‘Too good to eat meat’: collective narcissism as the dark side of ingroup love among vegans and vegetarians

Through a pre-registered correlational study ( N = 540, 273 vegetarians and 267 vegan), we aimed at integrating the social psychological construct of collective narcissism —the belief that the ingroup is superior, but insufficiently recognized by others—into the study of vegan/vegetarian (veg*n) identities. We investigated (a) dietary motivations associated with collective narcissism and (b) how collective narcissism was related to intergroup (attitudes towards meat-eaters, collective action and behavioral tendencies), and individual (life satisfaction) outcomes among veg*ns. Contrary to our expectations, prosocially-motivated individuals and particularly vegetarians reported higher levels of collective narcissism compared to morally-motivated individuals, and vegans. As expected, veg*n collective narcissism predicted greater hostility towards meat-eaters (more negative attitudes and behavioral tendencies), as well as greater motivation to engage in both normative and non-normative collective action, whereas a non-narcissistic ingroup positivity (i.e., ingroup satisfaction) was associated with relatively more productive outcomes such as reduced negative outgroup behavioral tendencies and reduced non-normative collective action motivation. Unlike our initial suggestion, however, both collective narcissism and ingroup satisfaction contributed positively to life satisfaction, indicating the potential of collective narcissism to function as a coping mechanism among this group. These findings extend the construct of collective narcissism to a moralized lifestyle minority group and provide a nuanced account of how different forms of ingroup positivity may shape intergroup hostility, activism, and well-being among veg*ns.