ABSTRACT
People experience pain and distress when they are excluded by others. They also experience vicarious distress when they recognize that someone else is excluded. Collective narcissism renders such vicarious ostracism parochial. At high levels of collective narcissism, people become overly preoccupied by exclusion of their ingroup, but they are not bothered by exclusion of other groups. Collective narcissism reliably predicts distress when group members witness exclusion of the ingroup even without being personally excluded. This is regardless of whether the ingroup is chronically marginalized and excluded in public life or unremittingly enjoying being seen, heard, and having access to resources and privileges. Men's collective narcissism predicts distress at momentary exclusion of men but not at exclusion of women. Similarly, women's collective narcissism predicts distress when women witness exclusion of other women by men, but not when they witness exclusion of men by women. National collective narcissism predicts distress when the national group is excluded by national outgroup, but not when the ingroup excludes the outgroup. Collective narcissism may be an obstacle to allyship of advantaged and disadvantaged groups in reducing exclusion of the latter.
