The Relationship Between Collective Narcissism and Group-Based Moral Exclusion: The Mediating Role of Intergroup Threat and Social Distance

Authors

  • Márton Hadarics
    Social Groups and Media Research Lab, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
  • Zsolt Péter Szabó
    Department of Organizational and Leadership Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Ergonomics and Psychology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
  • Anna Kende
    Social Groups and Media Research Lab, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

In our study, we investigated the relationship between collective narcissism and group-based moral exclusion. Since collective narcissists are motivated to see their group as unique and superior, and tend to show hostility towards outgroups threatening this presumed superiority, we hypothesized that perceived intergroup threat and social distance can mediate the relationship between collective narcissism and group-based moral exclusion. We tested this assumption in two intergroup contexts by investigating the beliefs of members of the Hungarian majority population about Muslim immigrants and Roma people. Our results showed that collective narcissism had a positive indirect effect on group-based moral exclusion in the case of both outgroups. Furthermore, both threat and social distance were significant mediators in the case of Muslim immigrants, but mostly social distance mediated the indirect effect of collective narcissism on moral exclusion of the Roma. These results indicate that collective narcissists tend to rationalize their intergroup hostility by the mechanism of motivated moral exclusion, and to find suitable justifications for doing so.