Narcissism and Cynical Hostility: Polish Data

Aim of the study was to examine the relationship between cynical hostility and various forms of narcissism. Cynical hostility is a personality trait associated with negative view on human nature, mistrustfulness, and dysfunctional social relations. Its relation with grandiose narcissism has been studied, but in the literature there is no similar data concerning different expressions of narcissistic tendencies, such as communal narcissism and collective forms of it. The study verifies the relationship between cynical hostility and four different forms of narcissism (agentic individual, communal individual, agentic collective, communal collective) in Poland. Three national and three students’ samples were examined. Results suggest that all studied forms of narcissism are positively related to cynical hostility, but the effects differ for each of its components. Contributions of this study will be discussed in the context of socio-cultural roots of cynical hostility (e.g. socioeconomic status, experience of communism).

Key words: grandiose narcissism, collective narcissism, cynical hostility