A new psychological study suggests that an overwhelming need to earn social worth, combined with a belief in the superiority of one’s group, may lay the foundation for developing an extreme personality. The research highlights how these strong inner drives can lead individuals to sacrifice their own well-being for a specific cause or value. These findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Social Psychology.
Extremism is traditionally viewed as a rigid adherence to an outside political or religious ideology. In recent years, psychological science has added a new perspective to the discussion, proposing an underlying motivational mechanism called the extreme personality. According to this framework, a moderate lifestyle is defined by motivational balance, where a person divides their attention relatively equally among their various daily needs and social obligations. In contrast, an extreme personality emerges when a single motivation becomes drastically over-amplified, pushing the individual to neglect other life aspects to satisfy a single obsession.
Lead author Pedro Altungy, a researcher at the Universidad Europea de Madrid, and a team of international colleagues wanted to understand the specific psychological drivers that tip people toward this extreme state of mind. They built their study on the foundation of a theoretical framework that traces radicalization to a deep desire for personal importance, or the “quest for significance.” This concept describes the basic human desire to matter, to be respected, and to have a recognized place in society. It is considered a universal motivation, but it can become dangerously intensified under certain conditions.
The research team distinguished between two aspects of this psychological need. One is a long-term, stable drive for recognition, known as the dispositional quest for significance. The other is a sudden, reactive state called significance loss. This acute feeling occurs when a person experiences a recent humiliation, failure, or episode of discrimination, leaving them hungry to reclaim their lost social status.
To restore their perceived importance, individuals often turn to their social identities. This can lead to collective narcissism, a belief that one’s group is exceptional but unfairly treated and unappreciated by outsiders. The researchers hypothesized that this volatile blend of personal insecurity and group superiority could make people willing to endure immense physical or emotional self-sacrifice. In turn, they predicted this combination of traits would correspond to higher scores on measures of an extreme personality.
To test these ideas, Altungy and his team analyzed survey responses from two distinct groups in Spain. The first group consisted of 328 adults from the general population, recruited through an online platform. The second group included 222 inmates residing in Spanish prisons who had not been convicted of terrorism-related offenses. The comparison allowed the researchers to see if the psychological pathways toward extremism were similar in everyday citizens and those who had already engaged in serious antisocial behaviors.
Participants completed a series of psychological assessments to measure their personal habits and beliefs. They answered questions tracking their general extreme personality tendencies, such as whether they pursue goals as if their life depended on it. The surveys also measured their long-term need for social importance and any recent feelings of humiliation or invisibility. Finally, the subjects rated their level of collective narcissism and indicated how much they would be willing to surrender for their highest personal value or their primary reference group.
By using statistical models to look for predictive patterns, the researchers found a distinct chain of traits in the general population. Data showed that both a stable desire for importance and a sudden loss of social worth were associated with higher levels of extreme personality traits. Individuals who felt an intense need to matter were also more likely to display collective narcissism. This exaggerated pride in their group was closely linked to a readiness to sacrifice their personal safety and comfort for their core values.
The statistical analysis laid out what the authors described as two unique sequences of behavior. The researchers termed the first sequence the dispositional path. This slow-burning trajectory begins with a long-term drive for social status, which gradually fuels the belief that one’s peer group is inherently superior to others. This inflated sense of collective identity then makes the individual highly willing to undergo suffering for the group’s highest ideals, heavily shaping the behaviors tied to an extreme personality.
A different psychological response, labeled the reactive path, emerged when subjects dealt with a sudden loss of personal status. When people felt recently humiliated, they were more likely to report an immediate willingness to suffer for a core value, bypassing the intermediate step of establishing group superiority. The authors suggest that making a dramatic sacrifice might serve as an impulsive coping mechanism. It allows the individual to swiftly restore a damaged reputation and broadcast a message of worth to social peers.
The survey results from the prison sample revealed a slightly different psychological landscape. While a need for personal importance and a strong sense of collective narcissism still predicted an extreme personality among the inmates, their willingness to sacrifice did not. In the statistical models, giving up well-being for a group or a value had no statistical relationship to the inmates’ extreme personality scores.
The study authors propose a few possible explanations for this absence among the incarcerated respondents. Inmates may feel that they have already paid a heavy toll through the actions that led to their arrest and conviction. Their current loss of freedom might have drastically reduced their interest in making any further personal sacrifices. Rehabilitation programs in the Spanish prison system could also be successfully altering how these individuals view the utility of destructive choices.
Several limitations accompany this psychological investigation. The study relies entirely on cross-sectional data, meaning all the information was reported by participants at a single point in time. Because of this design, the researchers cannot definitively prove that the desire for social worth strictly causes an extreme personality to develop. Establishing true cause and effect requires tracking individuals over extended periods to see which specific traits emerge first.
The measurement strategy itself holds several caveats. Data collection relied on self-reported questionnaires, a method that expects individuals to be entirely honest and objective about their innermost beliefs. Participants can sometimes alter their answers intentionally or unintentionally to appear more socially desirable to the analysts. This bias is known to be particularly common among prison populations, making it necessary to view the inmate responses with an understanding of secondary motives.
The study samples were also overwhelmingly male, with men comprising over ninety percent of both the general public and prison groups. This heavy gender imbalance makes it difficult to project the current results onto women, who often experience uniquely distinct social pressures, gender norms, and cultural schooling. Future investigations will require more balanced demographic pools. A broader geographic scope is also needed to test if these psychological patterns hold true across different countries and linguistic backgrounds.
Identifying the underlying mechanics of extreme personalities can help psychologists address social radicalization before it ends in criminal behavior. If an unmet desire to matter remains a core engine of extremism, providing constructive spaces for marginalized people to earn respect might defuse that dangerous trajectory. Helping individuals restore their perceived social worth through positive community engagement could act as a strong buffer against the lure of ideological self-harm.
The study, “How personal significance, collective narcissism, and willingness to sacrifice shape extreme personalities,” was authored by Pedro Altungy, Ashley Navarro-McCarthy, Rocío Lana-Blond, Sara Liébana, Luis Carlos Jaume, Ewa Szumowska, Erica Molinario, Ángel Gómez, and Arie W. Kruglanski.