Double trouble: how sectarian and national narcissism relate differently to collective violence beliefs in Lebanon

Abou-Ismail, Ramzi, Gronfeldt, Bjarki, Konur, Tamino, Cichocka, Aleksandra, Phillips, Joseph and Sengupta, Nikhil K. 2023. Double trouble: how sectarian and national narcissism relate differently to collective violence beliefs in Lebanon. Aggressive Behavior 49 (6) , pp. 669-678. 10.1002/ab.22104

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Abstract

Collective narcissism is a belief in ingroup greatness which is contingent on external validation. A lack of research on collective narcissism amongst non-Western contexts and minority groups remains a challenge for the field. However, here we test two types of collective narcissism (sectarian and national) as differential predictors of two dimensions of collective violence beliefs (against outgroup members and leaders) in a large, diverse, community sample from Lebanon (N = 778). We found that sectarian narcissism (narcissism related to smaller political and religious ingroup identity) predicted support for collective violence against members of different sects, while national narcissism predicted opposition to such collective violence. Neither form of collective narcissism had any significant relationship with collective violence against outgroup leaders. We controlled for both sectarian and national identification and found no significant effects in predicting either one of the two dimensions of collective violence beliefs. In this non-Western context, in which a coherent national identity is undermined by sectarianism, national narcissism seems to be a progressive motivator for unity and social change, while sectarian narcissism is rather associated with extreme attitudes, such as support for collective violence.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Cardiff Law & Politics Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0096-140X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	1 September 2024
Date of Acceptance:	12 July 2023
Last Modified:	18 Sep 2024 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171700

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