EDUCATION, BELIEFS ABOUT EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALISM AND THE FEELING OFFAIRNESS

What is the underlying process of people's judgment on whether the sta tus attainment process in the society is fair or not? Two hypotheses a re proposed. One is the justification of self interest. The other is t he impartial or disinterested evaluation, and the hypothesis which pos tulates the enlightenment effect of higher education is a variant of t his. From each of the hypotheses, predictions on the relation between education, beliefs about educational credentialism, and the feeling of fairness arl: deduced. Data from a survey of Japanese high school stu dents and their parents is used for the verification of these predicti ons. The diagramed contingency tables and the results of legit analysi s with the conditional effect design reveal that the hypothesis of the justification of self interest is supported only for the fathers, and that of enlightenment is supported for the mothers.