Exploring the Associations between Ethnocentrism, Narcissism and Altruism in the Youth of Today

India is a country known for its distinct culture. Its strength lies in its diversity and it is recognized for its Unity and acceptance of cultural differences. However, nowadays, hate crimes and prejudices are on the rise, especially among the youth, which could be due to the belief that one’s group, religion, or culture is better than that of others. Hence the authors felt it was important to investigate ethnocentrism and narcissism among the youth. The study examined the relationships between ethnocentrism, narcissism and altruism among high school and college students. The study also investigated if there were any gender differences in ethnocentrism, narcissism, and altruism among students.210 high school and college students from 6 Schools and 5 colleges of Chennai city completed Narcissistic Personality Inventory – 16 (NPI -16) ( Ames.D., Rose.P., Anderson.C.P (2006) Ethnocentrism Scale (Neulip.J.W., McCroskery J.C. (2012), Adapted Self Report Altruism Scale (Wilt.P., Boleman.C., (2009) Pearson correlation co efficient was computed to investigate the relationships between ethnocentrism, narcissism and altruism. Independent samples t -test was computed to examine gender differences in the three variables. The analysis revealed that ethnocentrism was significantly and positively correlated with narcissism and significantly, negatively correlated with altruism. Narcissism was significantly, negatively correlated with altruism. Gender differences were observed for all the three variables. Male students were more narcissistic and ethnocentric compared to female students. Females were more altruistic than males.