Psychological Factors in the “Ijime” Phenomenon: Negative attitude toward a deviator and conformity to majority

“Ijime” (in Japanese, a rough equivalent of bullying) is a serious social phenomenon in which some school children are frequently and systematically harassed and attacked by their peers. In this study, differences of negative attitude toward a deviator and conformity to majority were investigated in connection with various roles (victims, assailants, bystanders, spectators, mediators, and unconcerned persons) in the “ijime” situation. The subjects, 195 junior high school students, were asked to respond to a questionnaire which measured (a) negative attitude toward a deviator and (b) conformity to the group in various situations. Major findings obtained were as follows: (1) Regarding attitude: there were no significant differences among the above six roles. (2) Regarding conformity: several significant differences were found in every role. In general, the conformity level of assailants was higher than that of mediators. (3) The result of multivariate analysis suggested that the victims were more deviant in both attitude and conformity than in any other roles.