Story perspectives

Narcissism Facets Predict Extrinsic Faith and Authoritarian God View

5/14/2026

Summary

Tokarz Links Narcissism

Researchers led by Julia Tokarz (University of Warsaw) found four narcissism facets linked to extrinsic religious orientation.
In a study of 150, mostly Roman Catholic participants, antagonistic narcissism correlated with lower religious involvement.
A study of 242 participants showed agentic and antagonistic narcissism associated with viewing God as punitive.
The authors concluded narcissistic traits predict motivated religious engagement and a view of God as authoritarian, not overall religiosity.

Summary

Polish Students Entitlement

The third study surveyed 148 Polish university students identifying as Roman Catholic using divine entitlement items such as “God owes me.”
Correlation analysis showed that agentic, antagonistic, and communal narcissism each related positively to divine entitlement scores.
Multivariate analysis indicated that only agentic and communal narcissism independently predicted the entitlement belief.
Researchers warned that the cross-sectional design and reliance on self-report scales limit causal inference and may affect reliability.

Summary

Tokarz Calls Broader

The study sampled overwhelmingly Polish Roman Catholics, with women outnumbering men.
Researchers said the skew limits how well the results apply to other countries or faith traditions.
Julia Tokarz said future work should recruit participants from a broader range of religious affiliations and cultural backgrounds.
The authors propose longitudinal designs to track narcissistic traits and religious motivations over time and experimental studies to pinpoint religion’s roles for various narcissism types.

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Tokarz Links Narcissism

Researchers led by Julia Tokarz (University of Warsaw) found four narcissism facets linked to extrinsic religious orientation.
In a study of 150, mostly Roman Catholic participants, antagonistic narcissism correlated with lower religious involvement.
A study of 242 participants showed agentic and antagonistic narcissism associated with viewing God as punitive.
The authors concluded narcissistic traits predict motivated religious engagement and a view of God as authoritarian, not overall religiosity.

1 / 3