国際誌論文データベース

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.

Shimizu, M., Niiya, Y.（新谷優）, & Shigemasu, E.（繁桝江里） (2016).
Achievement goals and improvement following failure: moderating roles of self-compassion and contingency of self-worth.
失敗後の達成目標と向上：自己への慈しみと自己価値の随伴性の仲介効果
Self and Identity, 15(1), 107-115.
doi: 10.1080/15298868.2015.1084371

Kitamura, S.（北村智） (2016). 
Implications of urbanism for the use of local news media: effects of population concentration on types of news acquisition in Japan. 
日本のローカルニュースメディア利用におけるアーバニズム：人口集中がニュース入手タイプに及ぼす影響
Information, Communication& Society.
doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2016.1140803

The Internet, a global computer network enabling people to send and receive information anywhere in the world, also functions as a local medium of communication. This study focuses on the role of the Internet in transmitting local news and examines the effects of community population concentrations as socio-ecological environments on the use of local news media consumed online and offline. Data from 1367 respondents across 156 Japanese communities were used to analyze the relationships between type of community and type of news source. The findings suggest that people who live in highly populated communities tend more often to use the Internet to access local news, whereas those in less populated communities tend to use more traditional mass media. However, the results of this study did not show a relationship between population concentrations within communities and the acquisition of international news, nor did the social features of residents adequately explain the effects of population concentration on the acquisition of local news. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions based on network externalities, urbanism, and collective action. The findings indicate that local news consumption is embedded in local social contexts in a way that international news is not, reinforcing the importance of urbanism in the information age.