Are Perceptions of Justice and Injustice in University and College Entrance Examination Symmetric？: An International Comparison Using Data from 10 Asian and Oceanian Countries

In this paper, based on the overall justice scale (Ambrose and Schminke, 2009), we created a Overall Justice and Injustice for University and College Entrance Examination scale (OJIUCEE) and examined whether there isa s ymmetrical relationship between perceptions ofju stice and perceptions ofin justice in 10 Asian and Oceanian countries. Specifically, we measure justice and injustice in reverse order, using the Overall Justice and Injustice forU niversity and CollegeE ntrance Examination scale (OJIUCEE), based on the full-rangeJ ustice scale developed byC olquitt et .la (2015), which combines adherence toju stice rules Gustice) and violation ofju stice rules (injustice). We commissioned an internet survey company with overseas monitors to conduct the survey, and obtained as ample of72 2 people inJ apan, 196 inT hailand, 145 inV ietnam, and 248 inA ustraliain M arch 2023, and 422 inC hina, 196 inH ongK ong, and 137 inT aiwan inA pril20 23. The surveys ubjectsw ere 3520 people who had experienced taking university and college entrance examinations in the capital cities or major metropolitan areas ofea ch country. Prior toa nalysis, we checked the internal consistencyo fth e justice perception items, and found that the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was.875, which met the required standard. In addition, the Cronbach's alpha coeficientfo rth e injustice perception items was.868, which metth e required standard. The results ofth e correlation analysiss howed that, overall, there was am oderaten egative correlation between justice perception and injustice perception (-.537), suggesting that there was a certain degree of symmetry between justice perception and injustice perception. On the other hand, when looking at the results by country, we found that there were considerable differences, from countries with low correlations (India: -.299, Thailand: -.344, Vietnam: -.405) to countries with high correlations (Taiwan: -.742, Australia: -.718, SouthK orea: -.639). In other words, it was suggested thatth e perception ofju stice or injustice regarding university and college entrance examinations varied from country to country, from countries where many people thoughtth atth e university and collegee ntrance examinations systemw as faira nd thatth e society was fairly selecting students, to countries where many people thought that the university and college entrance examinations systemw as unfaira nd thatth e society was unfairlys electings tudents, toc ountries where it could be saidt hatth e society was fairlys electings tudentsin s ome respectsb utw as thoughtto be slightly unfair in others. These differences inp erceptions ofju stice and injustice inu niversity and collegee ntrance examinations ine ach countryw ere also clear fromt he resultso fth e one-waya nalysiso fva riance usingt he mean difference comparison. In the case ofpe rceptions ofju stice, the topt hree countries int erms ofsc ale mean values were, fromt he top, China, Vietnam and Australia, and the bottomt hree countries int erms ofsc ale mean values were, fromt he bottom, SouthK orea, Japan and Taiwan. Conversely, int he case ofpe rceived injustice, the three countries with the lowest scale means (i.e. those perceived as justice) were China, Australia, and Vietnam, while the three countries with the highest scale means (perceived as injustice) were Thailand, South Korea, and India. In this results, it can be said that the countries with the highest perception of justice and the countries with the low estperception of injustice (China, Vietnam, Australia) maintainsy mmetry int heirp erceptions, and there is as trongtendency to think that theya re justice and not in justice (or vice versa). On the other hand, the top countries for injustice perception and the bottom countries for justice perception are completely different: the former includes Thailand, South Korea and India, while the latter includes South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. This is also reflected int he low correla