Narcissism and Political Orientations Narcissism and Political Orientations

Abstract

The connections between narcissism and political orientations have been theorized by scholars, and increasingly evoked by political parties, politicians, public intellectuals, and the media. Yet surprisingly little research has been undertaken to empirically asses the veracity of these claims. We address this lacuna by identifying the relationship between narcissism, political ideologies and partisanship in a nationally representative sample taken days before the 2016 US Presidential election. Overall, we find those on the left and right are equally narcissistic. However, liberals and conservatives differ in which dimensions drives their narcissism. Specifically, we find that the Entitlement facet of narcissism is uniformly related to more conservative positions, while Exhibitionism is related to more liberal values, including political party identification. Narcissism, as a complex multidimensional construct, has an important role in understanding political ideology. Replication Materials: The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this article are available on the American Journal of Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network, at: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/9IKGYY Word count: 9,440 including references, tables, figures and footnotes Narcissism and Political Orientations 1 A substantial body of research finds a connection between narcissism and political elites (Watts et al. 2013). As Post (1993, 99) eloquently articulated: “It is probably not an exaggeration to state that if individuals with significant narcissistic characteristics were stripped from the ranks of public figures, the ranks would be perilously thinned, for the upper levels of government and industry are filled with "successful narcissists"”. However, one area in which there is a dearth of empirical research, and certainly no thorough understanding, is the connection between narcissism and political orientations in the mass publics. This is a notable absence given the extraordinary amount of rhetoric promulgated by political elites and parties, and theoretical propositions by scholars and public intellectuals that connect narcissistic traits to both liberal and conservative values (de Zavala, Cichocka and Bilewicz 2013; Economist 2016a; Lasch 1979; Lilla 2016; McAdams 2016). Narcissism is not simply a hyper-concern with one’s self; it is a distinct construct that groups an interrelated set of dispositions containing views of self and others, cognitive styles and motivations that guide behaviors, and is a normal part of one’s identity (Cramer 1997; Rhodewalt and Morf 1995). Central to modern theories of human identity is the notion that individuals have a need to maintain a positive view of self, and thus engage in self-enhancement and defensive behavior to protect one’s identity (including group identity), preserve self-esteem and agency, maintain status, and secure instrumental and material benefits (de Zavala, Cichocka and Bilewicz 2013; Hepper, Gramzow and Sedikides 2010; Morf, Horvath and Torchetti 2011). All of these processes are narcissistically regulated. At the same time, intuitions about the self reflect ideological and partisan values, bridging the gap between ideology as a values construct and ideology as an identity construct (Devine 2015; Inglehart 1990; Newman, Bloom and Knobe 2014). Here we argue that narcissism may serve as an organizing temperament that can be Narcissism and Political Orientations 2 employed to understand the dynamics of political orientations. Individuals regulate their views of self and others, and secure benefits through such mechanisms as sense of entitlement, ego aggrandizement, exploitation, display behavior, authority-seeking, and self-interest. We begin by identifying the social-psychological construct of narcissism as a multidimensional trait that is mostly normally distributed in the population. We then articulate how its components reflect many of the basic foundations of political ideologies. Extant research proposes equally strong but different pathways of how narcissism should be related to both liberalism and conservatism. When deconstructing narcissism into its underlying components, including Authority-seeking, Self-sufficiency, Superiority, Exhibitionism, Exploitativeness, and Entitlement (Raskin and Terry 1988), there are both explicit and implied expectations that certain facets should reflect or co-constitute with ideological positions in predictable ways. That is, those on the left and right should be equally narcissistic but differ in which facets of narcissism drive the relationship. We test these hypotheses through a nationally representative study and find that those who are more entitled hold more conservative positions across ideological and partisan dimensions, while those who are more exhibitionist hold more liberal values. Narcissism There is no single “right” way to operationalize narcissism. Rather, there are several approaches that are more or less advantageous depending on their use. Here we focus on the well-established social-psychological construct of narcissism (Social Narcissism going forward) that appears widely in the literature and is supported by decades of research (Campbell et al. 2005; Raskin and Terry 1988; Twenge and Foster 2010). This view conceptualizes narcissism as a normally distributed trait in the population for which, unlike its clinical cousin, pathological Narcissism and Political Orientations 3 narcissism1, there is no discrete cut-off for being a narcissist. Rather, everyone has some degree of narcissism to greater or lesser extents, akin to other temperament traits. While social and pathological narcissism share parts of their typology, and are characterized by the tendency to be entitled and to exploit others for personal gain, there are thematic differences between them (Miller et al. 2011). Social Narcissism emphasizes more of the “Grandiose” aspects of narcissism, including traits related to arrogance, demand for attention, exploitativeness, aggression and dominance, whereas pathological narcissism exhibits more of the “Vulnerable” aspects of narcissism reflecting the “expression of psychological dysfunction characterized by fragile self-esteem, emotional instability, and internalizing pathology” (Ackerman et al. 2011, 68). This is not to say that both forms do not capture some part of the other, but rather that their emphasis differs. This difference is important because while both Grandiose and Vulnerable narcissism can often result in similar behavioral outcomes, the pathways and motivations by which behaviors emerge differ. Individuals who exhibit entitled, exploitative or aggressive behaviors due to higher Grandiose narcissism do so more for instrumental reasons related to status, dominance, power and personal gain; whereas individuals higher on Vulnerable narcissism may behave in similar ways, but due so more because of affective dysregulation linked with self-esteem and traumatic childhood experiences (for a thorough explication, see Miller et al. 2011). The combination of operating on a normal continuum and stronger focus on material benefits and instrumental motivations makes the socio-psychological construct of 1 Psychiatric approaches conceptualize Narcissism as a personality disorder (NPD), which is extremely rare (Kernberg 1986). Narcissism and Political Orientations 4 narcissism well suited to identify relationships with traits that emerge in the general population, and for political orientations in particular. Narcissism has both positive and negative qualities. Those higher in narcissism have higher views of themselves and groups they belong to and see themselves as better than others and more deserving. At the same time, they are more agentic, confident, extraverted, innovative, and self-sufficient with higher approach-orientations and advanced interpersonal skills, including charisma (Campbell et al. 2005). They have a stronger sense of entitlement operating within and across groups and a stronger desire for control, power and esteem. This sense of entitlement leads to a belief in one’s right to exploit others, less empathy, a focus on relative gains and a lack of regard for the needs of others, with greater use of display behavior and manipulation for personal gains. Simultaneously, they crave, demand and exploit opportunities to gain the admiration of others, have a stronger need to win and pursue leadership positions. In this way, narcissism serves as an important component of identity regulation which results in positive feelings about the self and groups they belong to, while also fulfilling status, instrumental and material desires. The Narcissistic Personality Inventory ("NPI", Raskin and Terry 1988) is the most common measure for Social Narcissism and is comprised of forty questions which capture the aforementioned traits through seven facets (Authority-seeking, Entitlement, Exhibitionism, Exploitativeness, Self-sufficiency, Superiority and Vanity). The amalgamations of these traits form an overall narcissism score that is unimodal and mostly normally distributed. A consensus has formed, however, that while it still may be useful to explore the greater construct by summing all the measures into a single narcissism score, it is both valuable and necessary to Narcissism and Political Orientations 5 explore the individual facets of narcissism separately because the composite NPI score may conflate adaptive and maladaptive forces (Miller et al. 2011). The more socially adaptive facets (Barry, Frick and Killian 2003) are Authority-Seeking, which reflects a person’s desire for power and self-perceived leadership ability and SelfSufficiency which reflects how much one relies upon their own abilities to meet their needs and goals. Individuals who score higher on these dimensions have greater agency, self-esteem, and self-awareness but lower levels of social anxiety