It Happens, Just Not to Me: Hazing on a Canadian University Campus.

AbstractResearch on hazing in higher education has primarily focused on Greek-letter organizations and athletes, with little research beyond these two subsets of college students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the attitudes of students from the general student population at a Canadian university with regard to hazing and identify how students justify and legitimate hazing activities. The theories of groupthink and cognitive dissonance are used to interpret the results which are presented in three themes: (a) It isn’t hazing or it doesn’t count as hazing, (b) It is hazing, but it’s okay, and (c) It happens, just not to me.