Despite the scientific consensus about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there are still obstacles hindering society from acknowledging the severity of the situation. Notably, previous research suggests that climate change threats can cause people to display ethnocentric reactions to preserve the ingroup’s interests. In this research, we investigate the relation between collective narcissism and attitudes towards climate science. We argue that national collective narcissism is negatively associated with the acceptance of climate science. We further hypothesized that this relation might be mediated by conspiracy beliefs about climate change, because narcissistic identifiers are prone to hold conspiracy beliefs. In a pilot study (N = 409), we found that national collective narcissism was significantly associated with climate change conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1 (N = 295), climate change conspiracy beliefs mediated the negative relation between national collective narcissism and acceptance of climate science. In Study 2 (N = 375), this mediation was replicated when controlling for other forms of climate skepticism. Lastly, general conspiracy mentality did not mediate this relation, which emphasizes the importance of considering the specificity of climate change conspiracy theories (rather than generic propensity to believe in conspiracy theories) in understanding distrust of climate science.

尽管科学界就气候变化的人为性质达成了共识，但仍有障碍阻碍社会承认形势的严重性。值得注意的是，之前的研究表明，气候变化威胁会导致人们表现出以种族为中心的反应，以维护内群体的利益。在这项研究中，我们调查了集体自恋与对气候科学的态度之间的关系。我们认为，国家集体自恋与接受气候科学呈负相关。我们进一步假设这种关系可能是由有关气候变化的阴谋信念介导的，因为自恋标识符容易持有阴谋信念。在一项试点研究中 ( N= 409），我们发现国家集体自恋与气候变化阴谋信念显着相关。在研究 1 ( N = 295) 中，气候变化阴谋论在民族集体自恋与接受气候科学之间的负面关系中起中介作用。在研究 2 ( N = 375) 中，当控制其他形式的气候怀疑时，这种中介被复制。最后，一般的阴谋心态并没有调解这种关系，这强调了在理解对气候科学的不信任时考虑气候变化阴谋论的特殊性（而不是相信阴谋论的普遍倾向）的重要性。