National narcissism, national identification, and support for greenwashing versus proenvironmental campaigns

Abstract

Abstract Past research indicates that national narcissism (but not national identification) predicts support for anti-environmental policies, and that this effect is driven by national narcissists’ need to defend the group’s image. We hypothesized that although national narcissists might not support proenvironmental actions, they would support promoting a proenvironmental image of their nation (i.e., greenwashing). In five studies (overall N=2,231), we demonstrated that individuals high in national narcissism were less likely to support actual proenvironmental actions (Studies 2-5), but more likely to support greenwashing campaigns (Studies 1-3, 5), although not when greenwashing would involve financial costs incurred by the ingroup (Study 4). In Study 5, national narcissism predicted support for greenwashing as a political strategy—it was related to the preference for green image enhancement over green actions (controlling for proenvironmental attitudes and individual narcissism). We did not observe similar effects for national identification or right-wing political ideology. Implications for promoting proenvironmentalism across distinct groups are discussed.