Beyond religious narcissistic identification: agnostic and atheistic narcissism
Beyond religious narcissistic identification: agnostic and atheistic narcissism
Agnosticism and atheism are often grouped simply as nonreligious identities, yet emerging research highlights their distinct psychological profiles and social implications. Among these distinctions, collective narcissism—characterized by strong attachment to one’s group, exceptionalism, and grievance for recognition—offers a framework for understanding identity processes in both nonreligious groups. We examined whether agnostics and atheists exhibit collective narcissism and its forms (agentic—focused on exceptional effectiveness; communal—focused on exceptional morality) similarly to believers. We explored cross-denominational variance in agentic and communal collective narcissism levels relying on data from 77 countries (N = 3,570; 1227 agnostics, 2343 atheists). Agnostics and atheists from secular countries reported lower collective (particularly agentic) narcissism relative to their counterparts from religious countries. Further, agnostics and atheists were higher on communal than agentic collective narcissism. The results highlight the utility of the agency-communion model of collective narcissism among non-believers.
collective narcissism, agnosticism, atheism, agency, communion
Żemojtel-Piotrowska, Magdalena
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Żemojtel-Piotrowska, Magdalena
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Żemojtel-Piotrowska, Magdalena, Piotrowski, Jarosław and Nowak, Bartłomiej
,
et al.
(2025)
Beyond religious narcissistic identification: agnostic and atheistic narcissism.
The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.
(In Press)
Abstract
Agnosticism and atheism are often grouped simply as nonreligious identities, yet emerging research highlights their distinct psychological profiles and social implications. Among these distinctions, collective narcissism—characterized by strong attachment to one’s group, exceptionalism, and grievance for recognition—offers a framework for understanding identity processes in both nonreligious groups. We examined whether agnostics and atheists exhibit collective narcissism and its forms (agentic—focused on exceptional effectiveness; communal—focused on exceptional morality) similarly to believers. We explored cross-denominational variance in agentic and communal collective narcissism levels relying on data from 77 countries (N = 3,570; 1227 agnostics, 2343 atheists). Agnostics and atheists from secular countries reported lower collective (particularly agentic) narcissism relative to their counterparts from religious countries. Further, agnostics and atheists were higher on communal than agentic collective narcissism. The results highlight the utility of the agency-communion model of collective narcissism among non-believers.
Text
Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al., in press, The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
- Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 19 December 2026.
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 December 2025
Keywords:
collective narcissism, agnosticism, atheism, agency, communion
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 508955
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/508955
ISSN: 1050-8619
PURE UUID: e5394cfb-0206-4df4-85d8-f1fd39f53263
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Date deposited: 09 Feb 2026 17:37
Last modified: 10 Feb 2026 02:39
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Contributors
Author:
Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska
Author:
Jarosław Piotrowski
Author:
Bartłomiej Nowak
Corporate Author: et al.
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