4. Research Results
4.1 Overview
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= f (followership). In the research, we use the questions of the first part (followership) as the independent variable, and the question of second part (perception of Xi Jinping) as dependent variable, to demonstrate what kind of perception of Chinese President Xi is related to each type of follower. Moreover, the research will also run the regression between personal information and perception of Xi Jinping in order to understand the perceptions of different ages, gender, and education level.
The research would first using statistical model to test the differences among all types of groups, including different gender, educational level, and age, in order to understand the political attitude of each groups. Many types of statistical tool would be used in the research, including simple regression, T-test, fixed-effect regression, and multi-regression, so as to dissociate certain effect and find out the differences.
Furthermore, the research is using more than one question as the independent variables to test the hypothesis, so that the hypothesis could have a comprehensive result.
4 Research Results
This chapter is divided into four parts. Firstly the research gives an overview of all the questionnaires and gives a brief introduction. Secondly, the research would analyze all of the questionnaires to compare and observe the average scores of each groups, including age, gender, and educational level. Thirdly, the research would show the results of three hypothesis mentioned in chapter two. Most important of all, the research will test the relation between four types of the followers and perception of leader in section four.
4.1 Overview
According to the data summary, the average age of our questionnaire subjects is 22.85, and the education level is between college and PhD level. Most of the respondent’s education level is Bachelors (45.72%) and Masters (38.28%), whereas PhD and College students accounted for 9.29% and 7.06% respectively. For all the questions, the average score is between 2.23 to 3.86, which means people choose disagree and agree in general. The lowest average score (2.23) is the question of “How frequently do you report your problems to the concerned authorities to change
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personality is respectable.” On the other hand, the question of” Xi Jinping is admirable.” has the highest standard deviation (1.445), which means people are more tend to choose extreme answer, strongly disagree and strongly agree, compare to other questions; the question of “How influential have your friends and family been in your perception about Xi Jinping?” has the lowest standard deviation (0.847), which means people tend to choose the average score (2.76).Table 4-1 Overview results of questionnaire Question
number Questionnaire Average Standard
deviation Variable name A1 How interested are you in politics of China? 3.1070 0.9268 Interested~c A2 How influential have your friends and family
been in your perception about Xi Jinping?
2.7565 0.8475 Family_eff~t
A3 How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?
2.5387 1.3324 Critisized~i
A4 Do you agree with all the decisions of Xi Jinping?
3.1624 1.0867 Agree_xi
A5 Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is wrong?
2.4059 1.3407 Wrong
A6 How frequently have you taken any initiative to change the way things are?
3.2103 1.2867 Change_sit~n
A7 How frequently do you report your problems to the concerned authorities to change the way things are?
2.2325 1.1521 report_sit~n
A8 How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?
3.7897 1.0488 concern_future
B1 The leadership of Xi JinPing is ethical. 3.7712 1.2792 ethical_xi B2 Xi JinPing can be trusted for the progress of
China.
3.8044 1.2746 trust_xi
B3 Xi JinPing personality is respectable. 3.8635 1.2501 respectable
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number Questionnaire Average Standard
deviation Variable name
B4 Xi JinPing is admirable. 3.2472 1.4459 admirable
B5 Xi JinPing motivates Chinese People. 3.6790 1.2982 motivates~-e B6 Xi JinPing inspire enthusiasm for the
progress of China
3.6974 1.3126 inspire_ch~a
B7 Xi JinPing demonstrate commitment to goals of Chinese people.
3.5793 1.3334 commitment
B8 Xi JinPing is an authority in Chinese politics and economy
3.4059 1.3681 xi_is_auth~y
B9 Xi JinPing’s policies are innovative. 3.5609 1.2892 Innovative B10 Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches
in order to solve problems.
3.5018 1.3767 xi_is_open
B11 Xi JinPing is critical regarding mistakes of his administrative officers in public.
3.7048 1.1649 Critical_h~s
The results of the survey indicated that most of the students, around fifty-percent, showed interest in politics, while nineteen percent answered that they are very interested in politics of China. Around 49% of the respondents believed that they have been somewhat influenced by their friends and family members in shaping their perception about Xi Jinping. While 30% of the students claimed to have been independent thinker and not been influenced by others. However, it doesn’t indicate that they often criticize Xi Jinping, as most respondents, 32% ‘rarely’ and 25%
‘never’ publicly or privately criticized Xi’s decisions. Furthermore most of the Chinese students seem to agree with Xi Jinping’s policies and 32% of them ‘never’ and 29% ‘rarely’ found that Xi Jinping is wrong. Consequently, most of them ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ took any initiative to report their problems to the concerned authorities or take any action to change the way things are, which suggests that most fall under the criteria of sheep-followers or yes-people. However, there is positive indication that most of the students 45% very concerned and 26% extremely concerned about the future of China, which shows that there is a constructive trend among students to positively engage in politics.
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Furthermore, the study reveals that most students believe that Xi Jinping is trustworthy, ethical and respectable leader, as well as rather critical regarding mistakes of his administrative officers in public, which clearly indicates that most respondents acknowledge and praise Xi’s anti-corruption policies and 76% of the students consider Xi’s as an ethical leader, while 77% of them believe that Xi Jinping can be trusted for the progress of China.
It is important to point out that most students can associate their interests with the interests and policies of their leader, as 73.8% of the respondents believe that Xi Jinping demonstrates commitment to goals of Chinese people. Moreover, 74% of the surveyed students believe that Xi inspire enthusiasm for the progress of China and at the same time motivates Chinese people, whereas 72% of the respondents consider Xi’s policies to be innovative.
4.2 Followership
In this section, followed by the formula of leadership=f(followership), the research uses the perception of Xi Jingping(11 questionnaires in Part B) as dependent variable and personality of followers(4 type of followers) as independent variable to run the simple regression in order to realize how different types of followers consider the leader.
4.2.1 Effective Followers
Based on the literature review, the research use the sum score of “Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is wrong?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?” to identify
‘Effective followers’. The result shows that effective followers have significant effect on the perception of leader Xi Jingping under α=0.1% level. Furthermore, effective followers have negative effect on the perception of leader, especially question 10” Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches in order to solve problems.”(-0.4144), question 4” Xi JinPing is admirable.”(-0.3926), and question 5” Xi JinPing motivates Chinese People.”(-0.3800) have the strongest negative effect. In the other words, effective followers would consider leader less open-mind to new idea, less admirable, and less motivates Chinese People.
Table 4-2 Effective followers
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6
Effective -.3163*** -.3584*** -.3436*** -.3926*** -.3800*** -.3600***
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family been in your perception about Xi Jinping?”, “Do you agree with all the decisions of Xi Jinping?”, and “How frequently have you taken any initiative to change the way things are?” to identify ‘Yes-People’. According to the 11 simple regression results, Yes-People has positive effect on the perception of leader under α=0.1% level.When we observe the coefficient, some questions have greater coefficient, for example, question 6” Xi JinPing inspire enthusiasm for the progress of China” and question 7 ”Xi JinPing demonstrate commitment to goals of Chinese people.”. Thus, we could say Yes-people would consider Xi Jingping inspire enthusiasm for the progress of China and demonstrates commitment to goals of Chinese people.
Table 4-3 Yes-People
According to the literature, the research uses the questions of “How frequently do you report your problems to the concerned authorities to change the way things are?” and “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?” to identified alienated followers, since alienated followers are more critical and disgruntle. According to the regression result, it is significant that alienated followers tend to have negative perception of leader underα=0.1% level.
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The coefficient shows that alienated followers has greater effect on question 2” Xi JinPing can be trusted for the progress of China.” and question 10” Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches in order to solve problems.”. In the other words, alienated followers would be unlikely to trust Xi for the progress of China and do not consider Xi is open to new idea in order to solve problems.
Sheep followers are likened to sheep who do only what they are told and no more; therefore, the research use questions of “How influential have your friends and family been in your perception about Xi Jinping?”, “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?” and “How frequently have you taken any initiative to change the way things are?” to identified sheep followers. According to the research result, under α=0.01 level, sheep followers has positive effect on the perception of the leader. The coefficient shows that sheep followers have greater effect on question 4” Xi JinPing is admirable.”(0.3727) and question 10” Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches in order to solve problems.”(0.3798).
Table 4-5 Sheep Followers
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Table 4-6 Hypothesis 5: Younger people would be more open mind in terms of politics than the elder.
Hyp5 (1) (2) (3)
Age -.0960** -.09668** -.0850 *
Gender 1.7089*** 1.6928***
Educational level -.1180
_cons 7.071074 6.2385 6.2734
Note. *p<0.10. **p<0.05. ***p<0.01.
In the research, we use the sum score of “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?” and “Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is wrong?” as dependent variable “hyp5”. When we run the simple regression of age, the result shows age has significant effect on open-mined under α=5% level. After added gender into the multiple regression, the age still shows significant effect under α=5% level. Having age, gender, and educational level included, the result shows that independent variable ”age” and “gender” have the significant effect under α=10% and 1% level. Therefore, we can reject the null hypothesis, to proof that younger people would be more open mind in terms of politics than older people since the coefficient of age is negative(-0.085). In conclusion, younger people would criticize Xi either publicly or privately more and be more likely to think Xi is wrong than older people.
Table 4-7 Hypothesis 6: People with higher educational level would have higher political consciousness than people with lower educational level.
Hyp6 (1) (2) (3)
Age -.0855*** -.0908***
Gender .5886***
Educational level .1088 .3473** .3983**
_cons 6.6248 7.9509 7.6525
Note. *p<0.10. **p<0.05. ***p<0.01.
Taking the sum scores of ” How interested are you in politics of China?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?” as dependent variable “hyp6”. The simple
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regression of educational level has no significant effect on political consciousness; however, when we add the variable “age” into multiple-regression, there is a significant proof that both age and educational level have effect on political consciousness. When we have all of the variables included, the statistical result shows that independent variable ”educational level” has positive effect on political consciousness since the coefficient is positive(0.3983), which means people with higher educational level would have higher political consciousness. Thus we do reject the null hypothesis under α=5% level since p-value=0.010.
Hypothesis 7: Male would have higher political consciousness than female
Taking the sum scores of ” How interested are you in politics of China?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?” as dependent variable “hyp7”. Based on the simple regression, there is a significant proof of gender has positive effect on political consciousness because the coefficient of variable “gender” is positive(0.5259); the research result is under α=1% level. Moreover, the variable “gender” is also significant in regression (2)and(3) in the table below. To sum up, we reject the null hypothesis; thus there is a statistical evidence proof that male would have higher political consciousness than female.
Table 4-8 Hypothesis 7: Male would have higher political consciousness than female
Hyp7 (1) (2) (3)
Age -.05137* -.0908***
Gender .5259*** .5344*** .5886***
Educational level .3983**
_cons 6.6231 7.7702 7.6525
Note. *p<0.10. **p<0.05. ***p<0.01.
4.3.3 Four types of followers
Moreover, according to the regression result, the younger questionnaire subjects are more likely to be effective followers and alienated followers, especially effective followers since it is significant at α=0.05 level. Moreover, male are more likely to be effective followers and alienated followers; whereas female are more likely are to be yes-people and sheep followers.
Finally, lower educated people are more likely to be alienated followers in terms of leadership.
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Table 4-9 Four types of followers Coefficient of Independent Variables
Dependent variable age male education
Effective followers -0.1078** 0.9763** 0.139
Yes people 0.0522 -0.6054** 0.3269*
Alienated_followers -0.0255 1.0622** -0.7996
Sheep_followers 0.0616 -1.0957** 0.3246*
*=significant at α=0.1 level
**=significant at α=0.05 level
4.4 Questionnaire results
In this sector, the research observes and compares the opinion among different object groups. To have further understand of differences of gender, educational level, age.
To analyze each questionnaire, the research shows the histogram chart of different gender’s average scores and the line chart of four educational levels’ average score in order to have a brief understand of the data. In terms of statistical evidence, we firstly use T-test to test the difference between genders. Secondly, the research uses simple regression to test the effect of educational levels on the dependent variable. Lastly, the research uses fixed-effect regression to observe the effect of age.
Table 4-10 Simple regression of age for each questionnaire
Question Variable name coefficient Standard error P-value F
A1 Age -0.0277 0.0151 0.068 3.36
A2 Age 0.0018 0.0144 0.8998 0.27
A3 Age -0.0422 0.0211 0.0467 4
A4 Age -0.0549 0.0220 0.0140 6.12
A5 Age -0.0427 0.0269 0.1140 2.52
A6 Age -0.0414 0.0225 0.0665 3.40
A7 Age 0.0163 0.0195 0.4061 0.69
A8 Age -0.0236 0.0181 0.1923 1.71
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Question Variable name coefficient Standard error P-value F
B1 Age 0.02993 0.0205 0.1447 2.14
B2 Age 0.0285 0.0215 0.185 8.75
B3 Age 0.0299 0.0212 0.1590
B4 Age 0.0304 0.0235 0.1961 1.68
B5 Age 0.0362 0.0232 0.1191 2.45
B6 Age 0.0371 0.0235 0.1160 2.49
B7 Age 0.0510 0.0237 0.0330 4.60
B8 Age 0.0858 0.0240 0.0000 12.73
B9 Age 0.0463 0.0229 0.0442 4.09
B10 Age 0.0503 0.0246 0.042 4.19
B11 Age 0.0199 0.0207 0.336 0.93
Part A
1)” How interested are you in politics of China?”
According to the survey results, the average score of female (2.908) is lower than male(3.291) in terms of interested are you in politics of China. On the other hand, people with higher educational level would also be more interested in politics in China. According to the line chart, average score of Bachelor and Master are about 3; however, Ph.D students have the score of 3.36 which is about 10% higher than others. As we know, young Chinese guys is more interested in Chinese politics; however, in order to determine the difference between these two groups(male and female), we use the T-test to test the hypothesis of male have the same interested level as female. The result of T-test shows that there is a significant difference between two groups under α= 1% level since p-value is less than 0.01.
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Note. P-value=0.0006 in T-test H0:diff=0.Chart 4-1 Gender difference of Question A1
Furthermore, when we use the simple regression to test the relation between educational level and the interest of Chinese politics, the regression result shows that there is no significant evidence proof of the effect. However, in the line chart we could observe that people with doctoral degree have the strongest interest in politics of China.
Note. Coef= 0.0678; P-value= 0.3625 in simple regression
Chart 4-2 Educational difference of Question A1
Furthermore, so as to understand the relation between age and the interest of Chinese politics, the research use the simple regression with gender fixed effect in order to exclude the
2.908
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affection of different gender. According to the results, the coefficient of the age is -0.0277 which means younger people may be more interested in politics in China; however, the result only significant underα= 10% since the p-value is 0.0681.
2) How influential have your friends and family been in your perception about Xi Jinping?
The statistical result shows there is no significant evidence of the difference between gender nor among different educational level in terms of how people consider there are influenced by friends and family been in their perception about Xi Jinping.
Demonstrating by the histogram bar chart, we could understand that the opinion of two genders are almost the same in terms of how family and friends influent the objects about the perception of Xi Jinping. When it comes to educational level, under bachelor’s degree and doctoral degree students would be less influent by friends and family than bachelor and master students.
Note. P-value= 0.8122 in T-test H0:diff=0
Chart 4-3 Gender difference of question A2
2.769 2.745
0.000 1.000 2.000 3.000 4.000 5.000 6.000
Female Male
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Note. Coef= -0.0136; P-value= 0.8414 in simple regression Chart 4-4 Educational difference of question A2
After all, we run the simple regression of the variable “age” and there is also no significant proof of the difference among different ages since the p-value is 0.8998. However, follow by the coefficient= 0.0018, we could say that older people tend to influence by friends and family more than younger people.
3) How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?
According to the survey result, Chinese young male(2.979) criticize Xi Jingping more often than female(2.062). Secondly, students with higher educational level would be less often to criticize Xi Jingping’s decisions. To test the difference between male and female, the research using T-test model, and the result shows that there is a significant evidence of Chinese young male criticize Xi Jingping’s decision more often than Chinese young female underα=1% level since P-value is close to 0.0000.
2.579 2.797 2.779 2.6
0.000 1.000 2.000 3.000 4.000 5.000 6.000
under Bachelor Bachelor Master Ph.D
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Chart 4-5 Gender difference of question A3
Note. Coef= -0.2615; P-value= 0.0140 in simple regression
Chart 4-6 Educational difference of question A3
After we realize the different frequency between male and female group, the research use the fixed-effected regression to exclude the bias of gender, and test the effect of variable “age”.
The coefficient of the variable “age” is negative(-0.0422), thus we have the result of younger people would criticize Xi’s decision more frequently than older people, the effect of age is significant under α=5% level since P-value=0.0467.
2.062
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The histogram bar chart shows that in average Chinese young female(3.408) agree with Xi’s decision more than Chinese young male do(2.936), and it is significant under α=0.1% level.
In addition, educational level has obvious effect on the agreement of the decisions of Xi Jinping under α=0.1% level, the lowest level(under bachelor degree) present a low score of agreement, which is 23% lower than bachelor’s degree and doctoral degree, and the score of people with master’s degree is 13% higher than others.
Note. P-value=0.00000 in T-test H0:diff=0;.
Chart 4-7 Gender difference of question A4
3.408
2.936
0.000 1.000 2.000 3.000 4.000 5.000 6.000
Female Male
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Note. Coef= 0.2316; P-value= 0.0080 in simple regression Chart 4-8 Educational difference of question A4
Simple regression in table 4-10 shows that the age has significant effect on whether Chinese young people agree with all the decisions of Xi Jinping. The coefficient is negative(-0.0545) means that older people would agree less in terms of Xi Jingping’s decisions, and the result is significant under α=5% level since p-value=0.0140.
5) Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is wrong?
Note. P-value= 0.0000 in T-test H0:diff=0
Chart 4-9 Gender difference of question A5
2.368
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Note. Coef= -0.2234; P-value= 0.0373 in simple regression Chart 4-10 Educational difference of question A5
The t-test of gender proof that there is significant difference between two gender and
The t-test of gender proof that there is significant difference between two gender and