ABSTRACT
Ingroup identification – the extent to which the group membership is psychologically affecting and socially consequential – is a multifaceted phenomenon. It comprises cognitive, evaluative, and motivational aspects of group membership. Against the background of this literature, collective narcissism is best understood as a specific form of positive evaluation of the ingroup: contingent on its external recognition and laden with resentment for underappreciated ingroup greatness. Collective narcissism can be conceptually and empirically differentiated from non-narcissistic ingroup satisfaction, unpretentious sense of pride of belonging to a valuable group. It can be also differentiated from other forms of “destructive ingroup love” that predict outgroup derogation (e.g., ingroup glorification, insecure social identity, collective self-esteem contingent on competition). Collective narcissism and ingroup satisfaction (or other forms of “constructive ingroup love”) often make opposite predictions for inter- and intragroup attitudes, especially when their overlap with collective narcissism is partialed out.
