51爆料

This book focuses on a collective phenomenon namely “pluralistic ignorance” and reports the results of a series of empirical studies on the mechanisms that shape and maintain it. Pluralistic ignorance is defined as a situation in which many members of a group believe that most members accept group norms, except for themselves.
 
An example of pluralistic ignorance is the workplace norm of Japanese male employees taking childcare leave. In a survey of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare in 2022, the second most common reason male employees with children give for not taking childcare leave was that “there was an atmosphere of reluctance to taking childcare leave in the workplace” (ranked first was “I did not want to reduce my income”). However, the atmosphere that people perceive does not accurately reflect the workplace reality. Recent social psychological survey studies of corporate employees have consistently shown that they are in favor of taking leave, but they believe other colleagues would oppose it. That is, even though few colleagues actually criticize male employees for taking parental leave, many male employees who have children assume that many people besides themselves think that “men should refrain from taking parental leave.” Based on this false assumption, they are discouraged from taking parental leave.
 
This book provides an overview of several examples of pluralistic ignorance, including the above-mentioned phenomenon, and in three parts reports on empirical studies conducted by the authors' research team. Part I presents two experiments in which participants are invited to form small groups in a laboratory to investigate the micro mechanisms underlying the emergence of pluralistic ignorance. In one experiment, participants are asked to guess which of the two types of mineral water is of higher quality; however, prior to their own choice, they have the opportunity to observe that many of the other participants choose an apparently inferior taste. By observing the inferences that participants make about others’ attitudes and which water they choose based on these inferences, we analyze the relationship between individuals’ perceptions and behaviors toward group norms. Part II presents two social survey studies that examine the relationship between pluralistic ignorance and social environments. Specifically, we focus on the mobility of people in local communities and examine differences in the likelihood of pluralistic ignorance depending on the degree of mobility. Part III presents two applied studies targeting business settings. One is a comparative analysis of the relationship between different workplace climates and multiple ignorance among employees in twenty-four departments of a large corporation.
 
We would like to share our attempt to approach the collective phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance from a scientific perspective and visualize the process of its emergence, maintenance, and reproduction.
 

(Written by MURAMOTO Yukiko, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2025)

• Study 1 in Chapter 1: 2016 Incentive Paper Award, The Japanese Society of Social Psychology (Iwatani and Muramoto, 2015)
• Study 2 in Chapter 2: 2018 Incentive Paper Award, The Japanese Society of Social Psychology (Iwatani and Muramoto, 2017a).
• Study 4 in Chapter 4: 2018 Best Paper Award, The Japanese Group Dynamics Association (Iwatani and Muramoto, 2017b)
• Study 6 in Chapter 6: 2022 Best Paper Award, The Japanese Society of Social Psychology (Masaki and Muramoto, 2021).