The purpose of this study is to reveal the way people make consensus estimates when they receive other individual's judgment (other-judgment). Will they find other-judgment as informative as their own judgment (self-judgment) in estimating social consensus? As to this point, previous researches have not yet reached any consistent view. We proposed a new viewpoint that the perceiver's group numerical status has an important influence on his/her perception of self-judgment and other-judgment. In our experiment, after subjects made self-judgments, they were informed whether their self-judgment belongs to a numerical majority or minority, and, in addition, they were provided with one example of other-judgment which could be either congruent or incongruent to their self-judgment. As predicted, the subjects regarding themselves belonging to the majority relied more heavily on self-judgment and hardly used other-judgment, and thus consistently perceived high consensus in accord with their own judgments. On the other hand, subjects belonging to the minority considered both self-judgment and other-judgment, and modified the degree to which others agreed with their own judgments. We discuss the implications of these findings in the intergroup context of consensus estimates and stereotyping studies.

View full abstract

This study examined whether closeness to intimate opposite-sex partners influences self-presentation motives in these relationships. Participants were 758 undergraduates (328 males, 428 females, and 2 unknown). Participants were asked to imagine opposite sex partners with whom they felt closest while completing the questionnaires. The main findings were as follows: (1) the strength of participants' self-presentation motives to their partners increased as their subjective feelings of relationship importance and romantic feelings also increased, (2) the association of length of relationship with the strength of self-presentation motives was negative in the opposite-sex friendships, and positive in romantic relationships, and (3) exclusivity in romantic relationships reduced the strength of self-presentation motives. From these results, it was found that self-presentation motives in long-term relationships were not necessarily weaker than in short-term relationships. We suggest the need for further research on self-presentation motives in long-term relationships.

View full abstract

In this study, it was hypothesized that 1) acceptance of public works was influenced by infringement on freedom and fairness, 2) fairness was influenced by procedural fairness, distributive-fairness and expectation of increase of public interest, and 3) procedural fairness and expectation of increase of public interest were influenced by trust toward public administration. It was also hypothesized that the trust was higher when people understood the necessity of public works than when they did not. These hypotheses were confirmed by the data from a scenario experiment (n=800) that assumes an imaginary car restriction policy in an urban area for the purpose of reduction of traffic congestion and air pollution. It was also indicated by the data that the trust had direct effects on infringement on freedom, fairness, distributive fairness, and acceptance.

View full abstract

This study analyzed people's attitude formation towards infrastructure development from the viewpoint of self-relevance and information release. The model structure is based on the Heuristic Systematic Model and Elaboration Likelihood Model. We conducted a scenario experiment on an Internet web site. Results revealed that social validity of the project and peripheral information, such as trust, were important factors for the formation of attitudes in the inadequate information condition. In addition, our findings suggested that the role of procedural fairness differs by degree of self-relevance, although the model structure appeared to be the same in the two self-relevance conditions. On the other hand, social validity of a project and procedural fairness were significant factors for attitude formation under the adequate information condition. Furthermore, people formed their attitude without peripheral information under the low self-relevance condition, if adequate information was released. These findings suggest that the role of procedural fairness and the formation of attitudes differ depending on the degree of self-relevance.

View full abstract

This study examined the effects of citizens' perceptions of conflict parties' underlying interests on preferences for resolution strategies regarding public works projects. We conducted a survey with 791 adult participants. We found that the more the citizens perceived the egocentric interests of the parties supporting public works project policies and the prosocial interests of the parties against those policies, the more strongly these participants showed preferences for referendum, negotiation, mediation, and public hearings. On the other hand, if citizens devaluated the legitimacy of arguments by opponents of public works projects, participants were likely to show strong preferences for government-driven decision strategies when participants recognized the egocentric interests of the parties who were against the public works projects. Furthermore, participants also preferred government-driven decision strategies when citizens thought parties promoting the public works projects had prosocial interests that would contribute to the efficiency or promote the welfare of the society.

View full abstract

To analyze the relationships between perceived social fairness of Japan, trust for the government, and policy evaluations of public enterprise, we conducted a survey in 15 areas of Japan, and obtained 772 respondents. The results indicated that their ratings of social fairness, trust, and evaluations of public enterprise policies were generally low. The evaluations consisted of those of the administration and those of public enterprise, and the latter included independent positive and negative dimensions. Those who did not trust the government tended to negatively evaluate public enterprise policies, implying that people take a cognitive heuristic in evaluation of public policies. Trust for the government was found to be related to different levels of social fairness judgments (micro, macro, regional, and vocational), consistent with a social bond theory of justice that people's attitudes toward a social authority (e.g., the government) is determined by how appropriately they perceive they are treated in a social group.

View full abstract

This paper was intended to discuss on conflict management strategies in social consensus formation processes with reference to the findings about the mechanisms of grand coalition formation. A grand coalition is a phenomenon that more than three individuals or groups who are basically independent and compete for gaining reward one another make concessions and compromise, then agree to cooperate and to form a coalition all together. So examining the mechanisms in such processes was expected to provide some helpful implications. After reviewing the findings of experimental studies on grand coalitions, it was clarified that widening the scope of consideration for own rewards was effective to activate the motivation to propose a grand coalition. But it was also ascertained that the bargaining processes reduced such motivation and frequencies of actual grand coalition formation. Based on these findings, some implications were presented after discussing the importance of the notion that people always seek more advantages even if they try to cooperate together.

View full abstract