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BACKGROUND: Exclusion, being ignored or rejected by others against one’s will, hurts (Eisenberger, 2012, 2015; Ratner et al., 2018; Williams, 2009), causes distress and often leads to retaliatory aggression (Chester & DeWall, 2016; Ren et al., 2018; Williams & Wesselmann, 2011). Negative reactions intensify when people attribute being excluded by others to their group membership (Bernstein et al., 2010; Schaafsma & Williams, 2012; Wirth & Williams, 2009). While consequences of being personally excluded are quite well understood (Eisenberger, 2012, 2015; Wesselmann et al., 2019; Williams, 2009), it is less known what happens when group members witness exclusion of their in-group when they are not personally excluded. Since exclusion of the in-group poses a threat to the in-group’s image, collective narcissists who are hypersensitive to such a threat are likely to overreact to it. Collective narcissists see even accidental and unintended intergroup exclusion as a threat to their group’s (an ingroup) image and engage in aggressive retaliation (Golec de Zavala et al., 2016). Such people can radicalize towards political violence. Indeed, members of radicalized (and terrorist) organizations score high on the Collective Narcissism Scale (Jasko et al., 2020). Collective narcissism predicts hypersensitivity to intergroup threat and retaliatory aggression: harming others, denying help, and rejoicing in their misfortunes (Golec de Zavala et al., 2016). In addition, collective narcissism is associated with deficits in the regulation of distress (Golec de Zavala, 2019; Golec de Zavala et al., 2019). To provide further evidence that the deficits in emotional regulation underlie collective narcissists’ distress reaction to exclusion, we test also whether a short mindfulness practice - an intervention that fortifies regulation of negative - reduces distress of intergroup exclusion among collective narcissists. Mindfulness practice improves the ability to perceive thoughts and emotions as transient mental products in a non-judgmental and non-engaging way (Fresco et al., 2007; Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Practicing mindfulness reduces stress (Kabat-Zinn, 2005) and reduces reactivity to threatening stimuli (Arch & Craske, 2006; Brown & Ryan, 2003). |
