Collective Narcissism and the Motivational Underpinnings of the Populist Backlash

Abstract

Collective narcissism is a belief that one"s own group is exceptional but not sufficiently recognized by others. Endorsement of this belief is associated with support for the populist governments in Poland and Hungary; support for Trump in the US and the Brexit in the UK. We analyse the current research on conditions of populism and on Polish collective narcissism to propose that national collective narcissism is a key feature of the current wave of populism. Polish collective narcissism is associated with perceived relative economic deprivation as well as homophobia and sexism via the belief that non-traditional women and sexual minorities threaten the national identity. Given this evidence, we argue that collective narcissism is used by populist leaders to justify the traditional group-based hierarchies. We analyse research on psychological predictors of collective narcissism to understand the motivational underpinnings of support for populism. Findings indicate that collective narcissism is motivated by frustrated sense of self-importance. Thus, we conclude that despite its overt claims, populism does not express a desire for social justice for the "forgotten" by globalization. It expresses a desire to feel better than others based on one"s ingroup" s status and to openly express prejudice towards lower status groups.

Distress and retaliatory aggression in response to witnessing intergroup exclusion are greater on higher levels of collective narcissism

“…It pertains to an unrealistically positive evaluation of the in‐group and can be theoretically, statistically, and functionally differentiated from private collective self‐esteem (or in‐group satisfaction), a positive evaluation of the in‐group (Golec de Zavala et al., 2009 , 2019 ; Golec de Zavala & Lantos, 2020 ). Collective narcissism robustly and uniquely predicts intergroup hostility (in comparison to other aspects of positive in‐group identification and individual narcissism, Golec de Zavala et al., 2009 , 2019 ) and prejudice (in comparison to in‐group satisfaction and individual narcissism, Golec de Zavala & Bierwiaczonek, 2020 ; Golec de Zavala et al., 2020 , 2021 ).…”

“…Some evidence indicates that individual narcissists (whose self‐image is overly positive and contingent on external validation; Rhodewalt & Morf, 1998 ; Sedikides, 2020 ) are prone to respond aggressively to personal exclusion (Twenge et al., 2001 ) and other forms of self‐image threat (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998 ). Nevertheless, studies confirm that as far as in‐group's image threat and intergroup hostility and aggression are concerned, it is collective, not individual narcissism that matters (Golec de Zavala et al, 2013 , 2016 , 2021 ).…”

Collective narcissism and weakening of American democracy

“…Collective narcissism may be a key “thickener” (e.g., over‐conservatism) to populism as a “thin‐centred ideology” (i.e., lacking ideological breadth or development; Hawkins & Kaltwasser, 2017). When populism draws on a narcissistic story about the national ingroup, it becomes configured (or thickened) to form a right‐wing movement involving preference for inequality, tradition, and national superiority (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021). We would therefore expect collective narcissism to be closely associated with other normative views of the ingroup, which predict right‐wing populism, such as collective psychological ownership (i.e., the national ingroup as “belonging” to a certain set of group members; Selvanathan et al., 2021), and antagonistic forms of collective nostalgia (e.g., a past time when the ingroup allowed the verbal hurting of others; Lammers & Baldwin, 2020).…”

“…As such, this message may be convincing to people who endorse national collective narcissism. Indeed, studies show that national collective narcissism predicts support for populist politicians, parties, and politics worldwide (Golec de Zavala & Keenan, 2021; Golec de Zavala et al., 2017; 2021; Marchlewska et al., 2018). As populist leaders legitimize collective narcissism as a form of shared national identity, hostile reactions (e.g., the Capitol Hill raid) to a perceived threat to this identity (e.g., through the election loss of its empowering representative) become a matter of time.…”

Homophobia and national collective narcissism in populist Poland

“…In contemporary Poland, the shift towards populism and ensuing nativist redefinition of the nation have resulted in Polish nationalism harvesting national collective narcissism as a predominant narration about Polish national identity (Federico et al, 2021;Golec de Zavala, Lantos & Keenan, 2021). According to psychological research, collective narcissists demand privilege for the nation, not equality, and invent enemies both inside and outside the national ingroup, whom they blame for standing in the way of this privilege being achieved.…”