Our Versus Their Narcissist: How People View Narcissistic Persons From Their Ingroup and From a Competing Outgroup

In this research we will investigate in a competitive intergroup context to what extent the perception of persons scoring high in grandiose narcissism varies depending on whether they belong to one’s own group or to an opposing outgroup. To do so, we will conduct a laboratory study, in which members of newly formed groups have direct contact with another group and compete for scarce resources. We hypothesize that perceivers ascribe targets scoring high in narcissistic admiration higher status when they belong to their ingroup versus the outgroup. Similarly, we hypothesize that perceivers like targets scoring high in narcissistic rivalry better when they belong to their ingroup versus the outgroup. We will also investigate the processes that link the two narcissism dimensions to status and likability and test whether these processes differ, depending on whether evaluations are made by ingroup or outgroup members.