This study investigated whether enacted social support was effective in a Japanese population based on the regulatory effectiveness of support (RES). RES is the extent to which social support can satisfy two needs (truth and control) concerning the recipient’s self-regulation. In this study, participants were asked to recall support they received from a long-term partner (Study 1) or a non-family member or non-partner (Study 2) for a difficulty they faced. Furthermore, they indicated RES, perceived responsiveness (PR) of the supporter, motivation, and mood for self-regulation. Data from 239 adults in Study 1 and 221 undergraduates in Study 2 were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that RES consisted of the abovementioned factors (truth and control) and was a different construct from PR. Furthermore, regression analyses found that RES was associated with motivation for self-regulation and high arousal-positive mood compared to PR. These results suggest the importance of RES in Japan. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.

The concept of relative deprivation refers to the feeling of being unfairly deprived of a deserved outcome compared to others. Previous research suggests that individuals who experience high levels of relative deprivation are more prone to aggression towards those in weaker positions. In this study, we conducted two pre-registered online surveys, a correlational study with 363 participants (Study 1) and an experimental study with 264 participants (Study 2), to examine whether individuals who feel relative deprivation are more inclined to attribute the unemployment status of a third party to personal factors. In Study 1, no significant correlation was found between them. In Study 2, we observed a significant impact of personal relative deprivation on the extent to which the unemployment status was attributed to personal factors. However, the experimental manipulation of relative deprivation did not yield a significant effect. Based on these results, we discuss the relationship between the discourse of self-responsibility for the unemployed and relative deprivation.

Nakamura and Miura (2019) conducted an experiment to examine the attitude change process in a situation where someone is persuaded in multiple directions from different sources, and showed the applicability of the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), a model of the attitude change process in unidirectional situations. In this study, we elucidated that the data analysis method taken by Nakamura and Miura (2019) has two limitations: (1) its conclusions depend on the untestable assumptions of the analyst, and (2) it is not purposive to the objective of testing the applicability of the model. To overcome these problems, we proposed a cognitive model appropriate to the experiment. Moreover, we analyzed Nakamura and Miura’s data (2019) using that model. As a result of the posterior predictive check and a model comparison by the Bayes factor, it was shown that the HSM is applicable in such a situation, while also obtaining some evidence against the HSM. Furthermore, the parameter estimates indicated that the quality of some messages and manipulations was not as intended by the experimenter.

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) issues indicated that a facility should be sited at only one location. However, locating facilities in multiple sites is worth considering from the perspective of reducing inequity. The protected values are known as the blocking factor of public acceptance, which contains the feature of insensitivity to quantity. We hypothesized that multiple locations could mitigate the protected values and lead to public acceptance as a result of reducing inequity, not because of the reduction in burden. To examine the hypothesis, this study conducted a hypothetical scenario experiment using the siting of geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). We manipulated the number of sites and the amount of HLW, and measured inequity, protected values, and acceptance. The results revealed that the participants who read the scenario with multiple sites showed less inequity and greater acceptance than those who read the single site scenario. On the other hand, the amount of HLW had no significant effect. Furthermore, the results of mediation analysis indicated that the number of sites reduced inequity, which mitigated the protected values leading to acceptance.

Incomplete events make individuals pay sustained attention to mitigate feelings of incompleteness. In this study, we investigate how sustained attention, stemming from incomplete events, and the degree of inferred romantic interest impact the motivation to initiate new relationships among both men and women. 198 participants took part in trivia quizzes, with answers divulged to half of them, while keeping the other half unaware, thus inducing a state of incompleteness. Subsequently, participants were exposed to messages from individuals of the opposite sex and were asked to report their intentions regarding relationship formation with them. These messages varied in their potential to be interpreted as conveying romantic interest. Our findings reveal that, in comparison to women, men exhibit a greater motivation to form relationships with the message senders. Importantly, incomplete events consistently heightened the motivation to establish relationships with the message sender. This suggests that although women are cautious about forming relationships with the opposite sex, the inclination towards seeking information triggered by incomplete events may increase their motivation to form relationships with the opposite sex, just like men.

In line with Singh (1993, 1995), this study aims to examine how mortality salience influences individuals’ preference for line drawings of the opposite sex’s body shape. Followed by mortality salience or control manipulation, participants were presented with 12 line drawings and asked to rank them in terms of attractiveness and other attributes. Consistent with earlier findings, males exhibited a stronger preference for female line drawings with a waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) of 0.7 at the standard body weight. Importantly, this preference was found to be amplified under the mortality salience condition compared to the control group. On the other hand, females exhibited a preference for male drawings with a WHR of 0.9 at the standard body weight, but mortality salience did not amplify the preference. The implications of the relationship between terror management processes and reproductive interest are discussed, particularly in terms of ensuring symbolic immortality.

In this study, using data from evaluations of 20 companies by seven raters in a corporate award on the theme of human resource management, I examined the consistency of company evaluations by a small number of experts in different fields and the criterion-related validity of the mean evaluations per company. The evaluation was conducted in the order of documents and interviews, and each was rated on five items. The intraclass correlations showed that the evaluations of “philosophy,” “innovation,” “leadership,” and “motivation” were consistent across raters and that the interview evaluations were more consistent than the document evaluations. Regarding “personnel” evaluations, significant consistency was found only for document evaluations. The correlations between the mean evaluations and indices of application documents showed that companies with more text in their application documents tended to be evaluated more highly. It was confirmed that the few experts’ evaluations of the companies had a moderate degree of consistency and validity; however, it was also suggested that some combinations of evaluation items and evaluation materials may not have resulted in appropriate evaluations.