他者表情からの情動認知と社会的ネットワーク・サイズ

―日本人大学生を対象とした検討―

抄録

The present study aimed to explore the relationships between human social network size and sociocognitive ability of reading emotions from other’s eyes as an index of social intelligence. Human social networks have been known to constitute successive layers which correspond to decreasing levels of emotional closeness and frequency of contact (Dunbar, 2014). Here I report on preliminary evidence for the relationships between the ability to read emotions from other’s eyes (measured by Reading-the-Mind-in-the-Eyes Test; RMET) and the size of three layers of respondents’ social network in two Japanese undergraduate samples (total N = 264). There was a positive association between Asian RMET score and the size of related/unrelated support clique (the innermost network consisting of people whom one would seek advice or support in times of crises) in one of two samples. On the other hand, theoretically assumed relationships of Asian RMET score with the size of the outermost layer were not confirmed. These results suggest the important role that reading emotions from other’s eyes play in creating and maintaining core social networks.