Concept and origins
Erich Fromm (1973) argued that, like individual narcissism, groups can inflate their own group and show destructive attitudes. Building on this idea, Golec de Zavala and colleagues (2009) created the Collective Narcissism Scale with items such as "My group deserves special treatment" and "Not many people seem to fully understand the importance of my group." As with individual narcissism, an outward sense of superiority rests on an underlying insecurity about not being recognized. This differs from the ingroup favoritism described by social identity theory.
Intergroup hostility and sensitivity to threat
Golec de Zavala and colleagues (2009) found across several countries that people high in collective narcissism tend to see outgroups as threatening and to support retaliation. Golec de Zavala and colleagues (2013) reported experiments in which only those high in collective narcissism reacted with hostility after learning that their nation had been criticized or ignored. Cichocka (2016) distinguished a defensive form of ingroup positivity that depends on external recognition from secure ingroup satisfaction that does not. Once collective narcissism was statistically controlled, secure satisfaction was linked to greater tolerance of outgroups.
Political consequences
Golec de Zavala and colleagues (2019) reviewed evidence that collective narcissism is consistently associated with support for populism, nationalist policy preferences and exclusion of minorities. Cichocka and colleagues (2016) showed that it is also linked to conspiracy beliefs that other groups are plotting against one's own. Marchlewska and colleagues (2018) reported that perceived ingroup disadvantage leads to populist support through collective narcissism. Such work helps explain how intergroup emotions drive politics, as in affective polarization. A limitation is that measurement relies mainly on self-reports.
FAQ
- What is collective narcissism in simple terms?
- It is the belief that your group is special and great but that others do not properly appreciate it.
- How does it differ from patriotism?
- Patriotism or group satisfaction can be a secure attachment that does not depend on outside recognition, whereas collective narcissism rests on insecurity about recognition and tends to react with hostility even to small criticisms.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Fromm, E. (1973). The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Fromm's early discussion of group narcissism.
- Golec de Zavala, A., Cichocka, A., Eidelson, R., & Jayawickreme, N. (2009). Collective narcissism and its social consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 1074–1096. The founding paper and the Collective Narcissism Scale.
- Golec de Zavala, A., Cichocka, A., & Iskra-Golec, I. (2013). Collective narcissism moderates the effect of in-group image threat on intergroup hostility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(6), 1019–1039. Shows image threat triggers hostility among collective narcissists.
- Cichocka, A. (2016). Understanding defensive and secure in-group positivity: The role of collective narcissism. European Review of Social Psychology, 27(1), 283–317. Distinguishes defensive from secure in-group positivity.
- Golec de Zavala, A., Dyduch-Hazar, K., & Lantos, D. (2019). Collective narcissism: Political consequences of investing self-worth in the ingroup's image. Political Psychology, 40(S1), 37–74. A review of the political consequences of collective narcissism.
- Cichocka, A., Marchlewska, M., & Golec de Zavala, A. (2016). Does self-love or self-hate predict conspiracy beliefs? Narcissism, self-esteem, and the endorsement of conspiracy theories. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 157–166. Links narcissism with endorsement of conspiracy theories.
- Marchlewska, M., Cichocka, A., Panayiotou, O., Castellanos, K., & Batayneh, J. (2018). Populism as identity politics: Perceived in-group disadvantage, collective narcissism, and support for populism. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(2), 151–162. Links collective narcissism to populist support.