世論 What Japan Thinks

One of the hobbies of Japanese kids in the summer is collecting stag beetles and their friends, so I was interested to see this recent survey from iShare looking at insects.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of June 2010 482 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 29.9% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, and 36.3% in their forties.

When I was a kid, a ladybird was about the only insect I could cope with, so coming to Japan and finding stuff like massive cockroaches or even the passive cicida fair gives me the willies. It’s cool to see a stick insect or praying mantis in my garden, but the only touching I’ll do is with a rolled-up newspaper. Fortunately my wife can cope, so when any good insects enter the house, she’s on hand to lift them out. Conversely, she’s petrified of wasps, but perhaps my sadistic streak comes through as I enjoy squirting them with fly spray.

Note, insects were defined for the purpose of this survey as three-segmented creatures with feelers in their head part and three pairs of legs in their chest part. Poisonous or stinging creatures like wasps were excluded.

Research results

Q1: When you were in elementary school, could you touch insects without feeling any reluctance? (Sample size=482)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=229
Yes, all of them	13.9%	18.6%	8.7%
Yes, most of them	41.1%	47.8%	33.6%
Yes, some of them	34.9%	24.5%	46.3%
No, none of them	10.2%	9.1%	11.4%

Q2: Currently, can you touch insects without feeling any reluctance? (Sample size=482)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=229
Yes, all of them	11.0%	15.4%	6.1%
Yes, most of them	19.7%	24.5%	14.4%
Yes, some of them	41.1%	40.7%	41.5%
No, none of them	28.2%	19.4%	38.0%

For those who could touch any insect as a kid, 58.2% retained that attitude. On the other hand, only one person completely overcame their childhood fears. Those who could touch just a few or none were asked what they couldn’t or wouldn’t go near, and tops was not suprisingly cockroach, followed by spider (that’s not an insect!), bees, mosquitos, hairy caterpillar, and non-hairy caterpillars. When asked why they couldn’t touch, some of the main reasons were fear of being bitten, not liking the feel of them, and that they were dirty. Other reasons included just being scared and general unpleasantness.

Q3: Do you like looking at, studying the behaviour of, insects? (Sample size=482)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=229
Love it	5.6%	7.1%	3.9%
Like it	34.4%	39.9%	28.4%
Dislike it	35.5%	36.0%	34.9%
Hate it	24.5%	17.0%	32.8%