, Bukowski, and Jost (2015), and Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, and Bilewicz (2013), but none of these other studies considered the relationship between system confidence and political engagement. In line with institutional guidelines on externally funded survey research, this study was exempt from research ethics committee approval.…”

Populism as Identity Politics

“…National collective narcissism was measured with the 5-item version of the Collective Narcissism Scale (Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, & Bilewicz, 2013), e.g., "Polish nation deserves special treatment." Participants responded on a scale from 1=definitely disagree to 6=definitely agree.…”

“…Yet, they have different consequences. When narcissistic and conventional ingroup positivity are considered together as predictors of intergroup attitudes, collective narcissism predicts prejudice, while non-narcissistic ingroup positivity predicts less negative attitudes (Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, & Bilewicz, 2013). Collective narcissism is also associated with perceptions of other groups conspiring against the ingroup (Cichocka, Marchlewska, Golec de Zavala, & Olechowski, 2016)-a belief often accompanying any failures of populist governments (Müller, 2016).…”