Going to College and Unpacking Hazing: A Functional Approach to Decrypting Initiation Practices Among Undergraduates

Initiation practices likely support group functioning by promoting group-relevant skills and attitudes, reinforcing status hierarchies, and stimulating cognitive, behavioral, and affective forms of social dependency. In field tests of these propositions, 269 undergraduates from same-gender organizations rated their initiation experiences. As predicted, athletes reported relatively more physical challenge and pain, whereas members of Greek-letter organizations reported more social deviance and embarrassment. Hierarchy was positively associated with initiations featuring social deviance but unexpectedly negatively related to physically and psychologically harsh initiations. Harsh treatment and fun independently predicted group identity. Laboratory experiments on male (n 74) and female (n 37) undergraduates found that discomforting inductions increased social dependence on group opinion and, for women, increased additional forms of dependence (proximity to induction agents and negative mood when left alone). The results across studies suggested that hazing’s task masters are 3: schooling skills and attitudes, conveying hierarchy, and promoting social dependency.