Emotion (Dys)Regulation and National Narcissism

National narcissism (i.e., an unrealistic belief about the national group’s greatness that is derived from individual’s unsatisfied needs) has been previously predicted by negative emotionality. This research aimed to further investigate the emotional roots of national narcissism by examining its’ link with emotion dysregulation. Across three cross-sectional studies conducted among British (Study 1, N = 473), American (Study 2, N = 444), and Polish (Study 1, N = 633) participants, we found that greater deficiencies in emotion regulation were consistently linked with higher national narcissism. We also replicated past effects of emotion dysregulation and national narcissism on conspiracy beliefs and demonstrated the indirect effect of emotion dysregulation on conspiracy beliefs via national narcissism. These results suggest that the emotional deficiencies of individuals are important in shaping group-level phenomena. We discuss these findings’ potential limitations and significance.