The project examines whether in a context of a shared identity, (a) threat to the national group status increases narcissistic rather than genuine ingroup love, (b) particularly when perceived indispensability to the common European identity is low, and investigates (c)the mechanisms that underlie the negative effects of collective narcissism on intergroup hostility. Specifically, when groups perceive themselves as dispensable, a defensive, narcissistic ingroup positivity will trigger retaliatory hostility when the ingroup's identity is threatened. On the other hand, perceiving the ingroup as indispensable to a given common identity promotes a secure and non-narcissistic ingroup positivity, thus precluding collective narcissism and its negative effects. The project uses cross-sectional surveys and experiments to test these ideas in the context of the Europe's crisis, specifically focusing on countries of low (Portugal and Greece) and high economic status (UK and Germany) within the European Union (EU).      The project is one of the few attempts to explore not only the intergroup factors that trigger narcissism, and cognitive and emotional processes that underlie its effects on intergroup hostility, but also the moderating role of group indispensability. It is expected to contribute to the development of practical guidelines to promote secure and non-narcissistic forms of national identification especially in the midst of current crisis in Europe along with the increase of extreme right and anti-European parties represented in the EU Parliament.

Executive Summary:The present research program addressed the link between prejudice and physical contamination. It examined the effects of environmental smell as a cue of physical contamination (malodor) vs. purity (clean smells) on prejudice towards essentialized out-groups. Minority groups targeted by this form of prejudice are attributed with different underlying essence than the corresponding majorities. Results of 5 experiments showed that malodor increases and clean smell decreases prejudice towards Gypsies, Muslims, Blacks and homosexuals but not towards homeless people, drug addicts or conservative politicians. Pretests confirm that homeless people, drug addicts or conservative politicians are attributed less underlying, unchangeable essence than Gypsies, Muslims, Blacks and homosexuals. It was also demonstrated that the effect of malodor on prejudice was mediated by increased need for physical cleansing. One experiment showed also that malodor increases and clean smell decreases a tendency to implicitly associate Muslims with physical contamination (assessed by Implicit Association Test). In addition, results of 3 studies showed that higher sensitivity to smell predicts prejudice towards ethnic minorities and homosexuals. However, these relationships were only found when people focused on differences between essentialized out-groups and corresponding majorities.