National Narcissism and the Belief and the Dissemination of Conspiracy Theories During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From 56 Countries

Abstract

While COVID-19 was quietly spreading across the globe, conspiracy theories were finding loud voices on the internet. What contributes to the spread of these theories? In two national surveys (NTotal = 950) conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom, we identified national narcissism – a belief in the greatness of one’s nation that others do not appreciate – as a risk factor for the spread of conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that national narcissism was strongly associated with the proneness to believe and disseminate conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, accounting for up to 22% of the variance. Further, we found preliminary evidence that belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and national narcissism was linked to health-related behaviors and attitudes towards public policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Our study expands previous work by illustrating the importance of identity processes in the spread of conspiracy theories during pandemics.

Psychological underpinnings of pandemic denial - patterns of disagreement with scientific experts in the German public during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Both groups express higher levels of collective narcissism and are drawn towards right-wing political ideology. This finding ENDORSEMENT OF CLAIMS ABOUT COVID-19 26 supports the notion that resistance toward scientific evidence and risk assessments about COVID-19 might in part be motivated by a perceived threat to political identity (Sternisko et al 2020) or by epistemic needs (e.g. Jost et al, 2003).…”

“…Conspiracy beliefs can serve psychological needs for certainty, security, and a positive self-image (Douglas et al, 2017), which is why, more recently, researchers have theorized conspiratorial thinking as a generalized political attitude intrinsically related to the sociopolitical world (Imhoff & Bruder, 2014;Imhoff & Lamberty, 2018;Sutton & Douglas, 2020). For example, there is initial evidence that collective narcissism (i.e., the inflated belief in the greatness of one's ingroup, De Zavala et al, 2009) predicts the belief and dissemination of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 (Nowak et al, 2020;Sternisko et al, 2020;Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al, 2020). Sternisko et al (2020) interpret their finding in ways that people high in collective narcissism are drawn to conspiratorial thinking because the Corona pandemic poses a threat to their social or political identity.…”

“…For example, there is initial evidence that collective narcissism (i.e., the inflated belief in the greatness of one's ingroup, De Zavala et al, 2009) predicts the belief and dissemination of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 (Nowak et al, 2020;Sternisko et al, 2020;Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al, 2020). Sternisko et al (2020) interpret their finding in ways that people high in collective narcissism are drawn to conspiratorial thinking because the Corona pandemic poses a threat to their social or political identity.…”

Association of COVID-19 Misinformation with Face Mask Wearing and Social Distancing in a Nationally Representative US Sample

“…All focus on the relationship between false beliefs and behaviors (or intentions to undertake behaviors). While some studies find associations between belief in misinformation and reduced self-protective behaviors (Allington et al, 2020;Banai et al, 2020;Bertin et al, 2020;Bierwiaczonek et al, 2020;Erceg et al, 2020;Sternisko et al, 2020;Swami & Barron, 2020;Teovanovic et al, 2020), others find no evidence of associations (Alper et al, 2020;Díaz & Cova, 2020). Still others find associations for some behaviors but not others (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2020;Pummerer & Sassenberg, 2020).…”

“…Some studies focused on just a few false beliefs (e.g. "Coronavirus was developed and spread around the world by certain people for their own purposes"; Alper et al, 2020;Sternisko et al, 2020) whereas others developed multi-item misinformation scales, assessing a broader span of beliefs, ranging from possible treatments ("Colloidal silver is a potentially good cure for this coronavirus strain"; Erceg et al, 2020) to origins ("5G electromagnetic field exposure played a role in the coronavirus pandemic"; Teovanovic et al, 2020).…”