An exploratory analysis of national prestige scores

The purpose of this study is to develop a national prestige score by emulating occupational prestige scores and to analyze how Japanese people perceive the prestige of various countries. The results of my analysis show that the overall ranking of national prestige is consistent with prior research that measured preferences toward nations, e.g. Western countries are evaluated more highly than African or Middle Eastern countries. Furthermore, while prior studies on 'preference' indicated relatively low positions for neighboring countries such as China, South Korea and Russia, this study found that they were ranked in the mid-range, regarding their prestige. I also examined the validity and reliability of the national prestige scores, with the following findings: first, a comparative analysis between national prestige and national preference revealed conceptual differences between prestige and preference and the external validity of a nation's prestige score. Second, in order to assess the reliability of the scores, I analyzed differences based on gender, educational level and age group. However, those attributes did not make any notable differences in terms of the overall ranking of nations.