effect of commitment to a festival on attitude toward the in-group and out-group, The

The purpose of this study was to clarify the process of attitude change for an in-group and an out-group from different towns with regard to their involvement in Japanese traditional festivals. The 71 participants lived near to where the Usuki festival is held. An investigation was conducted over four months using a survey questionnaire that measured attitudes toward the in-group and the out-group. The factor analysis of these attitude scales yielded four factors that included: attachment to in- and out-group towns and attachment to in- and out-group members. Attachment to the in-group factor scores were higher than those to the out-group, and only the attitude to in-group members changed over time. It was concluded that the existence of an identity and actual contact produced this result. Finally, the importance of realworld conflict in intergroup research is demonstrated.

Social identity theory has been supported by empirical evidence. For example, people can distinguish between an in- and an out-group on the basis of a social category (Bruner, 1957; Tajfel & Wilkes, 1963): A subject could recognize him/herself as an in-group member differing from an out-group member (Stephan, 1985; Wilder, 1986). An attribution error was caused by in-group bias (Grant, 1990): Although the relationships between in-groups were created artificially, the actions called in-group favoritism were shown (Tajfel, 1970). Other studies about conflict between groups included prejudice (Allport, 1958), the study of the authoritarian personality by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford (1950), Sherif's summer camp experiment (1967), Realistic Conflict Theory (Campbell, 1965), and Social Identity Theory (Hogg & Abrams, 1988; Turner, 1987).

However, Fisher (1993) has pointed out that research on social identity theory is subdivided, and although conflict can be explained, it is inadequate for providing a far-reaching explanation. If compared to realistic conflict theory, social identity theory could explain how the attitudes of an individual differentiate between in-groups and out-groups even when there is no basis for conflict over material resources. One of the reasons for this is that many studies supportive of social identity theory are conducted in a laboratory context in which it is difficult to induce high levels of conflict between groups over realistic concerns. Studying intergroup conflict seems better suited to natural rather than laboratory settings. In the present study, we investigated in-group and out-group attitudes involving a festival in Japan that provided an opportunity for us to study intergroup relations in a natural context related to events that were important to the participants. In Japan, there are between 30,000 and 50,000 traditional festivals (Haga, 1987) that are symbolically meaningful to Japanese people. Yanagisawa (1987) argued that a festival consists of seven composition elements. For example, in the Gion festival of Kyoto, epidemics, floods or typhoons occur in the summer so that the Gion festival is held at this time because it is believed that a festival has the power to repel evil spirits that bring about a calamity. The festival is also meaningful and particularly distinctive because it is celebrated only in a particular area of Japan. For example, the Gion festival is held only in a part of Kyoto. Festivals also have religious meaning to people and often involve activity centering on the temple. The Gion festival engages participants because of its emphasis on aesthetics and because of the exciting events that are scheduled which provide entertainment and amusement.

Moreover, today, even if there are no traditional implications, a festival is performed in many cases as an event that assembles many people (Takahashi, 1985). The festival in the present age is an event that advertises the existence of an area to people outside of their towns, and it serves as a chance for local community members to feel pride and solidarity (Ashida, 2001). There are also festivals in which two or more villages and towns work together cooperatively to produce and celebrate the festival.

Although there are many sociological studies about the meaning of festivals for society and for individuals in Japan (Morita, 1990; Yoneyama, 1987), there are few examples of research that have focused on the psychological influence of festivals on the individual. For social science, if the aim is an understanding of the meaning of a festival to the whole society, we should approach the problem from the macroperspective of the organization, for example, the composition of the festival. On the other hand, if the aim is to understand the festival's influence on individuals, we have to clarify the effects of a festival on community consciousness. Suzuki (1978) studied two dimensions of community consciousness - community morale and community norm. Community morale is a concept involving the level of the identification with a community, and community norm gives orientation to the community morale. Furthermore, community morale is composed of the three elements that define an individual's attitude: cognition, feeling, and behavior. Although it is thought as an hypothesis that a festival raises community morale, when the festival involves two or more areas, it serves to differentially increase morale and social identity with one's community. For example, it may be seen as distinguishing more clearly the community to which participants belong or do not belong.