有關義民爺的研究成果豐碩，是客家研究裡的重要領域之一，但也存在若干爭議，其中一項便是有關義民爺神格的爭議。然而儘管有關義民爺神格的爭論不休，但這方面的研究卻極為有限。本文從一般民眾的觀點出發，採用問卷調查的方法，以便利抽樣，詢問將近兩千名苗栗市民眾相關問題。蒐集到之問卷資料先進行因素分析，而後根據萃取出來之四個因素，對全體受訪者進行集群分析。集群分析得到三個集群，三個集群在有關義民爺神格的認知和行為各方面，都有顯著的差異，因此根據其特性命名為中性組、正神組和陰神組。但是這些差異的幅度不大，三個群組在對義民爺神格認知上的差異只能理解為相對程度上的差異，並非完全不同的三個集群。

The issue on the Yi-Ming God is an important field of Hakka studies, so many studies were contributed, also controversies existed. One of the controversies is the divinity of the Yi-Ming God. But there is few research on this topic. Conducting the method of questionnaire survey, more than 2,000 respondents were asked to respond the self-report questionnaire. The statistical methods of factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to analyze the data. Three clusters were found as to the recognition of the Yi-Ming God. The first cluster thought the Yi-Ming God as ancestor, the second cluster as god, and the third cluster as ghost. But the difference between these three clusters are limited, they cannot be thought as completely separate three clusters.