The Conspiracy of Us: Political Narcissism Promotes Ascription of Conspiracy Intentions to In‐Group Members

ABSTRACT This research explores how political collective narcissists endorse conspiracy beliefs, particularly those that portray both in‐group and out‐group members as conspiring agents. We hypothesized that individuals high in political narcissism would be more likely to endorse conspiracy theories that accuse both out‐group and in‐group members of intentional, secret and coordinated actions. In Study 1 ( N = 735), we found that political narcissism (but not political identification) among conservatives and liberals predicted belief in both anti‐liberal and anti‐conservative conspiracy theories. In Study 2 ( N = 658), we introduced a novel measure that more directly portrays liberals and conservatives as conspiring agents and found that political narcissism was positively associated with believing in conspiracies, accusing both out‐group and in‐group members. In Study 3 ( N = 1197), we demonstrated that the relationship between political collective narcissism (both among liberals and conservatives) and belief in conspiracy theories with in‐group members as conspiring agents was mediated by the party‐over‐nation orientation, a tendency to prioritize political in‐group gain over the nation's good. Our findings suggest that collective narcissists not only endorse out‐group conspiracies but also in‐group conspiracy beliefs, especially when such beliefs serve strategic goals.