Narcissistic people, not narcissistic nations: Using multilevel modelling to explore narcissism across countries

Abstract

Narcissism has received considerable research attention as an individual difference variable. The current study broadened the scope of the literature on narcissism by examining differences in scores on narcissism between countries, whether country-level variables could account for those differences, and if there was a cross-level interaction between country-level political corruption and gender. Drawing on a large sample of Internet users from 53 different countries (N = 31,391, 35% female, Mage = 28.64, SD = 10.98), multilevel modelling was used to examine whether there was significant between-country variability on grandiose narcissism. Political corruption, social progress, economic prosperity, and individualism were included as between-country predictors. Most of the variance in narcissism scores occurred at the individual level. Within countries, younger individuals, as well as men, were more narcissistic. Between countries, those with better social progress (e.g., meeting basic human needs) had lower aggregate narcissism scores. The other predictors correlated strongly with social progress and did not account for unique variance. Overall, these results suggest that while some variance in narcissism scores occurs between countries, more variance occurs at the individual level. As such, it is less meaningful to call countries “narcissistic,” and more meaningful to apply this label to individuals.