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People who view their nation as uniquely important and demand special recognition for it may struggle to recognize emotions in others, experience more anger and contempt, and be more likely to dehumanize those both inside and outside their national group. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in The Journal of Social Psychology, which found that national narcissism is consistently associated with deficits in emotional understanding and elevated levels of antagonistic emotions.
National narcissism is a form of identification with one’s country that goes beyond healthy pride or belonging. It involves an inflated belief in the greatness of one’s nation, coupled with a need for external validation and hypersensitivity to perceived slights.
People high in national narcissism believe their country is special and should be recognized as such by others, but they also feel that their nation is constantly under threat or misunderstood. Previous research has shown that national narcissism is linked to prejudice, conspiracy beliefs, and hostility toward outsiders. But less is known about the emotional processes that may help explain these attitudes.
The authors of the new study proposed that this defensive form of national identification might be rooted in emotional dysfunction. They hypothesized that national narcissism would be associated with difficulty recognizing one’s own emotions, a tendency to experience negative emotions—especially anger, disgust, and contempt—and a reduced ability to recognize emotional expressions in others. They also examined whether poor emotion recognition could help explain why national narcissism is linked to dehumanizing views of others.
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To test these ideas, the researchers conducted four separate studies using a combination of self-report surveys, emotion recognition tasks, and a week-long diary method. All studies were conducted in Poland using samples of adults recruited either from the general population or through social media. Participants completed standardized measures of national narcissism, national identity, emotional awareness, and facial emotion recognition.
In the first study, 432 Polish adults completed a measure of national narcissism and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, which assesses difficulty identifying and describing one’s own emotions. As predicted, those with higher levels of national narcissism reported more trouble recognizing their own feelings. Importantly, the researchers controlled for general national pride—known as national identity—and found that the effect was unique to the narcissistic form of identification.
The second and third studies looked more closely at the emotional experiences of people with different levels of national narcissism. Study 2a surveyed 417 people, while Study 2b followed 199 participants over the course of a week. Both studies used the Differential Emotions Scale to track the frequency of specific emotions.
Across both studies, people high in national narcissism reported more frequent experiences of anger, disgust, and contempt—emotions that tend to orient people toward conflict or withdrawal. These participants were also more likely to feel surprise and fear, which may reflect a heightened sense of threat. In contrast, those high in secure national identity tended to feel more joy and interest and less contempt or disgust.
The fourth study included a nationally representative sample of over 1,500 adults. Participants completed an emotion recognition task using standardized facial expressions and were told that the faces belonged either to their own national group or to an out-group. The study also measured dehumanization using a visual scale that asked participants to rate how “evolved” they perceived various groups to be, including Poles, Jews, LGBTQ+ people, Russians, and Ukrainians.
The results showed that people with higher national narcissism were worse at recognizing emotional expressions, regardless of whether the target was an in-group or out-group member. In contrast, those high in national identity (but low in national narcissism) were better at identifying emotions. The researchers also found that national narcissism was linked to higher levels of dehumanization of out-groups. Even Poles—the in-group—were dehumanized to some degree by those high in national narcissism.
Critically, the ability to recognize others’ emotions partially explained the link between national narcissism and dehumanization. In other words, people who scored high in national narcissism were more likely to see others as less than fully human in part because they struggled to accurately perceive emotional cues.
Together, the four studies paint a consistent picture: national narcissism is associated with a pattern of emotional dysfunction that includes difficulty understanding both personal and social emotions, a tendency toward negative and antagonistic emotional experiences, and a reduced capacity for empathy. These emotional tendencies may help explain why national narcissism predicts hostility toward others, including fellow citizens.
The authors suggest that this pattern of emotional impairment may make people more vulnerable to seeing others as threats. When individuals struggle to identify emotions in others, they may misinterpret ambiguous cues—like a neutral or friendly facial expression—as mocking, threatening, or disrespectful. This misinterpretation, in turn, could trigger anger or contempt, which makes dehumanization and derogation more likely.
While the findings shed light on an important psychological mechanism behind nationalistic hostility, the study has limitations. All the data came from Polish participants, so the results might not generalize to other cultural contexts. Also, most of the measures were self-reported, which can introduce bias. Although one of the studies used a week-long diary approach and emotion recognition tasks, the research was still observational, meaning it cannot establish cause and effect.
Future studies could use longer-term diary methods, physiological measures, or experimental designs to more clearly track how emotional processes shape national identity and intergroup behavior over time.
The authors also point to the possibility of designing interventions to reduce national narcissism by improving emotional skills. If emotion recognition and emotional awareness can be taught—through structured training or therapeutic programs—it may be possible to reduce defensive forms of national identification and increase openness to others. Research in other areas has shown that emotional intelligence training can improve social functioning and reduce prejudice, making this a promising area for future exploration.
The study, “Emotional processes underlying national narcissism,” was authored by Marta Rogoza, Marta Marchlewska, Radosław Rogoza, Zuzanna Molenda, Dagmara Szczepańska, Oliwia Maciantowicz, and Dominika Maison.
