Narcissism and Political Left-Right Orientation in View of Basic Human Values: A Sample of Faculty of Management Students From Turkey

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2022.6.4.202

Abstract

A growing number of studies investigate the relationship between narcissism and political orientation. This study uses an undergraduate sample from Turkey to explore this relation for a relatively understudied population. Given findings that link basic human values to narcissism and to political orientation, we also investigate the possibility of a mediating role for human values in this relation. Leftwing orientation is weakly and negatively correlated with narcissism and with narcissism’s self-sufficiency dimension. In multinomial logistic regression, we find that the odds of placing oneself in the extreme right position verses moderate left position increases as narcissism increases. The effect of narcissism on political orientation appears fragile, however, when this relation is controlled for self-esteem, sex, and human values. Among Schwartz’s basic human values, tradition turns out to be a stronger predictor of political orientation than narcissism and mediation is supported only for the values tradition and universalism. We find a positive indirect effect of narcissism on leftwing orientation through the value tradition and a negative indirect effect on leftwing orientation through the value universalism.

Author Biographies

Fatma Ülkü Selçuk, Social Sciences University of Ankara, Turkey

Dr. Fatma Ülkü Selçuk works at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Social Sciences University of Ankara in Turkey. Her earlier research dealt with social stratification, industrial relations, political theory, and Turkish politics. Later, she focused on ethics and personality psychology. She believes that the renewal of social and political theory through fresh inputs from biology, neuroscience, and psychology would benefit human life considerably.

Nil Demet Güngör, Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey

Dr. Nil Demet Güngör is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Atılım University in Turkey. Her research interests include labor economics, economics of education, applied econometrics, and economic growth and development with a focus on brain drain and high skilled migration. Her works have appeared in various journals, including Applied Economics, International Migration and International Journal of Manpower.

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Published
2022-12-30
How to Cite
Selçuk, F., & Güngör, N. (2022). Narcissism and Political Left-Right Orientation in View of Basic Human Values: A Sample of Faculty of Management Students From Turkey. Changing Societies & Personalities, 6(4), 764–784. doi:10.15826/csp.2022.6.4.202
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Vol. 6, No. 4 (2022)
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Articles