The Two Dimensions of Narcissistic Personality and Support for the Radical Right: The Role of Right–Wing Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation and Anti–Immigrant Sentiment

Abstract

This paper offers an explanation of the link between grandiose narcissism and support for radical right parties. Drawing on representative data of the GESIS Panel (N = 2827), focusing on support for the German radical right populist party Alternative for Germany in 2016 and treating grandiose narcissism as a two-dimensional concept, it is shown that the effects of grandiose narcissism are indirect rather than direct. The paper also reveals that it is mainly narcissistic rivalry that accounts for radical right party support, whereas narcissistic admiration has a protecting relationship. Finally, our results indicate that the indirect effects of narcissistic rivalry on radical right party support via right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, respectively, are mediated by anti-immigrant sentiment. All in all, our results suggest that in studies on ideological orientations and voting behaviour, both dimensions of grandiose narcissism should be considered due to their contradictory relationship. Moreover, our findings indicate that the success of radical right parties might be the expression of personality dispositions of some parts of the electorate.

The narcissistic experience of friendship: The roles of agentic and communal orientations toward friendship

“…Descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations are presented in Table 1. Narcissistic admiration was positively correlated with narcissistic rivalry, but the strength of this correlation was considerably stronger than the moderate correlation that is usually found in college student samples (r % .30; e.g., Back, 2018), and it is not unusual for community samples to show stronger associations between these aspects of narcissism (e.g., Mayer et al, 2020). Narcissistic admiration was positively correlated with the agentic orientation toward friendship, maximizing selectivity, and negative friendship attributions.…”

Angry Reactionary Narcissists? Anger Activates the Link Between Narcissism and Right-Populist Party Support

“…With regard to values, previous studies have found a negative relationship between the high-order value conservation and narcissism but have failed to include items for the narcissistic rivalry dimension (e.g., Rogoza & Cieciuch, 2020;Rogoza, Żemojtel-Piotrowska, et al, 2016). In contrast, Mayer et al (2020) show a strong link between narcissistic rivalry and right-wing authoritarianism, a basic attitudinal belief system that strongly supports traditions and stability (Altemeyer, 1998).…”

“…This in turn increases the appeal of RRPs. Indeed, a recent study by Mayer et al (2020) finds a strong relationship between narcissistic rivalry and support for RRPs. Moreover, this relationship is mediated especially through anti-immigrant sentiment (AIS).…”

“…More recently, a growing number of researchers have been studying the psychological characteristics and basic values that underpin RRP support. This strand of research has highlighted the importance of fundamental traits, such as the Big Five personality traits or grandiose narcissism, and has shown that a considerable proportion of the population is, at least in principle, receptive to the appeal of RRPs (e.g., Ackermann et al, 2018;Aichholzer & Zandonella, 2016;Bakker et al, 2016;Mayer et al, 2020). The focus on the psychological underpinnings of radical-right support, however, also raises a more fundamental question: Through which mechanisms are basic personality factors translated into political attitudes, and ultimately into behaviour?…”

Individual narcissism, need for closure and the two sides of negative partisanship

“…Admiration and Rivalry Concept (NARC, Back et al, 2013) was demonstrated recently for the explanation of political attitudes and right-wing populist vote choice (Cichocka, Dhont, & Makwana, 2017;Mayer, Berning, & Johann, 2020). According to the NARC, grandiose narcissism, the subclinical variant of narcissism, consists conceptually of two underlying subdimensions that each provide a unique pathway to maintain the grandiose self: an agentic/adaptive path called narcissistic admiration that is characterized by self-promotion and relies on a strive for uniqueness, fantasises about grandiosity and charming behaviour as well as a maladjusted pathway, narcissistic rivalry, that is characterized by self-defence mechanisms and relies on devaluing others, through aggressive and hostile behaviour with often ends in social conflict (Back et al, 2013).…”