The Effects Of Narcissistic Group Identity And Group-level Provocation On U.S. Citizens' Attitudes And Behavior Toward Arab Immigrants

Abstract

A measure of Narcissistic Group Identity was developed and tested in a cross-sectional pilot study of 319 university students. Analyses revealed that Narcissistic Group Identity predicted more negative attitudes toward Arab immigrants, compared to Asian, Latino, and European immigrant target groups. A subsequent laboratory study explored the hypotheses that Narcissistic Group Identity would again predict negative attitudes and behavior toward an Arab immigrant target group, and that a group-level provocation would exacerbate the effect. As expected, Narcissistic Group Identity predicted more negative attitudes and higher aggression toward an Arab target group, but did not predict attitudes or behavior toward Latino or European target groups. Also, a significant simple effect of Narcissistic Group Identity was found in the provocation condition, but not in the control condition. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.