Collective narcissism
Most instruments that are designed to measure narcissism explore the attempts of individuals to boost their personal status. Rather than boost personal status, some individuals may instead attempt to boost collective status. That is, they want to perceive their collectives—such as their ethnicity, nationality, or field of study—as superior. This inclination of some individuals to inflate the status of their collectives is called collective narcissism (De Zavala, 2011).
De Zavala (2011), while an academic at Middlesex University in England, developed and validated a measure that assesses collective narcissism. The measure comprises the following items
- I wish other groups would more quickly recognise the authority of my group.
- My group deserves special treatment.
- I will never be satisfied until my group gets all it deserves.
- I insist upon my group getting the respect that is due to it. It really makes me angry when others criticize my group.
- If my group had a major say in the world, the world would be a much better place.
- I do not get upset when people do not notice achievements of my group (reverse-scored).
- Not many people seem to fully understand the importance of my group.
- The true worth of my group is often misunderstood.
Researchers can substitute references to the group with more specific terms, such as the discipline or field. Some research has corroborated the validity of this scale (for a review, see De Zavala, 2011). For example
- collective narcissism is positively associated with social dominance orientation—the inclination of people to assume that some groups are inherently superior to other groups,
- collective narcissism is positively related to the inclination of some people to glorify their nation.
