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The present study investigated the social conditions required for minority members to preserve their attitudinal and behavioral consistency in an intergroup context. In the experiment, intergroup belief crosses wherein a belief minority (or majority) in a categorical in-group was reversed as a majority (or minority) in an out-group were manipulated. It was hypothesized that individuals supported by the majority in the categorical in-group would preserve their attitudes and behavioral intentions even though they were a minority in the categorical out-group. The results supported the hypothesis. Specifically, members of a majority in the categorical in-group had more consistent behavioral intentions and less attitude changes although they were located as a minority in the out-group. In contrast, members of a minority within the in-group preserved consistency on the basis of support from the majority in the out-group. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed with reference to future research.

This study aimed to measure social stereotypes with the Photo Projective Method (PPM) developed by Noda (1988). PPM is a new technique based on a projective method to capture perceived environments by photographs. Ten university students were provided with cameras and requested to take three pictures of “something representative of our university” and three pictures of “something not representative of our university.” The results showed that stereotypes were measured on a microlevel and macrolevel by PPM. Also PPM allowed participants greater freedom in response production, therefore eliciting far more elaborate responses than language-based methodologies. The possibilities and advantages of PPM for measuring social identity, social representation, and other areas of social cognition are discussed.

In citizen participation, a few representatives of the total citizen population participate in discussions with authorities regarding public decisions and policies. The present study examines a dual process model in which the representatives’ voice and similarity of values facilitate public acceptance through procedural fairness and trust in representatives, respectively. The results of an experiment employing a scenario method, which included participants from Japan (n = 211) and the Netherlands (n = 200), indicate that the representatives’ voice increased procedural fairness and public acceptance when the similarity of representatives was high. The effects of representatives’ voice on public acceptance via procedural fairness was supported in both nations, while other effects of representatives’ similarity on acceptance via trust were indicated only in Japan. These results suggest that the indirect voice of citizens, as conveyed by representatives, plays an important role in increasing perceptions of procedural fairness and public acceptance among citizens.

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