Narcissism may be fueling political polarization, according to new psychology research

People with narcissistic personality traits—especially those who feel entitled and antagonistic—are more likely to display extreme loyalty to their political in-group and hostility toward their opponents, according to a new study published in Political Behavior. The research suggests that personality may play a central role in deepening affective polarization, regardless of party or ideological stance.

Affective polarization refers to the growing emotional divide between political groups, where individuals not only strongly identify with their own group but also express distrust, dislike, or even hatred toward opposing groups. While past research has often focused on ideological or demographic sources of this divide, the current study highlights how a common personality trait—narcissism—may predispose individuals to both fervent group loyalty and contempt for outsiders.

Narcissism is a personality trait centered around self-importance and entitlement. It involves a heightened sense of superiority, a strong desire for admiration, and in many cases, a tendency to demean or devalue others. The researchers focused on a particular form of narcissism called “grandiose narcissism,” which can be broken into two subtypes: admiration and rivalry. Admiration involves self-promotion and a desire to be seen as special, while rivalry is about defensiveness and antagonism—especially toward perceived threats to one’s status or ego.

“We often have a sense that ‘extremists’ have something in common, but it is unclear what that is,” explained study author James Tilley, a professor at the University of Oxford. “There is a sentence in a C. P. Snow novel (The Affair) that I quote in my new book (Tribal Politics with Sara Hobolt, due out next year) that sums this up nicely: “They stood at the two extremes, both utterly recalcitrant. As often with extremists, they felt linked. They had a kinship, much more than with their own sides, the safe and sensible people in the middle.'”

“Our idea was that disposition, or personality, helps explain why people have 1) different levels of attachment to their own political identity and 2) different levels of animosity towards people with a different political identity,” Tilley continued. “Previous research has not found consistent links between the standard Big-5 personality traits and affective polarization, so we wanted to explore the role of narcissism.”

The researchers conducted a two-wave national panel survey in Britain using data collected by the polling company YouGov. The first wave, in March 2021, included over 3,500 adults and measured their personality traits. In July 2021, about 2,000 of those same individuals completed a follow-up survey assessing their political identities and attitudes toward in-group and out-group partisans. The time gap between the surveys helped reduce the chance that political questions would influence how participants responded to personality measures.

Participants were asked about both traditional party identities (e.g., Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat) and newer political groupings related to Brexit (Leavers and Remainers). Roughly three-quarters of respondents reported identifying with a political party or a Brexit position.

To measure narcissism, the researchers used the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ), an 18-item scale that distinguishes between admiration and rivalry. Participants rated how much they agreed with statements like “I am great” or “I want my rivals to fail.” Higher scores indicated greater narcissistic tendencies.

The researchers also measured affective polarization in two parts. First, they assessed in-group affinity using questions like whether criticism of one’s political group felt like a personal insult or whether participants felt connected to other group members. Second, they measured out-group animosity using items that captured emotional reactions to opposing groups, such as feeling good when the opposing party was criticized or getting angry when it was praised.

The researchers found a clear pattern: people with higher levels of narcissism were more likely to report both stronger emotional ties to their own group and more intense animosity toward political opponents. This held true across both party and Brexit identities. Importantly, narcissism had a stronger association with out-group animosity than with in-group affinity. In other words, narcissistic individuals were more likely to dislike their opponents than to express admiration for their own side.

When broken down by narcissism subtype, the researchers found that rivalry—the aspect marked by defensiveness, entitlement, and antagonism—was the strongest driver of affective polarization. People high in rivalry expressed greater loyalty to their political in-group and significantly more negative feelings toward the out-group. In contrast, the admiration subtype had only weak or inconsistent effects.

“People high in narcissism tend to have a stronger attachment to people who share their politics and are also more hostile towards people on the other side of the political debate,” Tilley told PsyPost.

“This association is mostly due to the ‘rivalry’ aspect of narcissism rather than the ‘admiration’ aspect. ‘Rivalry’ is less about feelings of superiority, and more about feelings of antagonistic entitlement. This form of entitlement means that people are hostile to political out-groups (people on the other side), but also cling more strongly to their in-group (people on their own side) due a greater perceived threat of the out-group.”

These results held even when accounting for other well-established personality traits, such as the Big Five dimensions (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). Among these, only neuroticism came close to matching the effect of narcissism on political attitudes, but its impact was still consistently smaller. The findings suggest that rivalry in particular may play a unique and underappreciated role in shaping political divisions.

Interestingly, the influence of narcissism on polarization appeared relatively consistent across identity types. Whether someone identified as a Remainer or a Leaver, a Conservative or a Labour supporter, narcissism predicted more extreme political attitudes. This points to a deeper psychological commonality among highly polarized individuals—regardless of which side they are on.

Despite its strengths, the study has some limitations. Because the data is observational, the findings show association rather than causation. It remains possible, for example, that being deeply involved in partisan politics might reinforce narcissistic traits over time.

“It is possible that people with strong political identities may become more narcissistic,” Tilley noted. “Our results simply show a correlation. Having said that, we measure personality three months prior to the political attitudes, so any reverse causation is not due to immediate survey effects.”

The researchers argue that these findings have important implications for understanding both mass and elite polarization. At the mass level, they raise the possibility that rising narcissism—if occurring generationally or culturally—could be contributing to increasingly divided electorates. At the elite level, the results may help explain why political leaders, who tend to score high on narcissistic traits, often appear more polarized than average citizens.

“One consistent, and unsurprising, finding in the literature is that politicians score highly in narcissism,” Tilley explained. “The more we select narcissistic politicians at elections, the more we might expect elite politics to become affectively polarized and uncivil. To the extent that affective polarization is a ‘bad thing,’ this is probably not good news because voters often take their cues from politicians.”

The study, “Narcissism and Affective Polarization,” was authored by James Tilley and Sara Hobolt.