Striving for superiority Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

Are narcissists more likely to be right-wing conservatives or rebellious liberals? A study of narcissistic personalities reveals they typically combine elements of both, helping to explain some of President Trump’s actions.

Social scientists have long tried to understand how personality influences political beliefs. Studies have found that people who are open-minded, creative and curious are more likely to be liberal voters, whereas people who like convention and orderliness tend to vote more conservatively.

But few studies have looked at how political attitudes are shaped by narcissism – a personality trait characterised by a sense of superiority, self-admiration and a lack of empathy for others.


Aleksandra Cichocka at the University of Kent, UK, and her team decided to look at two attitudes typically seen to be right-wing: a belief in social dominance – that inequality is the natural order of things – and in right-wing authoritarianism, the idea that traditional values need protecting.

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The team surveyed nearly 2000 people in the UK, US and Poland. To determine each person’s level of narcissism, they asked them to choose which statements described them best, for example, “The thought of ruling the world frightens the hell out of me” versus “If I ruled the world it would be a better place”.

To gauge political attitudes, they asked participants to rate how strongly they agreed with statements like, “It is not a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others” and “Trashy magazines and radical literature in our communities are poisoning the minds of our young people”.

Statements like “African Americans living here should not push themselves where they are not wanted” were included specifically to assess ethnic prejudice.

The higher people scored for narcissism, the higher they also tended to rate on measures of social dominance and ethnic prejudice. However, these people generally scored lower on authoritarianism.

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This fits with research showing that narcissists are more preoccupied with being top of the pecking order than maintaining traditional morals, says Cichocka. In fact, they may deliberately undermine the status quo because they believe they are special and unique, she says. “Narcissists like to see themselves as rebellious and non-conforming as well as open to new experiences and creative,” she says.

“Displaying greater prejudice towards ethnic minority groups can be considered one way of how narcissists express their superiority strivings,” she says.

Trump seems to fit within this narcissistic framework, says Cichocka. “We see instances of him being highly socially dominant, but of course we also see him breaking social norms,” she says.

John Duckitt at the University of Auckland in New Zealand agrees. Trump’s belief in social hierarchy is suggested by his preoccupation with ratings and racially charged comments, while his rule-breaking nature is evident in his unrestrained Twitter use, he says.

Narcissism in numbers

A person’s political beliefs can also be affected by collective narcissism.

Collective narcissists have an exaggerated feeling that a group that they belong to is special, and they are highly sensitive to outside threats. A person can be a collective narcissist without themselves being an individual narcissist.

Agnieszka Golec de Zavala at Goldsmiths, University of London and her colleagues showed last year that people in Turkey who scored higher on the collective narcissism scale were more likely to feel humiliated by their country not being admitted to the European Union. They also felt more pleasure in the EU’s recent economic problems.

The researchers also found that collective narcissists in Poland are more likely to support hostile actions against the makers of a film that portrayed their country in a bad light.

No studies have looked at whether collective narcissism is going up or down, but further research in this area could help to predict societal flare-ups, says Golec de Zavala. “Understanding the situations that mobilise collective narcissistic responses may help explain seemingly sudden and unprovoked outbursts of intergroup hostility.”

Journal reference: European Journal of Personality, DOI: 10.1002/per.2114