Beyond Deserving More: Psychological Entitlement Also Predicts Negative Attitudes Toward Personally Relevant Out-Groups

Psychological entitlement is defined as the "stable and pervasive sense that one deserves more and is entitled to more than others.'' Research has shown those high in entitlement tend to behave selfishly, experience greater workplace conflict, and are low on the Big Five trait of Agreeableness. In a series of four studies, we demonstrate that psychological entitlement also predicts negative views of out-groups: It predicted lower liking for a rival student body, prejudice toward lesbians and gay men, negative attitudes toward female equality among male participants, and modern racism toward African Americans. Given that entitlement was unrelated to in-group identification or favoritism, these results suggest that it may be possible for those higher in entitlement to hold more negative views of out-groups without stronger in-group identification. Combined with previous findings, these studies suggest that the role of "others'' in entitlement goes beyond merely believing that one deserves more than them.