The paradox of in-group love: differentiating collective narcissism advances understanding of the relationship between in-group and out-group attitudes

The article looks at the relation between positive in-group regard (“in-group love”) and out-group negativity (“out-group hate”), a subject of ongoing controversy. Five studies performed in different cultural and national contexts, using different samples (including an adult representative sample) and different inter-group contexts examined the relationship between narcissistic versus genuine positive group regard and out-group negativity. Results reveal that collective narcissism (Golec de Zavala et al., 2009) and positive group regard have opposite effects on out-group hostility. Moreover, they function as mutual suppressors. Controlling for their shared variance strengthens the positive relationship between collective narcissism and out-group negativity and reveals the significant negative association between out-group hostility and genuine positive group regard operationalized as high collective self-esteem (Study 1), positive in-group identification (Studies 2, 3 and 5) or constructive patriotism (Study 4). These results corroborate earlier findings differentiating between constructive and destructive forms of in-group favoritism. They also parallel at the inter-group level findings indicating that mature and stable, personal self-esteem and individual narcissism differentially predict interpersonal aggressiveness.