A Quantitative Analysis Regarding the “Law of the Jungle” Ideology

A Tentative Study Focusing on Cultural Wealth

Abstract

The advocates of neoliberalism affirm the need for competition in the market. This may develop in them an attitude that lacks consideration of the weak because they cannot win in competition if they can consider others to be weak. The consciousness that supports this attitude can be called a “law of the jungle” or “survival of the fittest“ ideology. The aim of this tentative study is to address such an ideology from the viewpoint of social stratification. Based on quantitative data obtained from a survey of Japanese university students, I constructed a scale of economic and cultural wealth and then examined the effects of these variables on the “law of the jungle” ideology. As a result, it was revealed that economic wealth is effective in strengthening this consciousness, while cultural wealth is effective in weakening it. The combination of economic wealth and cultural poverty seems to have a significant effect that strengthens the degree of the “law of the jungle” ideology. It can be interpreted from these results that economic wealth causes an attitude of ignoring others in order to win the competition and build wealth. In contrast, and through frequent contact with the arts, cultural wealth causes an attitude of understanding and heterogeneous coexistence with others because art has the power to feed the imagination.