Date of Award

Fall 12-15-2023

Document Type

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science

Department

Political Science & International Relations

Advisor

Dr. Evan Crawford

Abstract

When you try to guess someone’s political beliefs, you probably look towards the usual culprits: race, gender, education, religion, age, marital status, and more. Have you ever tried looking at their narcissistic tendencies? There are seven different types of narcissism, and in a study conducted by Peter K. Hatemi and Zoltan Fazekas in 2018, it was revealed that there is a relationship between an adult’s narcissistic personality traits and their political orientations. It was observed that entitlement narcissism is associated with more conservative political orientations, while exhibitionism narcissism is associated with more liberal political orientations. However, there is a lack of research addressing if this holds true for college-aged adults, a time in one’s life where political orientations are influenced by countless different forces. This project contributes new information on a somewhat, unexplored, area of political science, and takes a step forward towards observing narcissism as a political orientation predictor. I have conducted a survey of college-aged adults at the University of San Diego, using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, to observe what the relationship is, if any, between narcissism and political orientation in college-aged students. The results will show if the conclusions of the original study hold true for college-aged students.

Download

Share

COinS