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National narcissism in politics and public understanding of science

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 2, pages 740–750 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

People seek to belong to groups that they evaluate positively and identify with. A strong ingroup identity is typically thought to bring about positive outcomes for the individuals and for the group. However, when group identity is motivated by frustrated psychological needs, it can manifest as collective narcissism — a belief that one’s group is exceptional and deserves special treatment. Such a defensive ingroup identity is related to a motivated social cognition focused on the enhancement and protection of the ingroup image, even at the expense of ingroup members. In this Review, we consider the implications of differentiating collective narcissism from ingroup identification in the national context, and their different intragroup and intergroup manifestations. We focus on two domains: political attitudes and behaviours as well as the public understanding of science related to health and environmental protection. We outline how concerns for national image enhancement and protection can shape political and social manifestations of national narcissism, such as susceptibility to narratives that enhance the national image, sensitivity to disrespect and suspicion of outgroups, and acceptance of misinformation.

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Fig. 1: Manifestations of national narcissism.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Center Grant 2018/29/B/HS6/02826.

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  1. Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland

    Aleksandra Cislak

  2. School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Aleksandra Cichocka

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Both authors developed the concept for the article. A. Cislak researched data for the article. Both authors drafted the manuscript, provided critical revisions and approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

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Cislak, A., Cichocka, A. National narcissism in politics and public understanding of science. Nat Rev Psychol 2, 740–750 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00240-6

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