QUESTIONNAIRE 1

100 students at Himeji Dokkyo University responded. 30 students preferred the choice[A] or just one kind of fruit in a large quantity, and 70 students preferred the choice[B] or little pieces of various fruits on a plate.
It was hypothesized that most of the students would prefer little pieces of various fruits on a plate. The chi-square, 16.0, indicates the significancy of the hypothesis. There are several reasons or theories behind this outcome. First of all, most of the Japanese students have been brought up with their parental common phrase like "Since everyone else is doing this, why should only you complain of it?" In other words, you are not allowed to be different from everyone else. If you complain of it, you are considered to be selfish or egoistic. Like the choice of fruits, most of the Japanese people feel comfortable choosing a set lunch or a set dinner, or even a set tour, which is often called a package tour for a group of people. The phrase just fits in them right. Since everyone else is supposed to do this, why not go ahead and take it? The set lunch, dinner and even tour have already been planned and made with much consideration, why should you be bothered by making choices like this and that? Secondly, they tend to feel secure if everyone else does the same thing. They feel comfortable belonging to the large group. In kindergarten they usually buy a same set of uniform with a bag and a pair of shoes. If you wore something different even just the color, you would probably feel quite uncomfortable the whole day. Everyone would seem to be looking at you, and the teacher would be paying much attention to you. Thirdly, it would be much easier to prepare the same items, and even less expensive to prepare them. Then, there would not be much left-overs. Finally, through education most of the Japanese people tend to obtain the so-called common knowledge. If a person has a little bit of various knowledge and reason to show it here and there, the person is considered to be quite cultured. Although the last one seemed to be changing day by day, the test for measuring the so-called general knowledge has not been abolished yet. It is still the main stream for becoming public officers.
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