A social psychological study on the influence of academic identity upon feelings toward outgroup persons.

本研究以日本大学为研究对象，考察了不满意的学术身份认同如何影响对学术圈外人的情感。假设对自己的大学缺乏信心的学生会受到他们不满意的学术社会认同的威胁；因此，他们会有动机离开自己的大学，转到其他地位更高的大学来提升自己。它同时导致了对群内成员的负面看法和对群外优秀成员的好感。同时，他们需要贬低其他地位较低的大学，并为自己的自救证明现状，因为升入更高地位大学的愿望在现实中很难实现。本文进行了几项实证研究，并为假设提供了一些支持数据。当一个人的学术认同变得突出时，这种倾向就会减弱。然而，他们同时也表现出更强的群体外贬损倾向，倾向于选择一所较差的大学。第二，对自己的大学认同感较低的学生对群体内地位受到的威胁特别敏感；在面临威胁时，他们更倾向于贬低劣等大学的学生，支持优等大学的学生。第三，高认同感的学生一般倾向于对其他大学表现出好感，而且与认同感低的学生相比，他们更有可能对优等大学的积极行为做出积极的评价。最后，这些现象还与日本人对学历主义合法性和持久性的信念密切相关。总体结果表明，不满意的社会认同会使人们对外部群体的人产生歧视行为。

The present research investigates how disaffected academic identity influences feelings toward academic out-group persons, using Japanese universities as target groups. It is hypothesized that students with a lack of faith in their own university are threatened by their unsatisfactory academic social identity ; therefore, they are motivated to leave their own university and move to other higher-status universities to elevate themselves. It simultaneously leads to both an unfavorable view of in-group members and a favorable view of superior out-group members. At the same time, they need to derogate other lower-status universities and justify the status quo for their self-salvage, because a desire to move to a higher-status university is difficult to achieve in reality.Several empirical studies are carried out, and some supporting data for the hypothesis is provided.First, students of a middle-level national university show a general tendency of in-group derogation. When ones' academic identity becomes salient, this tendency is moderated. However, they simultaneously exhibit a stronger tendency for out-group derogation toward an inferior university.Second, students low in identification with their own university are particularly responsive to threats to in-group status ; they are more likely to derogate students of an inferior university and to support those of a superior university in the face of threat.Third, students high in identification with their university tend to show a favorable view of other universities in general, and moreover they are more likely to evaluate positive behaviors of a person of a superior university in a favorable manner compared with those low in identification.Finally, these phenomena are also closely related to beliefs concerning the legitimacy and persistence of academic credentialism in Japan.The overall results suggest that disaffected social identity will make people behave in a discriminatory way toward out-group persons.