National narcissism: Internal dimensions and international correlates Huajian Cai 1 and Peter Gries 2 1 Key Laboratory of Behavior Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 2 Institute for US–China Issues, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA Abstract: In studies conducted in the United States and China, we explored the impact of national narcissism, grandiosity, and entitlement, demonstrating that: (a) national narcissism was distinct from both individual narcissism and collective self-esteem (patriotism); (b) national entitlement and national grandiosity constituted two distinct dimensions of national narcissism; and (c) national narcissism, national grandiosity, and national entitlement, but not individual narcissism, were uniquely predictive of political attitudes, foreign policy prefer- ences, and purchase intentions. Together, these findings provided convergent evidence for the utility of national narcissism and its two internal dimensions, national entitlement and national grandiosity. Keywords: entitlement; grandiosity; narcissism; national narcissism; U.S.–China relations Correspondence: Dr. Huajian Cai, Department of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China. Email: huajian.cai@gmail.com Received 15 June 2012. Accepted 17 December 2012. Twenge and Campbell (2009) have argued that a “narcissism epidemic” afflictsAmerica today. “American culture’s focus on self-admiration has caused a flight from reality to the land of grandiose fantasy,” they write, “All this fantasy might feel good, but . . . inflated desires eventually crash to earth” (p. 4). Although few disagree about the harmful consequences of narcissism, whether or not a narcissism epidemic actually exists in America today has become a subject of hot debate among psychologists (see Donnellan, Trzesniewski, & Robins, 2009; Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2008; Twenge & Foster, 2008, 2010; Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008). Given the recent scholarly and popular attention paid to narcissistic attachment to the self and its negative conse- quences for interpersonal relations, it is perhaps surprising that little attention has been given to the possibility of narcissistic identification with the nation and its possible negative consequences for international relations. Expand- ing on two extant but separate streams of scholarship on narcissism, this paper develops the construct of “national narcissism.” In one line of research, de Zavala, Cichocka, Eidelson, and Jayawickreme (2009) have suggested that narcissism at the individual level can be conceptually extended to inter- group relations. They proposed the concept of “collective narcissism,” defined as an emotional investment in “an inflated image of an ingroup” (p. 1074). They developed a nine-item Collective Narcissism (CN) Scale, adapting indi- vidual level narcissism items by replacing “I” with “my group,” such as “My group deserves special treatment.” They found that their CN Scale correlated with a number of per- ceptual and behavioral measures, such as threat perception and support for aggressive action, concluding that “Collec- tive narcissism is related to intergroup aggressiveness because it increases sensitivity to signs of criticism or unfair treatment in an intergroup context” (p. 1091). Their research included a case study of national collective narcissism. However, because the focus of their research was on collec- tive narcissism in general, when de Zavala et al. sought to operationalize collective narcissism as, for example, a Pole, they did so indirectly, priming the participants’ national identity as a Pole only in the instructions before they com- pleted the CN Scale containing the “my group” items. As a specific and important case of collective narcissism, we believe that a more direct measure and examination of national narcissism is warranted. PsyCh Journal 2 (2013): 122–132 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.26 © 2013 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd