What are the psychological processes responsible for the recent spread of populist political systems and movements? All political systems essentially reflect the mental representations of their populations, and collective narcissism has recently emerged as a contributing factor in the rise of populism. This article presents two studies examining the role of collective narcissism in predicting populist attitudes and voting intentions in Hungary. Hungary offers a particularly important case study of state-sponsored populism and illiberalism in Europe, as this country has gone furthest in undermining democratic principles and practices within the EU. To establish the pervasive role of collective narcissism we first review the historical evidence, survey research, and narrative analyses of Hungarian political representations. We then present two empirical studies where we predicted and found that collective narcissism was a significant predictor of negative attitudes toward the EU (Study 1), conservatism, and support for the ruling populist party (Studies 1 and 2). Collective narcissism predicted these variables independently from other factors, such as in-group positivity or perceived relative deprivation. However, once conservatism was controlled for the effects of collective narcissism faded out in some cases. The results nevertheless indicate that collective narcissism plays important role in promoting populist politics. The implications of these findings for understanding the psychological appeal of populism and illiberalism are discussed.

中文翻译：

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集体自恋在民粹主义态度中的作用以及匈牙利的民主崩溃

最近民粹主义政治制度和运动的传播有哪些心理过程？所有政治制度从本质上都反映了其人口的精神代表，而集体自恋最近成为了民粹主义兴起的一个促成因素。本文提供了两项研究，考察了集体自恋在预测匈牙利民粹主义态度和投票意图中的作用。匈牙利提供了关于欧洲国家赞助的民粹主义和自由主义的一个特别重要的案例研究，因为该国在破坏欧盟内部的民主原则和实践方面已走得最远。为了确定集体自恋的普遍作用，我们首先回顾一下匈牙利政治代表的历史证据，调查研究和叙事分析。然后，我们提供了两个经验研究，在这些研究中我们进行了预测，发现集体自恋是对欧盟（研究1），保守主义和对执政的民粹党的支持的负面态度的重要预测（研究1和2）。集体自恋预测这些变量独立于其他因素，例如组内积极性或感知的相对剥夺。但是，一旦保守主义受到控制，集体自恋的效果在某些情况下就消失了。尽管如此，结果表明，集体自恋在促进民粹主义政治方面起着重要作用。讨论了这些发现对于理解民粹主义和自由主义的心理吸引力的意义。