Agnieszka Golec

Agnieszka Golec de Zavala is an academic researcher who examines the psychological roots of prejudice and intergroup conflict. She investigates the cognitive and motivational foundations of political beliefs and how motivated closed-mindedness contributes to intergroup antagonism. Her work also explores how prejudice is embodied and how it can be reduced through mindfulness. A central contribution of her research is the development of the concept of collective narcissism, the belief that one’s ingroup is exceptional but insufficiently recognized by others. She created the widely used Collective Narcissism Scale and is a proponent of collective narcissism theory, which distinguishes the motivations behind narcissistic versus non-narcissistic positive evaluations of one’s ingroup. She has authored over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers and the book “The Psychology of Collective Narcissism” (Routledge), which has been translated into Polish as “Narcyzm Grupowy.”