国際誌論文データベース

Nakade, M.*, Takagi, D. (高木大資)*, Suzuki, K., Aida, J., Ojima, T., Kondo, K., Hirai, H., & Kondo, N. (*Equal contribution) (2015).
Influence of socioeconomic status on the association between body mass index and cause-specific mortality among older Japanese adults: The AGES Cohort Study.
日本の高齢者におけるBMIと特定死因死亡率の関連に対する社会経済地位の影響
Preventive Medicine, 77, 112-118.
doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.05.015

Takagi, D. (高木大資), Kondo, N., Takada, M., & Hashimoto, H. (2016).
Educational attainment, time preference, and health-related behaviors: A mediation analysis from the J-SHINE survey.
学業達成，時間選好と健康関連行動―J
Social Science & Medicine, 153, 116-122.
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.054

Evidence consistently shows that low education is associated with unhealthy behaviors. A recent study in behavioral economics argued that high time preferences – the tendency to prefer immediate gain to later reward – explain the limited self-control of individuals in making preventive health-related choices. The aim of this study was to examine the mediating effect of time preference on the associations between education and smoking, binge drinking and overweight in young and middle-aged adults living in a Japanese metropolitan area, using a quantitatively measured time discount rate. A population-based probabilistic sample of residents of 25–50 years of age living in four municipalities within Japanese metropolitan areas where economic disparity is relatively large was obtained from the Japanese Study on Stratification, Health, Income, and Neighborhood (J-SHINE). Respondents answered the questionnaire items using a computer-aided personal instrument (CAPI). Data from 3,457 respondents were used in this study. Time preferences measured as categorical responses were converted into a continuous number of time discount rates by using the maximum likelihood method. Smoking habit, binge drinking, and body mass index were regressed on educational attainment with demographics and other confounders. The mediating effects of the time discount rate were examined with the bootstrapping method. Results showed that the time discount rate did not mediate the association between education and binge drinking and BMI. Even for smoking, the mediating effect of time discount rate was quite limited, indicating that the proportion of total effect of education mediated was only 4.3% for men and 3.0% for women. The results suggest that modifying time preferences through educational intervention has only limited efficacy in closing disparities in health-related behaviors, and that other mediators fostered by schooling, such as knowledge/skills, group norms and supportive peers/networks, may be more important as modifiable mediators in the link between education and smoking.

Arimitsu, K. (有光興起) (2016).
The effects of a program to enhance self-compassion in Japanese individuals: A randomized controlled pilot study.
日本人のセルフ・コンパッションを高めるプログラムの効果
Journal of Positive Psychology.
doi: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1152593

Komiya, A. （小宮あすか）, Oishi, S., & Lee, M. (2016).
The rural–urban difference in interpersonal regret.
対人的後悔における田舎の都会の違い
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(4), 513-525.
doi: 10.1177/0146167216636623

The present research examined rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret. In Study 1, participants who grew up in rural areas reported stronger interpersonal regret than those who grew up in large cities. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment and found that participants who were assigned to imagine a rural life reported greater interpersonal regret than those who were assigned to imagine an urban life. Moreover, this rural–urban difference was mediated by the degree to which participants wrote about informal social control such as gossip and reputation concerns. Finally, in Study 3, we used the pictorial eye manipulation, which evokes a concern for informal social control, and found that participants from large cities who were exposed to the eyes reported more intense interpersonal regret than those who were not exposed to the eyes. Together, these studies demonstrate that informal social control is a key to understanding rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret.

Tsujikawa, N.（辻川典文）, Tsuchida, S.（土田昭司）, & Shiotani, T.（塩谷尚正） (2015). 
Changes in the factors influencing public acceptance of nuclear power generation in Japan since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. 
2011年福島第一原発事故以来の日本における原子力発電のパブリック・アクセプタンスに影響する要因の変化
Risk analysis, 36(1), 98-113.

Public support for nuclear power generation has decreased in Japan since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011. This study examines how the factors influencing public acceptance of nuclear power changed after this event. The influence factors examined are perceived benefit, perceived risk, trust in the managing bodies, and pro-environmental orientation (i.e., new ecological paradigm). This study is based on cross-sectional data collected from two online nationwide surveys: one conducted in November 2009, before the nuclear accident, and the other in October 2011, after the accident. This study’s target respondents were residents of Aomori, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures in the Tohoku region of Japan, as these areas were the epicenters of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the locations of nuclear power stations. After the accident, trust in the managing bodies was found to have a stronger influence on perceived risk, and pro-environmental orientation was found to have a stronger influence on trust in the managing bodies; however, perceived benefit had a weaker positive influence on public acceptance. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Sasaki, Y.（佐々木裕一）, Kawai, D.（河井大介）, & Kitamura, S.（北村智） (2015).
The anatomy of tweet overload: How number of tweets received, number of friends, and egocentric network density affect perceived information overload.
ツイート・オーバロードを解剖する：どの程度のツイート数，フレンド数，ネットワーク密度が情報過多とみなされるか
Telematics and Informatics, 32(4), 853-861.
doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2015.04.008

More than 21 million monthly active users (MAUs) in Japan read, communicate, and share information with others via Twitter (in May 2013). In this study, we focused on perceived information overload by analyzing the number of tweets received, number of friends, and density of a user’s egocentric network. These three variables were examined using objective data collected through Twitter’s open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). We collected data concerning tweet overload through a web-based survey, and we used an ordered logistic regression analysis to examine the combined data (n = 1277). Results demonstrated that only the number of friends had a significantly positive effect on perceived tweet overload, while the number of tweets received did not produce a significant effect. Although the density of a user’s egocentric network did not demonstrate any significant effect on perceived tweet overload, a significant interaction effect appeared between the number of friends and the density of this network. In other words, findings indicated that a large number of friends strengthened the network density’s effect; by contrast, a smaller number of friends strengthened network density but reduced perceived tweet overload. The findings are discussed in detail in this article.

Yamada, A. （山田歩）, & Kim, J-Y. (2016).
Option-Splitting Effects in Poll Regarding Japan’s Right to Exercise Collective Self-Defense.
集団的自衛権行使をめぐる世論調査における選択肢分割の効果
Social Science Japan Journal.
doi: 10.1093/ssjj/jyv034

Against the backdrop of heated debates within and outside Japan regarding Japan’s push for the right to exercise collective self-defense (CSD), the Japanese mass media have reported a series of polls on Japan’s exercise of its right to CSD, with significantly disparate results. In this article, we present one natural experiment and one controlled experiment that show that the disparate outcomes are due to the different ways the options are segmented. We conducted a comparative analysis of two questionnaires, one presenting two options of ‘approve’ and ‘disapprove’ and the other with three options, splitting the option of ‘approve’ into two answers presenting different means of approving the use of the right to CSD. As a result, more respondents chose ‘approve’ when the option was split into two. The result shows that option-splitting expands the respondents’ range of perception and psychological availability, which in turn raises the selection rate. This research implies that inducing the poll results through option-splitting is possible, which might eventually affect the policy-making process in democratic societies where public opinion polls affect policy.

Fermin, A. S. R., Sakagami, M., Kiyonari, T. （清成透子）, Li, Y.（李楊）, Matsumoto, Y. （松本良恵）, Yamagishi, T. （山岸俊男） (2016).
Representation of economic preferences in the structure and function of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
扁桃体と前頭前野の構造と機能における経済的選好の表現
Scientific Reports, 6, 20982.
doi: 10.1038/srep20982

Social value orientations (SVOs) are economic preferences for the distribution of resources – prosocial individuals are more cooperative and egalitarian than are proselfs. Despite the social and economic implications of SVOs, no systematic studies have examined their neural correlates. We investigated the amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) structures and functions in prosocials and proselfs by functional magnetic resonance imaging and evaluated cooperative behavior in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. We found for the first time that amygdala volume was larger in prosocials and positively correlated with cooperation, while DLPFC volume was larger in proselfs and negatively correlated with cooperation. Proselfs’ decisions were marked by strong DLPFC and weak amygdala activity, and prosocials’ decisions were marked by strong amygdala activity, with the DLPFC signal increasing only in defection. Our findings suggest that proselfs’ decisions are controlled by DLPFC-mediated deliberative processes, while prosocials’ decisions are initially guided by automatic amygdala processes.