Abstract

In order to investigate ingroup favoritism when an ingroup member is a candidate for a representative, data of metropolitan university students, local university students, and elders were analyzed. Ingroup favoritism in voting(IFV) for kinship, region, and elementary and middle school alumni was strong in elders and local university students, which was interpreted as a collectivistic tendency. IFV for high school alumni was strong in metropolitan students. Protestants' and Catholics' IFV was stronger than that of Buddhists. Results of regression analyses showed that IFV for kinship and region should be motivated by self-esteem through identification; IFV for alumni by the need for social support. Self-sacrificing for ingroup members was likely to be motivated by need for social support; General ingroup favoritism in other situations than voting seemed to be motivated by need for self-esteem through identification. Theoretical relationships of these results to Batson's empathic helping, to social identity theory, and to collectivism were discussed.