Dr Agnieszka Golec de Zavala

Staff details

Dr Agnieszka Golec de Zavala

Position

Reader

Department

Psychology

Email

a.golec (@gold.ac.uk)

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Personality Science and Social Psychology Group

Agnieszka proposed the theory of collective narcissism to explain prejudice and intergroup hostility. She investigates s

Agnieszka is a Reader at the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths. She is a member of Society for Experimental Social Psychology, AcademiaNet and advisor of think tanks Concillium Civitas and Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Society. Her research expertise lies in social and political psychology, including psychological predictors of political conservatism, the role of motivated cognition in intergroup conflict, the role of social identity, narcissism and collective narcissisms in conflict, social inequality and prejudice. She is the proponent of collective narcissism theory and the author of the widely used Collective Narcissism Scale. She strives to understand dynamics of collective narcissism, to reduce intergroup conflicts and pursue social equality. The significance of her work is not only in her scientific contribution, but also in its applicability in to social problems such as social inequality, prejudice and intergroup conflict.

Academic qualifications

  • Habilitation, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland 2015
  • PG Cert HE Diploma, Middlesex University, UK 2009
  • PhD in Social and Political Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland 1999
  • MA with honours in Social and Developmental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland 1994

Research interests

• Collective and individual narcissism
• Prejudice and intergroup hostility
• Social exclusion. ingroup identification and pursuit of social equality
• Social identity and intergroup relations
• Pro-social and self-transcendent emotions and their role in prejudice reduction and reducing consequences of intergroup exclusion
• Embodied social cognition, embodiment of prejudice
• Yoga, mindfulness and self-transcending emotions and creativity and well being

Grants and awards

2017: Narodowe Centrum Nauki awarded to Agnieszka Golec de Zavala (PI)
2017-2023 Narodowe Centrum Nauki awarded to Agnieszka Golec de Zavala (PI) (PLN 3M, £750K).

2018: The Noble Foundation awarded to Richard Mole and Agnieszka Golec de Zavala
2018-2019 The Noble Foundation awarded to Richard Mole and Agnieszka Golec de Zavala (£30K)

2016: Narcissistic ingroup love in Europe: threat, identity indispensability and extreme forms of national identification
2016-2019 Fundação para a Sciência e a Tecnologia, Ministerio da Educação e Ciência research grant awarded to Dr Rita Guerra, Narcissistic ingroup love in Europe: threat, identity indispensability and

2016: Ministerio da Educação e Ciência awarded to Agnieszka Golec de Zavala
2013-2016 Fundação para a Sciência e a Tecnologia, Ministerio da Educação e Ciência awarded to Agnieszka Golec de Zavala (€112K ).

2017: Rector’s Award for outstanding achievements, SWPS University, Poland

2017: Dean’s Award for outstanding achievements, SWPS University, Poland

2012: Marie Curie Fellow, Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Portugal
Fellowship awarded to Agnieszka Golec (€230K)

2005: Fellowship of the Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, University of Pennsylvania

2004: Fellowship of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS)

1999: Fulbright Scholarship

Publications and research outputs

Book

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2023. The Psychology of Collective Narcissism: Insights from Social Identity Theory. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781032283814

Book Section

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Keenan, Oliver. 2023. Collective narcissism and the clash of advantaged and disadvantaged groups. In: Anna Kende and Barbara Lášticová, eds. The Psychology of Politically Unstable Societies. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781032252285

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Lantos, Dorottya and Keenan, Oliver. 2021. Collective Narcissism and the Motivational Underpinnings of the Populist Backlash. In: Joseph P. Forgas; William D. Crano and Klaus Fiedler, eds. The Psychology of Populism: The Tribal Challenge to Liberal Democracy. New York: Routledge, pp. 105-122. ISBN 9780367523909

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2020. Why is populism so robustly associated with conspiratorial thinking? Collective Narcissism and the Meaning Maintenance Model. In: Jan D. Sinnott and Joan S. Rabin, eds. The psychology of political behavior in a time of change. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 277-290. ISBN 9783030382698

Article

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Keenan, Oliver. 2024. Gender and National Collective Narcissism: Gender Asymmetries and Obstacles to Gender Equality. Sex Roles, ISSN 0360-0025

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Forster, Chiara; Ziegler, Matthias; Nalberczak-Skora, Maria; Ciesielski, Pawel and Mazurkiewicz, Magdalena. 2024. The shape of the change: Cumulative and incremental changes in daily mood during mobile-app-supported mindfulness training. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, ISSN 1758-0846

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Keenan, Oliver; Ziegler, Matthias; Ciesielski, Pawel; Wahl, Julia and Mazurkiewicz, Magdalena. 2023. App-based mindfulness training supported eudaimonic wellbeing during the COVID19 pandemic. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, ISSN 1758-0846

Media engagements

2022: What Collective Narcissism does to Society?
Paper by Scott Barry Kaufman in The Atlantic based with interview with Agnieszka Golec de Zavala and presenting her research on collective narcissism

2022: Poor us: how collective narcissism powers Trump and Putin’s supporters
Interview with Agnieszka Golec de Zavala and other authors on relevance of collective narcissism to pressing contemporary societal problems

2022: Effects of positive ingroup evaluation
The review presenting co-authored research on consequences of collective narcissism in advantaged and disadvantaged social groups based on research conducted in Turkey and United Kingdom

2021: „Podziw i uznanie nam się po prostu należą!” Dlaczego narcyzm uwodzi nas bardziej niż nacjonalizm
'We simply deserve admiration and recognition' Why narcissism seduces are more than nationalism' Interview with Michal Sutowski for Krytyka Polityczna in Polish

2019: What Can We Do About Collective Narcissism?

2018: How self-love got out of control

2018: Narcissism: not only an individual failing

2018: Why collective narcissists are so politically volatile

2017: Collective narcissism' explains at least some of President Trump's support

2017: Welcome to the age of collective narcissism

2017: How “collective narcissism” helps explain the election of Trump

2016: There's such a thing as collective narcissism (and it might explain a lot that's going on at the moment)

Conferences and talks

2022: Collective narcissism and collective self-esteem as alternative strategies of self-enhancement through positive social identity.
Keynote address at the conference Between narcissism and entitlement: self-enhancement in a cross-cultural perspective at University of Warsaw, Poland

2021: Group members’ reactions to the ingroup exclusion: Ingroup identification, distress and retaliation.
Panel organizer and chair at SESP Annual Meeting, Santa Barbara, USA

2020: Social identity and intergroup attitudes.
Panel organizer and chair at ISPP Annual Meeting.

2019: Collective narcissism: Political consequences of investing self-esteem in the in-group image.
Talk at a symposium on Faces of Grandiose Narcissism, at Society for Experimental Social Psychology Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada

2022: Collective narcissism as a predictor of the belief in conspiracy theories.
Talk at a symposium on Psychology of Conspiracy Theories at APS General Meeting, Washington D.C. USA