Dr Agnieszka Golec de Zavala
Staff details
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
Publications and research outputs
Book Section
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
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2018. Collective narcissism: antecedents and consequences of exaggeration of the in-group image. In: Anthony Hermann; Amy Brunell and Josh Foster, eds. Handbook of Trait Narcissism: Key Advances, Research Methods, and Controversies. Springer, pp. 79-88. ISBN 978-3-319-92171-6
Article
Federico, Christopher M.; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Bu, Wen. 2023. Collective Narcissism as a Basis for Nationalism. Political Psychology, 44(1), pp. 177-196. ISSN 0162-895X
Bagci, Sabahat Cigdem; Stathi, Sophia and Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2023. Social identity threat across group status: Links to psychological well-being and intergroup bias through collective narcissism and ingroup satisfaction. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 29(2), pp. 208-220. ISSN 1099-9809
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Bierwiaczonek, Kinga and Ciesielski, Pawel. 2022. An interpretation of meta-analytical evidence for the link between collective narcissism and conspiracy theories. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101360. ISSN 2352-250X
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2022. Conditional Parochial Vicarious Ostracism: Gender Collective Narcissism Predicts Distress at the Exclusion of the Gender Ingroup in Women and Men. Sex Roles, 87(5-6), pp. 267-288. ISSN 0360-0025
Federico, Christopher M.; Farhart, Christina; Vitriol, Joseph and Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2022. Collective Narcissism and Perceptions of the (Il)legitimacy of the 2020 US Election. The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics, 20(1), pp. 37-62. ISSN 1540-8884
Guerra, Rita; Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Ferreira, Marina; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Abakoumkin, Georgios; Wildschut, Tim and Sedikides, Constantine. 2022. An intergroup approach to collective narcissism: Intergroup threats and hostility in four European Union countries. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25(2), pp. 415-433. ISSN 1368-4302
Keenan, Oliver and Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2021. Collective Narcissism and Weakening of American Democracy. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 21(1), pp. 237-258. ISSN 1529-7489
Federico, Christopher M.; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Baran, Tomasz. 2021. Collective Narcissism, In-Group Satisfaction, and Solidarity in the Face of COVID-19. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(6), pp. 1071-1081. ISSN 1948-5506
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Baran, Tomasz; Keenan, Oliver and Hase, Adrian. 2021. The COVID-19 Pandemic, Authoritarianism and Rejection of Sexual Dissenters in Poland. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Diversity, 8(2), pp. 250-260. ISSN 2329-0382
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Bierwiaczonek, Kinga. 2021. Male, National, and Religious Collective Narcissism Predict Sexism. Sex Roles, 84(11-12), pp. 680-700. ISSN 0360-0025
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Keenan, Oliver. 2021. Collective narcissism as a framework for understanding populism. Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, 5(2), pp. 54-64. ISSN 2475-0387
Mole, Richard C. M.; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Adraq, Mahmut Murat. 2021. Homophobia and national collective narcissism in populist Poland. European Journal of Sociology, 62(1), pp. 37-70. ISSN 0003-9756
Marchlewska, Marta; Cichocka, Aleksandra; Jaworska, Manana; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Bilewicz, Michal. 2020. Superficial ingroup love? Collective narcissism predicts ingroup image defense, outgroup prejudice, and lower ingroup loyalty. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(4), pp. 857-875. ISSN 0144-6665
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Lantos, Dorottya. 2020. Collective narcissism and its social consequences: The Bad and the Ugly. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(3), pp. 273-278. ISSN 0963-7214
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Federico, Christopher M.; Sedikides, Constantine; Guerra, Rita; Lantos, Dorottya; Mrozinski, Blazej; Cypryańska-Nezlek, Marzena and Baran, Tomasz. 2020. Low Self-Esteem Predicts Out-group Derogation via Collective Narcissism, but this Relationship Is Obscured by In-group Satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(3), pp. 741-764. ISSN 0022-3514
Dyduch-Hazar, Karolina; Mrozinski, Blazej and Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2019. Collective Narcissism and In-Group Satisfaction Predict Opposite Attitudes Toward Refugees via Attribution of Hostility. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(1901),
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Dyduch-Hazar, Krolina and Lantos, Dorottya. 2019. Collective narcissism: Political consequences of investment of self-worth into an ingroup’s image. Advances in Political Psychology, 40(S1), pp. 37-74. ISSN 1479-0661
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2019. Collective Narcissism and In-Group Satisfaction Are Associated With Different Emotional Profiles and Psychological Wellbeing. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 203.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Federico, Christopher. 2018. Collective Narcissism and the Growth of Conspiracy Thinking over the Course of the 2016 United States Presidential Election: A Longitudinal Analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48(7), pp. 1011-1018. ISSN 0046-2772
Cichocka, Aleksandra; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Marchlewska, Marta; Bilewicz, Michal; Jaworska, Manana and Olechowski, Mateusz. 2018. Personal control decreases narcissistic but increases non-narcissistic in-group positivity. Journal of Personality, 86(3), pp. 465-480. ISSN 0022-3506
Federico, Christopher and Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2018. Collective Narcissism and the 2016 United States Presidential Vote. Public Opinion Quarterly, 82(1), pp. 110-121. ISSN 0033-362X
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Guerra, Rita and Simao, Claudia. 2017. The Relationship between the Brexit Vote and Individual Predictors of Prejudice: Collective Narcissism, Right Wing Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2023. ISSN 1664-1078
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Lantos, Dorottya and Bowden, Deborah. 2017. Yoga Poses Increase Subjective Energy and State Self-Esteem in Comparison to ‘Power Poses’. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 752.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Peker, Mujde; Guerra, Rita and Baran, Tomasz. 2016. Collective Narcissism Predicts Hypersensitivity to In-group Insult and Direct and Indirect Retaliatory Intergroup Hostility. European Journal of Personality, 30(30), pp. 532-551. ISSN 0890-2070
Cichocka, Aleksandra; Marchlewska, Marta and Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2016. Does self-love or self-hate predict conspiracy beliefs? Narcissism, self-esteem, and the endorsement of conspiracy theories. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), pp. 157-166. ISSN 1948-5506
Cichocka, Aleksandra; Marchlewska, Marta; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Olechowski, Mateusz. 2015. “They will not control us”: In-group positivity and belief in intergroup conspiracies. British Journal of Psychology, 107, pp. 566-576. ISSN 0007-1250
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Waldzus, Sven and Cypryanska, Marzena. 2014. Prejudice towards gay men and a need for physical cleansing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, pp. 1-10. ISSN 0022-1031
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Cichocka, Aleksandra and Iskra-Golec, Iskra-Golec. 2013. Collective Narcissism Moderates the Effect of In-group Image Threat on Intergroup Hostility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, pp. 1019-1039. ISSN 0022-3514
Cichocka, Aleksandra; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Kofta, Mirek and Rozum, Joanna. 2013. Threats to Feminist Identity and Reactions to Gender Discrimination. Sex Roles, 68(9-10), pp. 605-619. ISSN 0360-0025
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Cichocka, Aleksandra and Bilewicz, Michal. 2013. The paradox of in-group love: Differentiating collective narcissism advances understanding of the relationship between in-group and out-group attitudes. Journal of Personality, 81(1), pp. 16-28.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Cichocka, Aleksandra. 2012. Collective narcissism and anti-Semitism in Poland,. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 15, pp. 213-229.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Cichocka, Aleksandra; Orehek, Edward and Abdollahi, Abdolhossein. 2012. Intrinsic religiosity reduces intergroup hostility under mortality salience. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42(4), pp. 451-461.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka. 2011. Collective narcissism and intergroup hostility: the dark side of 'in-group love'. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, pp. 309-320.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Kossowska, Malgorzata. 2011. Correspondence between images of terrorists and preferred approaches to counterterrorism: The moderating role of ideological orientations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41(4), pp. 538-549.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Cislak, Aleksandra and Wesolowska, Elzbieta. 2010. Political Conservatism, Need for Cognitive Closure, and Intergroup Hostility. Political Psychology, 31(5), pp. 521-541.
Kossowska, Malgorzata; Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Kubik, Tomasz. 2010. Stereotyped images of terrorists as predictors of fear of future terrorist attacks. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 2(3), pp. 179-197.
Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Cichocka, Aleksandra; Eidelson, Roy and Jayawickreme, Nuwan. 2009. Collective Narcissism and its Social Consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), pp. 1074-1096.
Further profile content
Featured publications
2022:
An interpretation of meta-analytical evidence for the link between collective narcissism and conspiracy theories
Golec de Zavala, A., et al (2022). An interpretation of meta-analytical evidence for the link between collective narcissism and conspiracy theories. Current Opinion in Psychology
2022:
Conditional Parochial Vicarious Ostracism: Gender Collective Narcissism Predicts Distress at the Exclusion of the Gender Ingroup in Women and Men
Golec de Zavala, A. (2022). Conditional Parochial Vicarious Ostracism: Gender Collective Narcissism Predicts Distress at the Exclusion of the Gender Ingroup in Women and Men. Sex Roles 87, 267–288.
2022:
Collective Narcissism as a Basis for Nationalism
Federico, C.M., Golec De Zavala, A. and Bu, W. (2022), Collective Narcissism as a Basis for Nationalism. Political Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12833
2020:
Low Self-Esteem Predicts Out-group Derogation via Collective Narcissism, but this Relationship Is Obscured by In-group Satisfaction
Golec de Zavala, A., Federico, C., Sedikides, C., Guerra, R., Lantos, D., Mrozinski, B, Cypryanska, M. & Baran, T. (2020).
2020:
Collective narcissism and its social consequences: The Bad and the Ugly
Golec de Zavala, A. & Lantos, D.(2020) Collective narcissism and its social consequences: The Bad and the Ugly, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(3), 273–278.
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Personality Science and Social Psychology Group
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
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
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
