This study examined the relationship between grandiose narcissism and epistemically suspect beliefs, focusing on two dimensions of narcissism—agentic and antagonistic—and two types of irrational beliefs: conspiracy thinking and pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Additionally, we included belief in purpose of random events (teleological thinking) as a potential mediator of these associations. Using two samples (Ntotal = 546) we confirmed most hypotheses. Our findings confirmed that agentic narcissism was positively related to both conspiracy beliefs and bullshit receptivity. Individuals high in agentic narcissism may be especially drawn to vague, profound-sounding statements because such content bolsters feelings of uniqueness and being intelligent. Furthermore, agentic narcissism was associated with a stronger tendency to perceive purpose in random events, suggesting that teleological thinking may serve self-enhancement motives by implying an ordered, meaningful world. In contrast, antagonistic narcissism was uniquely related to conspiracy beliefs, likely due to its ego-defensive orientation and reliance on hostility, control, and externalization of blame. However, it showed little to no association with bullshit receptivity or teleological thinking when controlling for agentic narcissism. These findings highlight distinct cognitive and motivational pathways linking narcissistic traits to irrational belief systems.
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