Higuchi Masataka

We conducted a systematic review of conference papers in social psychology at two large psychology conferences in Japan: the Japanese Psychological Association and the Japanese Society for Social Psychology. The conference papers were effectively not subjected to peer review; hence, they were suitable for testing if psychologists selectively reported statistically significant findings without pressure from journal editors and reviewers. We investigated the distributions of z-values converted from the p-values reported in the articles presented at the 2013 and 2018 conferences. The z-curve analyses suggest the existence of selective reporting by the authors in 2013. The expected discovery rate (EDR) was much lower than the observed discovery rate (ODR; 7% vs. 76%, respectively), and the 95% confidence interval (CI) did not include the ODR. However, this does not mean that the set of studies completely lacked evidential value. The expected replication rate (ERR) was 31%; this is significantly higher than 5%, which was expected under the null hypothesis of no effect. Changes were observed between 2013 and 2018. The ERR increased (31% to 44%), and the EDR almost doubled (7% to 13%). However, the estimation of the maximum false discovery rate (FDR; 68% in 2013 and 35% in 2018) suggested that a substantial proportion of the reported findings were false positives. Overall, while social psychologists in Japan engaged in selective reporting, this does not mean that the entire field was covered with false positives. In addition, slight signs of improvement were observed in how they reported their findings. Still, the evidential value of the target studies was weak, even in 2018, allowing for no optimism.

Based on the protection motivation theory and previous studies that discussed the effects of risk perception, perceived response effectiveness, and self-efficacy on behavioral intentions and changes in behavior, this study conducted an experiment to examine the effects of the Metropolitan Police Department's crime deterrence task force’s official Twitter account on crime prevention behavior. Information on the threat of communications fraud, the effectiveness of preventive behavior, and self-efficacy was presented via Twitter, and changes in behavioral intention, behavior, fear, effectiveness, and self-efficacy were checked over time. Participants in their 20s to 50s were assigned to a Metropolitan Police Department group presented with tweets about scams or to a control group presented with other tweets. The results of the analysis of the 60 participants in the police department group and the 49 participants in the control group showed that the presentation of information increased behavioral intention, but it did not necessarily lead to changes in behavior. Therefore, it was suggested that there may be other factors that increase behavioral intention and changes in behavior.

This study examines the perceptions of citizens living in Tokyo, which is hosting the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in the immediate aftermath of the decision to postpone the event. The study is a cross-sectional online survey involving 2,011 respondents (975 males, 1,026 females, 1 other, and 9 non-respondents; mean age ± SD = 44.19 ± 14.08 years; 1 missing). The respondents were asked to choose from the following six options with regard to the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games: (1) the Games should be held as planned and on the same schedule (implementation group), (2) the Games should be held as planned but with no spectators and with measures to prevent infection (no-spectator implementation group), (3) the Games should be held as planned and postponed (postponement group), (4) the Games should be postponed, with no spectators and with measures to prevent infection (no-spectator postponement group), (5) should be cancelled (cancel group), and (6) other. The study examined residents' perceptions of the Tokyo 2020 Games following the decision to postpone the event, and made the following conclusions: (1) more than 40% of respondents believed that the Games should be cancelled, (2) perceptions may differ slightly by gender and age, and (3) many respondents believed that the Games should be held without spectators, with other arrangements. The findings can be used as a basis for building

<p>This study aimed to identify cognitive appraisals from motivational models and behavioural enaction models that explain variations in the differences between two consecutive stages of change for cervical cancer screening. In the study, 123 female students completed a questionnaire assessing their stage of change and related variables from the theory of planned behavior, prototype willingness model, and health action process approach. Path analysis predicting the difference between the pre-contemplation and contemplation stages showed that the difference was mainly explained by intention to undergo cervical cancer screening, which was explained by injunctive norm, self-efficacy, and prototype similarity. On the other hand, path analysis predicting the difference between the contemplation and action/maintenance stages showed that the difference was mainly explained by action planning, which was explained by intention, and the intention was explained by injunctive norm and prototype similarity. These findings suggest that motivational and behavioural enaction models can explain the differences between two consecutive stages. Additionally, the results suggest the need to consider differences across stages when developing interventions to move people to a higher stage.</p>

<p>We examined the extent to which a beneficiary experiences gratitude toward a benefit, as a function of what another beneficiary has received. In our experiment, participants who are university students read a scenario in which the protagonist received help from his or her classmate for a report. Imagining themselves as the protagonist, participants rated the extent to which they felt grateful. We manipulated what a protagonist's friend underwent (i.e., receiving better help, receiving worse help, or being refused help). In the control condition, no mention of the protagonist's friend was made. Overall, there was no significant difference between the gratitude experienced in various conditions. However, a comparison of the gratitude scores of participants in the lower half of each condition revealed that, the participants who read that the friend was refused help felt more grateful than those in the control condition. This suggests that knowing another person fails to receive helps increases gratitude among those who otherwise feel less gratitude.</p>

This study had two purposes: first, we investigated the effects of observer behavior on feeling of embarrassment of an individual, and second, we explained the process of that effect. Participants read a scenario in which they felt embarrassment in front of a friend and the friend responded with one of four types of behavior (helpfulness, avoidance, being humorous, and other-monitoring.) or did not react at all. Participants were then asked to respond to items describing their feeling of embarrassment (Higuchi, 2000) and causal factors of embarrassment (Higuchi, 2001). To examine whether participants' feeling of embarrassment differed, one-way ANOVA and multiple comparison were conducted. These analyses revealed that “avoidance” behavior heightened feeling of embarrassment compared to “helpfulness” or “being humorous” behavior. Moreover, mediation analyses showed three causal factors of embarrassment (apprehension of social evaluation, disruption of social interaction, and loss of self-esteem) could mediate between avoidance behavior and feeling of embarrassment.