What are the characteristics of the current social mentality?

Characteristics of current social mentality

According to the data analysis of China Social Psychology Research Report from 20 10 to 20 1 1, the index system of social psychology should be designed from two aspects: one is social cognition and feelings, and the other is social attitude and behavior tendency. Social cognition and feelings mainly include life pressure, life security, social stability, risk perception, happiness and so on. Social attitudes and behavioral tendencies include attitudes and values of individuals or groups towards all aspects of society, as well as coping strategies and interpersonal communication patterns for social behaviors, contradictions and conflicts.

Let's analyze the first aspect. At present, the sense of life pressure felt by urban and rural residents in China has obviously increased, especially in the past two years, which has affected the purchase of basic daily necessities for many people. According to the data of the first quarter of National Bureau of Statistics () 20 1 1, secondly, life safety felt the influence of food safety incidents such as melamine incident which almost existed in the whole dairy industry in China. Residents' concern about food safety, traffic safety, medical safety and social order has led to residents' evaluation of various safety levels being basically at a "relative safety" level. Citizens' trust score in society is only 62.90, which is the bottom line of trust, that is, the lower limit of "extremely low trust". . 20101111National Bureau of Statistics data in recent two years.

China's Social Mentality: Problems and Suggestions

The social mentality mentioned in this paper is the macro-social mentality dispersed in the whole society or social groups/categories for a period of time, and it is the sum of the emotional tone, social consciousness and social values of the whole society. In a rapidly changing society, social mentality is not only a manifestation and display of social changes, but also a social psychological resource and condition that cannot be ignored in social construction. For this reason, the importance of "public opinion" and "popular support" is always mentioned as the basis of the rulers' administration. It can be said that social mentality is the "barometer" and "weather vane" of society. It is inconceivable to build a harmonious society without a harmonious social mentality. It is worth noting that there are some disharmonious factors in the current social mentality of our country, which need our great attention and active guidance.

First, the main problems of China's social mentality For the convenience of analysis, we usually divide social mentality into social cognition, social attitudes and values, social emotions and social behavior strategies, but in fact these contents are always integrated. The author believes that there are mainly the following social mentality problems in the current society.

(1) A survey conducted by Horizon Research Consulting Group in April 20 10 showed that although urban residents had obvious feelings about the price increase, 54.8% of them said that the price level at that time was affordable, 30.5% said it was "average" and only 14.2% said it was unbearable. 2010 at 5438+00 in mid-June, Zero Research Consulting Group conducted a similar survey again. The results show that in cities, small towns and rural areas, 49.8%, 40.5% and 47.7% of the respondents respectively said that the current life pressure is great or great. The pressure mainly comes from rising prices, difficult employment, high housing prices and difficulty in seeing a doctor.

Under the background of increasingly fierce competition and accelerating pace of life, it is an indisputable fact that the pressure of life is increasing. On the other hand, the unit society has come to an end in the process of social transformation in China, but the civil society that fills the social support function of the unit society has not yet seen its embryonic form. Sociology believes that social support is a social network that can use certain material and spiritual means to help the socially disadvantaged groups for free. Without social support under vicious pressure, individuals will feel helpless, desperate, have psychological problems or have extremely negative behaviors. For example, the serial suicides of 20 10 Foxconn employees are outstanding examples. According to our survey, at present, people get the most social support from traditional social relations such as family, friends and fellow villagers. In the social support system, communities, work units and local governments are basically at the level of "no help" and "little help". It is difficult to support everyone's life pressure only by relying on family-centered social support.

(2) Safety anxiety and risk indifference coexist. On the one hand, frequent food and drug safety incidents make people in a state of anxiety for a long time. On the other hand, the overall risk awareness of society is not high, which leads to frequent safety accidents and disasters.

20 10 in June, Xiaokang magazine, in conjunction with Tsinghua University Media Investigation Laboratory, conducted a survey on the social security situation in 12 cities nationwide. The survey results show that 72% people are most worried about food safety, 67% people are most worried about social safety, 55% people are most worried about medical safety, 565,438+0% people are most worried about traffic safety, and 39% people are most worried about environmental safety.

A news that is not a hot topic has been continuously concerned by the media and the public in China. From the occurrence of mine disasters in Chile to the successful rescue of 33 miners 69 days later, people can't help but compare it with frequent mine disasters, high investment in rescue and low success rate in rescue in China. From 20 10 to 10, there were 22 mine accidents in China, with 456 deaths. Only in March, there were 5 accidents, with the highest death of 46 people, the lowest death of 10 people and the death of * *10 people.

At present, the outstanding problem of risk prevention is that we have a strong awareness of risks related to individuals, but we don't pay enough attention to risks related to groups or society. We have a high vigilance against sudden and harmful risks, but we don't pay enough attention to slow-release risks without direct life injury.

(III) Social Trust Faced with Dilemma The latest survey results of social trust in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by the research group of Blue Book of Social Mentality show that the overall social trust in the three cities is worrying, and the overall score of social trust is only 62.9 points, which is the bottom line of trust, that is, the lower limit of "low trust". Citizens' high special trust and low general trust are not suitable for the industrial and commercial social life that should be dominated by strangers, and also greatly affect people's trust in systems, rules and institutions and their compliance with contracts and norms.

Although the social trust of public authorities and management departments in China is higher than that of other institutions and organizations, the public's evaluation level of social trust in these institutions is not high, close to the "moderate trust level", while the public is at the level of "basic distrust" in the commercial industry; Social trust in the central government is higher than that of local governments; Trust in central media is higher than that in local media. High trust in the central government is still an important psychological resource for social integration, but on the other hand, it also reflects the low credibility of local governments and the poor environment for the healthy growth of social organizations. In interpersonal trust, it is manifested in the traditional interpersonal concept. The most trusted people are "family" and "close friends", followed by acquaintances, colleagues, general friends, unit leaders and neighbors, and the least trusted people are netizens and strangers. Interpersonal trust is shrinking between family members and close friends, which shows that trusting ordinary people is too risky and affects the normal development of society.

Many people believe that modern society is not so much a crisis of trust as a dilemma of social trust in current society.

The first dilemma is that social trust continues to decline and it is difficult to rebuild it. Trust can be divided into two categories: horizontal trust and vertical trust. Horizontal trust refers to trust in others around, such as interpersonal trust, and vertical trust refers to trust in hierarchical institutions or leaders. The first dilemma can be regarded as the problem of horizontal trust.

The second dilemma of social trust is the contradiction between democracy and trust. This is about vertical trust. Warren pointed out that the more elements of democracy, the more supervision over authority and the less trust. This shows that there is an inherent conflict between trust and democracy, which makes it difficult for us to judge the quality of vertical trust.

Researchers have found that trust can be transmitted between individuals and organizations, and interpersonal trust depends largely on people's trust in hierarchical social organizations, such as trust in the authority of government agencies and managers at all levels. At the same time, we should also see that distrust of some staff of the organization and some authorities of public institutions may also turn into distrust of institutions, industries, organizations and politics.

The reconstruction of social trust is a matter for the whole society, including the reconstruction of horizontal trust and vertical trust. In a sense, the reconstruction of vertical trust is more critical and directly affects the establishment of horizontal trust. The dishonesty of the executors of public power and the organs of public power not only increases the cost, but also means that the general social rules are invalid and the transaction will not be carried out.

(4) Economic growth and happiness are not synchronized. According to the survey, at present, the proportion of people who feel happy and dignified is about 70%. According to the survey conducted by the China People's Livelihood Index Research Group of NPC Financial and Economic Committee in August of 20 10, the proportion of people who consider themselves "very happy" is 14.9%, the proportion of people who consider themselves "relatively happy" is the highest, at 59.2%, and the proportion of residents who tend to think that they live a happy life is 74.2%. 13.6% people chose "unclear" between happiness and unhappiness; However, 9.8% people think they are unhappy, 2.5% people choose unhappy, and the proportion of people who tend to answer unhappy is 12.3%.

We see that 70% people in the survey feel happy, but we know that no matter how many people are happy, they can't offset the number of unhappy people. On the other hand, a small number of unhappy people may reduce the overall social happiness. In addition, happiness is not the same as happiness, and making people happy is not simply to enhance people's happiness. In this case, social policy may not be more direct than psychological counseling and religious teachings. Society cannot make people absolutely happy, because happiness is a very subjective individual feeling, which is influenced by many factors. However, happiness also contains objective elements. It is a social habit to have a general evaluation of whether people's living conditions are happy or not. The government is the basic aspect to provide the public with happiness, in other words, it is to eliminate social factors that may make people unhappy, such as poverty, unemployment, insecurity, disaster, injustice and social disorder.

(E) The bottom identification may lead to group polarization. Since the reform and opening up, the social structure has changed dramatically, and the gap between social classes has gradually widened. However, over the years, the characteristics of China residents' class identity have not changed much, the degree of residents' class identity is low, and most people's self-identity is in the middle and lower level. We should be alert to the phenomenon of group polarization caused by bottom identification.

In 2007, a reporter wanted to write a survey about the middle class in China, and interviewed 50 people who he thought belonged to the middle class in one month, but what puzzled him was that almost all of them did not agree that they were middle class. Many people feel that they are vulnerable groups, even some civil servants in some countries think so. Surveys over the years have shown similar results. It seems that this class identity has been stereotyped, the class identity has been low, and a large proportion of the bottom identity has emerged.

This phenomenon may be related to the low mobility of social strata, and it is more and more difficult for the lower class to flow to the upper class. However, people who have been in the lower class for a long time, if the distance between expectation and reality is not narrowed for a long time, are more likely to have an unfair view of society and experience the "frustration" in life.

From March 23, 20 10 to May 23, 2008, in just 50 days, there were six vicious homicide cases against kindergartens or primary school students in China. The murderer's behavior of these bloody cases belongs to retaliatory attack, that is, people with frustrated experience take action to attack others under the stimulation of some stimulating factors. In addition to being alert to the extreme behavior after "frustration", we need to pay special attention to the social reaction after the tragedy. Many people express their understanding and sympathy for the perpetrators, but only think that children should not be targeted for revenge, but should be targeted at corrupt officials. The emergence of this sympathetic mentality is related to the fact that quite a few people in society have the same "frustration". Some people at the bottom of society attribute their failure to social injustice and show their dissatisfaction with the current social situation. They are more likely to sympathize with people who have experienced setbacks.

* * * The same bottom identity will gradually form the group mentality of the bottom group. American psychologist Sunstein believes that "when people are in a group composed of people with the same views, they are particularly prone to go to extremes". In other words, it is easier to strengthen the original attitude tendency in the group and cause obvious one-sidedness. Strengthening the original attitude intensity may lead to more risky decisions. We have seen some so-called "no conflict of interest" mass incidents, which are caused by people with the same attitude, and gradually make decision-making and behavior extreme and out of control.

(VI) Group resentment may become a social sentiment "My father is Li Gang", which is the most offensive sentence in 20 10. This incident has a profound social connotation and reflects a prominent social mentality-"group resentment". This kind of "group resentment" is a reflection of "conflict between the government and the people" and "conflict between the rich and the poor".

In recent years, people's dissatisfaction mainly exists in several objects, one is against corrupt officials, the other is against businessmen who are "rich and heartless", and the third is against some unfair social phenomena and public power organs that cause these unfairness.

In the recent case of a police couple killed at home in Shanxi, the focus of media and people's attention has been the BMW and huge property of the police couple. In 2009, the "Deng Yujiao case" in Badong County, Hubei Province and the "Phoenix girl jumping off a building" on 20 10 both attracted the attention of the whole society. As soon as the case happened, the people expressed their dissatisfaction with the judicial organs. These cases may belong to individual cases, but the social mentality behind these cases is even more worrying. We often see a phenomenon that personal dissatisfaction is used to interpret events, express dissatisfaction with judicial departments and public authorities, and form group resentment.

Group resentment is closely related to social injustice, personal development difficulties and the failure to improve personal living conditions. It is found in the survey that the college entrance examination system is considered to be the fairest, followed by compulsory education, and the treatment between urban and rural areas is considered to be the most unfair. Except for the college entrance examination system and compulsory education, everything else is between fairness and unfairness. The public's dissatisfaction with the "rich second generation" and "official second generation" expresses their dissatisfaction with the unequal opportunities and the excessive gap between the rich and the poor.

Some phenomena are interpreted as "hating the rich", but according to our survey results, although people are dissatisfied with the widening gap between the rich and the poor, there is no such thing as "hating the rich". We can also see that those who are included in the rich list are sought after by stars. In other words, people's resentment is aimed at the bad behavior of the rich.

In particular, we should be wary of this "group resentment" expanding into the emotions of the whole society.

(VII) Lack of initiative and habit in altruistic behavior The Yushu earthquake and the Zhouqu mudslide in 20 10 let people see many touching stories of helping others, but the "blood shortage" in Kunming, Qingdao, Nanjing and Beijing in the second half of 20 10 questioned altruistic behavior and the mechanism of encouraging altruistic behavior in our society.

Several characteristics can also be seen from the survey. First, the altruistic behavior inspired by big events is enthusiastic. Second, the altruistic behavior after the organization is still in the majority, that is, altruistic behavior lacks initiative.

The concept of charity in society needs to be gradually established, the social system and mechanism to encourage altruistic behavior have not yet been established, and some bad atmosphere in society needs to be eliminated. We see that people are dissatisfied with the amount of donations made by some rich people, celebrities and enterprises; There are many self-exclusion phenomena, and charity is only regarded as the business of the rich and the business of others; The charitable behavior of some enterprises has become a kind of performance and image propaganda; There are even so-called "fraudulent donations" ... (8) Inefficient social contradictions and conflict resolution channels can easily lead to extreme behavior. China is in the period of social transformation, and various contradictions and conflicts are constantly exposed. However, in the face of new and old conflicts, there are some problems such as poor channels and ineffective solutions, which lead to the escalation of some contradictions.

In 2009, there were nearly 90,000 mass incidents in China, and the incidents caused by rights protection still accounted for more than 80%. Communication and petition are the main strategies for people to solve conflicts and contradictions. In 2008, a national survey conducted by the Institute of Sociology of China Academy of Social Sciences found that in the face of contradictions and conflicts, most of the strategies were "helpless, have to endure" and "don't use any methods". The most commonly used strategies to try to solve problems are communication strategy and petition strategy, that is, "consulting with the other party/unit" and "petitioning/reporting to relevant government departments". "Consultation with the other party/unit" is the most commonly used contradiction between doctors and patients and labor-capital contradiction, accounting for 33.5% and 29.2% respectively. Unreasonable compensation for land acquisition and demolition is the most commonly used petition strategy, accounting for 26%. Antagonistic strategies are rarely used, but a few people will use them when they think their personal interests have been seriously violated. For example, when encountering judicial injustice, disputes between doctors and patients, unreasonable compensation for land acquisition and demolition, labor disputes and environmental pollution damage, some people resort to violent resistance, and the proportions are only 2%, 1.6%, 0.8% and 0. 1% respectively.

It is not difficult to find that for the broad masses of people with various contradictions, the initial solutions are mostly rational, and there are few means of conflict. Judging from some fierce conflicts that have occurred and turned into vicious incidents, many parties have taken extreme measures when all kinds of solutions have failed. In some fierce contradictions and conflicts, the most effective legal way has been abandoned or the utilization rate is low, which is a phenomenon worthy of attention. However, the most widely used communication and petition channels have limited effect on solving problems, resulting in a series of extreme behaviors of many people, such as a series of campus tragedies, in which many people resort to violent attacks and some people resort to violence and self-immolation to deal with forced demolition.

Second, suggestions based on the current social mentality First of all, while reducing the pressure of people's lives, we should also pay attention to the establishment of social support networks. People's life pressure comes from all aspects of life. Some problems need to be solved through the effective service system of the government, but there are still many problems that the government is unable to solve. This requires the government to support the establishment of a sound social support network, and help those who are under great pressure through the strength of the people and society. Expand social support beyond family relations, improve the social emergency assistance system through social service departments such as civil affairs, and form a normal assistance system to deal with difficulties and difficulties such as rising prices, disasters, unemployment, major diseases and casualties. , thus reducing people's physical and mental stress. Second, guard against social risks and enhance people's sense of security. On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the supervision system of food, transportation and medical care, on the other hand, it is necessary to raise people's risk awareness and improve people's ability to prevent risks. We should pay special attention to the differences of risks faced by people with different social and economic status, and prevent unfair "risk distribution" under the circumstances of unbalanced regional development, intensified polarization between the rich and the poor and widening social class gap. Third, improve the credit system and rebuild social trust. Through the establishment of credit information systems for citizens, enterprises and other organizations, and through effective reward and punishment measures, we will strengthen the honest behavior of citizens and organizations and gradually establish interpersonal trust and organizational trust. Improve the transparency of the operation of public power, restrain and standardize the implementation of public power, strictly hold accountable the untrustworthy public power executors and organizations, and improve the credibility of public power organs. Severely crack down on fraud by individuals and organizations and gradually rebuild social trust. Fourth, deepen Scientific Outlook on Development and make people's lives happier. We should implement the people-oriented Scientific Outlook on Development, put people's development at the top of social development, take people's happiness as the ultimate goal of government work, establish the evaluation standard of government work with people's happiness as the core content, do everything possible to meet people's growing material and cultural needs and improve people's happiness. Fifth, strive for class integration and eliminate unfavorable social emotions. Establish and improve a fair and reasonable distribution system and incentive mechanism, narrow the polarization between the rich and the poor, improve the social management system, and provide people with equal opportunities for upward mobility; Enhance mutual trust, mutual assistance and mutual understanding between people of different social classes, strive for harmony and integration of all social classes, avoid class polarization caused by the gap between the rich and the poor and the difference in status, and prevent group polarization caused by long-term bottom identity from generating group social resentment. Sixth, encourage people's charitable and altruistic behaviors and improve the channels to help others. Propaganda and management departments should encourage and strengthen ordinary people's daily altruistic behavior, instead of just setting up some moral models far away from the public, encouraging normalized and habitual charitable activities and helping others, so that people can feel the warmth of being helped and the happiness of helping others. Civil affairs departments and charitable management organizations should formulate reasonable management regulations and systems for charitable organizations, public welfare organizations and altruistic organizations according to the present situation, and gradually form an efficient and transparent charitable system. Seventh, straighten out the mechanism to solve social contradictions and conflicts. First of all, establish rules to solve social contradictions and conflicts from the institutional level, implement the responsible departments, and completely solve the accumulated problems. Establish a system to understand and study social mentality, always pay attention to the changes of social mentality, and find existing social problems and contradictions in time. Improve China's legal system, improve the effectiveness of legal channels, reduce the cost of people using legal strategies, cultivate the confidence and habit of the whole society to solve problems by using the constitution and legal framework, make the administration, justice and letters and visits complement and connect efficiently, and effectively resolve contradictions and conflicts.

(Author: Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Where is the difficulty in studying "social mentality"

In a rapidly changing society, social mentality is not only a manifestation and display of social changes, but also a social psychological resource and condition that cannot be ignored in social construction. It comes from the homogeneity of social individual mentality, but it is not the same as the simple summation of individual mentality. Influenced by the social and cultural environment, social mentality is dynamic and complex. In the past, the importance of "public opinion" and "popular support" was always mentioned as the basis for the ruling party, such as "water" which was regarded as a "barometer", "weather vane" and could carry or overturn a boat. However, as a reality enjoyed by * * *, the significance of social mentality to social individuals is rarely paid attention to.

● Why is it difficult to analyze and study social mentality?

The importance of social mentality is beyond doubt, but it is difficult to analyze. From the perspective of social psychology, public opinion and public opinion are expressions and manifestations of social mentality, but not social mentality itself. We can understand the social mentality through folk proverbs, complaints, gossip, rumors, "jokes", net posts and blogs, mobile phone text messages, popular words and so on. We can also understand the social mentality through assemblies, riots, riots, strikes and petitions. You can also understand the social mentality through consumption patterns, fashion and popularity, and interpersonal relationships (hierarchical relationships, intergenerational relationships, intimate relationships, etc.). ), market risk tolerance, savings, snapping up, reading preference, social trust. The social mentality is permeated with some viewpoints, which not only shows the social psychology of individuals, but also the social mentality of certain groups and even the whole society. Need to analyze and grasp. In most cases, it takes a relatively long time for researchers and social members to "look back". For example, when we "look back" at the social mentality in the early days of reform and opening up, we can see the joy and comfort brought by ideological emancipation, mixed with hesitation, and a strong sense of participation and efficiency in the rapid development and changes of social economy, which can also be said to be a kind of "liberated" social mentality. Subsequently, with the progress of China's economy, people's motives for pursuing wealth, power and status became stronger, and the values of materialism and consumerism had a more obvious impact on people. These attributes of social mentality can explain why there is a "psychological history" of historians from one side, but we hope to see little analysis of social mentality.

Another difficulty in social psychology research lies in measuring tools. At present, the commonly used tool for investigating social attitudes is the Attitude Scale, and the preparation of the Attitude Scale requires a lot of preliminary work, especially the preparation of a questionnaire suitable for China people's reaction style.

The third difficulty is that it is difficult to deeply analyze the social mentality. Faced with a large number of survey data and cases, without a keen perspective and profound insight, these materials will also be a pile of waste paper, without soul and vitality. However, in-depth analysis requires profound learning, which can not be completed by piling up data and listing the situation. Therefore, this is not a "quick" field.

● Three levels of social mentality research

The research results of social mentality not only help the government to grasp and understand public opinion from a macro perspective, but also are closely related to every member of society. This requires us to choose effective research methods, record and describe social mentality, and interpret and analyze social mentality to some extent. In the book "20 1 1 China's research report on social mentality", we divide the research on social mentality into three levels:

The first level is the level of values and beliefs, which is a deep and stable social mentality. Values are not only individual's choice tendency, but also the deep structure of individual's attitude and concept, which dominates individual's perception and reaction tendency to the outside world, so it is an important individual social psychological process and feature; At the same time, values and beliefs are also the important basis of group identity-the symbol system of * *, so they are also important social and psychological phenomena of the group. This level should also include psychological tendencies such as attribution and expectation.

The second level is the level of the specific field of social mentality subdivision. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, personal daily social life feelings can be divided into the following layers: security, risk, pressure, social stability and so on. Trust, support, belonging, participation, efficacy, etc. Sense of fairness, equality, social intimacy, harmony, etc. ; Satisfaction, happiness, growth and development, etc. These specific fields have been based on a lot of social psychology research, but the relationship between them is worth further discussion. In addition, with the change of society, some new feelings may appear. Therefore, paying attention to new hot spots is an important way to grasp the change of social mentality. For example, in recent years, food, medical care and environmental safety issues have become prominent, and people's awareness of risks has become stronger. The widening income gap in different occupations and industries, the difference in the coverage of social security policies between urban and rural areas, feelings of equality and fairness, dissatisfaction and resentment will all become important reasons that affect social behavior. The emergence of the financial crisis is also a new challenge for the masses who have experienced rapid development for 30 years. Will tomorrow be better than today? Will it be better in five years than this year? Will the next generation be better than this one? Will the rapid development of China slow down? Will this development have a negative impact? These feelings are directly related to people's confidence in social development and satisfaction with life.

The third level is the level of special periods and special events. Special periods and events often reflect the deep content and changes of social mentality. For example, the Olympic Games, the Wenchuan earthquake and the financial crisis are all major events and special periods that China people have experienced in recent years. Recording the reactions of social members to these events can provide a starting point for us to understand social mentality.

20 1 1 China Social Psychology Research Report records and depicts social psychology in the form of an annual report, which is the first attempt of 20 1 1. We hope to accumulate data and information continuously, from coarse to fine, from trivial to comprehensive, from elementary to advanced. We expect more people to benefit from this research work and more people to join it.

(Author: Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

(Provided by Li Guangzhi)