Identifying Groups With Different Traits Using Fourteen Domains of Social Consciousness: A Multidimensional Latent Class Graded Item Response Theory Model

A latent variable model included in the class of finite mixture item response theory models is employed to disentangle some recent sociological aspects of the Japanese society. Data collected via the Stratification and Social Psychology survey project in 2018 are analyzed to examine how people are classified in terms of fourteen different life domains: satisfaction, patriotism, social exclusion, anxiety, fatalism, relationships, system justification, social dominance, opinion on inequality, authoritarianism, gender ideology, political opinion, and religious attitudes. We elucidate how the multidimensional latent variables concerning social and psychological traits that differ with respect to the pattern of response to each attitudinal question measured in an ordinal scale are associated with people’s objective socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, income, education, and Japanese geographical block. On the basis of the model, we disclose three latent classes, each of which represents distinct attitudinal traits and ideological dimensions.