Cutting the forest down to save your face: Narcissistic national identification predicts support for anti-conservation policies

Past work showed that strong national identification is negatively related to environmental protection. In this paper we aim to demonstrate that only some forms of national identity oppose environmental concerns. In three studies, we examined the association between support for anti-conservation policies and narcissistic versus conventional national in-group identification. Collective narcissism is a belief in in-group greatness associated with the need for external validation. We found that national collective narcissism (but not national identification without the narcissistic component) was positively associated with support for government subsidy for the coal industry (Study 1, n = 102), and logging the Bialowieza Forest (Study 2, n = 189 and Study 3, n = 635, nationally representative sample). In Studies 2 and 3 these effects were mediated by an increased need to make decisions independently of external influences. The role of defensive forms of in-group identification in support for environmental harm is discussed.