The targets of all treachery: Delusional ideation, paranoia, and the need for uniqueness as mediators between two forms of narcissism and conspiracy beliefs

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656621000659

Abstract

The present cross-sectional study (NParticipants = 397; NInformants = 460) examined the association of both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism with conspiracy beliefs in the context of four theoretically-relevant mediators. Participants who were higher in grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, seemingly because they were more likely to hold unusual beliefs. There was, likewise, some evidence to suggest that those high in vulnerable narcissism believe in conspiracy theories because they suffer from paranoia, whereas those high in grandiose narcissism believe in conspiracy theories because of a desire to be unique. Together, these results suggest that the conspiracist ideation seen among those high in grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism is a consequence of features that are shared between and unique to each of the traits.
Introduction

Although there continues to be considerable discussion surrounding the exact definition of a conspiracy theory (e.g., Brotherton, 2015; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009), many researchers return to some form of the original definition proposed by Hofstadter (1996). Hofstadter wrote that a conspiracy theory—or what he referred to at the time as the “central preconception of the paranoid style”—is a belief in “the existence of a vast, insidious, preternaturally effective international conspiratorial network designed to perpetrate acts of the most fiendish character” (p. 12). Take the recently reignited belief that the earth is flat as an example. To our knowledge, the earth is round (or, to be more accurate, an oblate spheroid). A seemingly increasing number of people have, however, come to the conclusion that the earth is, in reality, flat (see Olshansky, Peaslee, & Landrum, 2020). In their view, the notion that the earth is round is nothing less than a global propaganda campaign intended to further a set of undeniably nefarious (yet undeniably nebulous) goals.

Owing to recent research, the consequences of these beliefs are not nebulous, but, unfortunately, they are more serious than one might initially assume. Among other things, believing in conspiracy theories has been linked to prejudicial beliefs (Bilewicz et al., 2013, Jolley et al., 2020, Swami, 2012), political apathy (Butler et al., 1995, Jolley and Douglas, 2014b), and—especially relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic—a distrust of vaccines (Craciun & Baban, 2012, Jolley and Douglas, 2014a, Lewandowsky et al., 2013, Bertin et al., 2020).

Given the seriousness of these beliefs, it comes as little surprise that researchers have devoted substantial effort to identifying what it is about certain people that lead them to believe in conspiracy theories. For instance, a number of studies have examined the role of general personality traits (e.g., openness) in these beliefs (see Goreis & Voracek, 2019). Less attention, however, has been directed towards the more disagreeable aspects of personality. The present study takes up this particular mantle by investigating the association of two dimensions of narcissism with conspiracist ideation in the context of four theoretically-relevant mediators.

Although other variants exist (e.g., collective narcissism, Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, Eidelson, & Jayawickreme, 2009), researchers and clinicians have largely coalesced around the idea that there are two distinct dimensions of narcissism (Cain et al., 2008, Dickinson and Pincus, 2003, Gabbard, 1989, Miller et al., 2011, Pincus & Roche, 2012, Wink, 1991). The first dimension—what is called grandiose narcissism—is what probably comes to mind when a person hears the word narcissism. It is characterized, in part, by excessive self-confidence, a sense of one’s superiority over others, and fantasies of grandeur. The second dimension—what is called vulnerable narcissism—is similar to grandiose narcissism insofar that it is characterized by arrogance, entitlement, and callousness, but it also includes high levels of self-consciousness, insecurity, and shame. In other words, grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism both involve an inordinate focus on the self, but, in the case of grandiose narcissism, that focus is primarily complimentary while, in the case of vulnerable narcissism, that focus is primarily derogatory.

Most of the prior research on the association between narcissism and conspiracist ideation has focused on this grandiose variant. Researchers have, for example, demonstrated that grandiose narcissism is associated with both general conspiracy theories (Cichocka et al., 2016, Kay, 2021) and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 specifically (Kay, 2020, Malesza, 2020). To our knowledge, only two studies (i.e., Jolley and Paterson, 2020, March and Springer, 2019) have investigated the association between vulnerable narcissism and conspiracist ideation, and the researchers found that—at least when considered at the zero-order level—vulnerable narcissism was associated with believing in conspiracy theories. Despite the many strengths of these two studies, they both used only a single measure of vulnerable narcissism and only made use of self-report data. This raises the possibility that any relations identified were a consequence of the specific measures used or the specific method used. As such, the first goal of the present study was to provide a high-powered, multimeasure, and multimethod examination of the association of both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism with conspiracist ideation.

The second goal of the present study was to extend the existing literature by investigating psychological features that may be able to help account for the association between these two forms of narcissism and conspiracist ideation. One might assume that—since both forms of narcissism share a common core (e.g., low agreeableness, Miller, Lynam, Hyatt, & Campbell, 2017; Miller et al., 2016)—grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism would be associated with conspiracist ideation for primarily the same reason (or the same set of reasons). Grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism have, however, been shown to have distinct nomological networks (e.g., Miller et al., 2011). It is, therefore, possible that the two forms of narcissism would be linked to conspiracist ideation for different reasons as well.

In terms of a mediator that might be shared by both forms of narcissism, one possible candidate is delusional ideation (i.e., a predisposition towards odd and unusual beliefs). Potentially as a prerequisite of the grandiose fantasies entertained by grandiose narcissists and the delusions of persecution suffered by vulnerable narcissists, both forms of narcissism do appear to be linked to psychoticism and the tendency to hold odd and unusual beliefs (Gentile et al., 2013, Miller et al., 2013, Miller et al., 2018, Thomas et al., 2012, Wright et al., 2013; but see also Grigoras & Wille, 2017). The tendency to have these beliefs has, in turn, been linked to conspiracist ideation (Barron et al., 2018, Brotherton et al., 2013, Bruder et al., 2013, Larsen et al., 2020, Swami et al., 2016). It seems plausible that people scoring high on grandiose and vulnerable narcissism could believe unusual things about, for example, the government because they are more likely to believe in unusual things more generally. Kay (2021) has, in fact, shown that delusional thinking accounts for the association between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation. Likewise, March and Springer (2019) demonstrated that the association of both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism with conspiracist ideation disappears when controlling for the presence of odd beliefs, potentially because partialling out delusional ideation removes the portion of both forms of narcissism that is relevant to conspiracist ideation.

It is, nevertheless, also possible that vulnerable narcissism is linked to conspiracist ideation through a specific type of unusual belief—one that is not shared, or not shared to the same degree, with grandiose narcissism. Specifically, those scoring high in vulnerable narcissism may be prone to believe in conspiracy theories because they are more likely to suffer from paranoia (i.e., a pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others). Vulnerable narcissism has been linked to elevated levels of paranoia, distrust, and suspiciousness (Miller et al., 2018, Thomas et al., 2012, Wright et al., 2013), and these associations are consistently greater than those seen for grandiose narcissism (Miller et al., 2010, Miller et al., 2011, Miller et al., 2013). Paranoia has, in turn, been shown to be highly associated with conspiracist ideation (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2018). People who are high in vulnerable narcissism may, as a result, be more willing to endorse conspiracy theories because they, not only hold odd beliefs about the government and other elite institutions, but also because they are skeptical of the government and other elite institutions.

Additional research has suggested that paranoia may also play a role in the relationship between grandiose narcissism and the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Namely, Cichocka et al. (2016) demonstrated that paranoia fully mediates the relationship between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation. It is important to note, however, that the researchers did not account for delusional ideation in their model. As such, it is possible that paranoia mediated the association between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation because paranoia reflects, in part, the tendency to hold odd and unusual beliefs.

Turning to mediators that may be more directly relevant to grandiose narcissism, there is reasonable evidence to suggest that the link between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation is explained by a desire to feel unique. That is, those high in grandiose narcissism may be drawn to conspiracy theories because it reinforces their grandiose sense of self by allowing them to believe they are in possession of knowledge that others are not privy to or that others are too simple-minded to realize for themselves. As Brotherton (2015) wrote, a conspiracy theory can act as “an invitation to join an enlightened but embattled minority—an elect few who bravely, selflessly speak truth to power” (p. 150). In line with this notion, grandiose narcissism has been theoretically and empirically linked to wanting to be unique (Back et al., 2013, de Bellis et al., 2016, Emmons, 1984, Lee et al., 2013, Lee and Seidle, 2012, Ohmann and Burgmer, 2016), and wanting to be unique has been linked to believing in conspiracy theories (Lantian, Muller, Nurra, & Douglas, 2017). Nonetheless, it is important to note that Kay (2021) found relatively limited evidence that a desire for uniqueness mediates the association between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation, owing to a small association between uniqueness and conspiracist ideation (i.e., = 0.02).

In addition to wanting to feel unique, a desire for control may also explain some of the relationship between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation. According to Douglas, Sutton, and Cichocka (2017), one of the reasons people are drawn to conspiracy theories is because they see it as a way to reassert control over their lives. Thus, if those scoring high in grandiose narcissism feel a greater need for control—as is suggested by (a) the central position of authority in many conceptualizations of grandiose narcissism (e.g., Glover et al., 2012, Raskin and Terry, 1988) and (b) the consistent associations between grandiose narcissism and assertiveness (Miller et al., 2010, Miller et al., 2011)—they may gravitate towards conspiracy theories as a way to satisfy that desire. Indeed, Kay (2021) has found some evidence that a desire for control mediates the association between the more leadership-oriented aspects of grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation.
Section snippets
The current study

The present study used both self-report and informant-report measures to examine the association of grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism with conspiracist ideation. Four potential mediators of these two relationships were considered: (1) Delusional ideation, (2) paranoia, (3) the desire to be unique, and (4) the desire for control. It was expected that delusional ideation would mediate both the association between grandiose narcissism and conspiracist ideation and the association
Participants, informants, and procedures

Five hundred undergraduate students were awarded course credit for completing a one-hour online survey that included the self-report measures described below. Participants who showed evidence of straightlining (i.e., those who provided the same response to every question for a given survey block; n = 25), speeding (i.e., those with response durations less than one-third of the median response time; n = 19), or inattentive responding (i.e., those who responded in an unusual way to the attention
Results

Descriptive statistics—including the mean, standard deviation, skew, and kurtosis—for all variables can be found in the Supplementary Material. Gender comparisons and zero-order correlations for all variables can also be found in the Supplementary Material.
Discussion

There were two goals of the present study. The first was to provide a high-powered, multimeasure, and multimethod examination of the association of both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism with conspiracist ideation. The second was to identify psychological features that could help account for these associations. To that end, four theoretically-relevant mediators were included in the present study: (1) delusional ideation, (2) paranoia, (3) the need for uniqueness, and (4) the desire
Limitations and future directions

The present study does, however, have a number of limitations that should be noted. First, the study relied on a sample of undergraduate students from a Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic society (WEIRD, Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). It is yet unclear whether the present results would generalize to non-WEIRD samples. Second, mediation analysis was used in the present study to test whether the four mediators could account for the association between the two forms of
Conclusion

The present findings indicate that people high in grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism believe in conspiracy theories for at least one shared reason: They are prone to delusions. The present study also provides some evidence that conspiracist beliefs arise among those high in grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism for reasons that are unique to each construct. Namely, grandiose narcissism is linked to conspiracist ideation because of a need for uniqueness, while vulnerable
Acknowledgments

I thank Ashley L. Miller for her valuable feedback on this manuscript.
CRediT authorship contribution statement

Cameron S. Kay: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Project administration.
Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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The targets of all treachery: Delusional ideation, paranoia, and the need for uniqueness as mediators between two forms of narcissism and conspiracy beliefs

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