Too great to be more prosocial: the relationship between collective narcissism and humanitarian aid in the Chinese context

Collective narcissism, as a belief about the in-group’s exceptionality, is broadly studied in general inter-group relationships. While collective narcissism is gaining more and more attention, little research has been done to address the interrelation between collective narcissism and international prosocial behavior. Based on agency-communion model of collective narcissism, we assessed whether collective forms of narcissistic agency and communion predicted international prosocial behavior differently in the Chinese context or not. We also examined the mediating roles of prosocial motives and strategical motives which may play in the relationship between collective narcissism and international prosocial behavior. The results of the study indicated that: (1) Collective narcissism was positively associated with in-group satisfaction. (2) Agentic collective narcissism negatively predicted humanitarian aid, but there was no significant mediating effect of strategic motives in the relationship between agentic collective narcissism and humanitarian aid. (3) Communal collective narcissism positively predicted humanitarian aid. Interestingly, both prosocial motives and strategic motives played mediating roles in the relationship between communal collective narcissism and humanitarian aid. Altogether, these findings advanced our understanding of the mechanism driving the link between collective narcissism and international prosocial behavior in the Chinese culture. The evidence also showed that the communal aspects of collective narcissism prompt and encourage international prosocial behavior not only through prosocial motives but also strategic motives.