This study investigated the effect of accepting apologies and alcohol intake on anger expression through a laboratory experiment simulating a railway use situation. Fifty adult men participated in this study. 24 men were assigned to the alcohol group and 26 men were assigned to the non-alcohol group. After drinking either an alcoholic or a non-alcoholic beverage, they watched an animation that showed a frustrating situation at a train station. Following the animation, they watched three types of videos depicting staff responses to a passenger: “apology in a businesslike tone,” “apology with bowing in a polite manner,” and “non-apology.” After watching each video, the participants physically expressed their anger by hand grip strength using a hand dynamometer imagining that they were in the video situation. Only the participants in the alcohol group expressed their anger more strongly after watching “apology in a businesslike tone” than “apology with bowing in a polite manner.” These results suggest that explicit polite and non-verbal expressions of apology to passengers by staff are important to reducing anger expressed by intoxicated passengers.

Previous studies suggest that some elderly people do not use an answering machine at home to prevent falling victim to fraudulent scams despite this being known as one of the most effective behaviors to avoid fraud. The present study explored the influence of optimistic bias on answering machine use and behavioral intention for preventing fraud among elderly Japanese people. A survey was used among elderly Japanese respondents (N = 1,598, M_age = 73.2, SD = 5.30) to examine optimistic bias and behavioral intentions related to preventing scams targeting the elderly. Results of statistical analyses demonstrated that there was no relationship between optimistic bias and answering machine use. On the other hand, optimistic bias positively affected the behavioral intention of penetrating a scam by pretending to be deceived if respondents encountered scammers. We discuss the effects of optimistic bias and other factors, such as gender, on crime prevention behaviors regarding fraud.

Cross-sectional research has indicated that the psychological variables of the protective motive theory and normative focus theory are related to avoidance behaviors around going out or contacting others during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there has been no longitudinal research investigating whether these psychological variables predict similar behaviors. The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine whether these psychological variables predicted such behaviors immediately after the termination of the COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency. A total of 781 participants completed a web-based survey immediately before and after the termination of the state of emergency in Tokyo. A cross-lagged effects model was used to analyze psychological predictors. The results indicated that the perceived self-efficacy of avoidance behaviors (β = .099), injunctive norms (β = .135), and descriptive norms (β = －.061) immediately before the state of emergency termination predicted avoidance behaviors around going out or contacting others immediately after the termination. These results suggested causal relationships between perceived self-efficacy, descriptive norms, and injunctive norms and avoidance behaviors around going out or contacting others.

Studies on various hazards have shown that such hazards are characterized by two dimensions, namely being “dreaded” and “unknown.” Conversely, when evaluating food-related hazards, the degree to which the food is perceived as artificial (i.e., the evaluation of artificiality) has been shown to affect risk perception and willingness to accept food. Accordingly, this study (N = 923) investigated the factors that influence risk perception for various food hazards (e.g., genetically modified foods) by adding items related to artificiality to the conventional items related to the two dimensions (dreaded, unknown). The results showed that items related to artificiality constituted the same principal component as those related to the dimension of “dreaded.” Additionally, foods that were evaluated as artificial were also evaluated as having lower benefits. Based on the findings, specific characteristics of foods that are likely to be avoided (or accepted) were mentioned, and future directions for studies related to food risk perception were discussed.

This study aimed to predict adolescents’ suicidal desires from their time perspective and family socioeconomic status (SES) in addition to theoretically related variables. Social survey data consisted of responses from 1,137 adolescents and 1,906 parents, which were analyzed using the machine learning method Balanced Random Forest. The results showed that all participants who had suicidal desires were predicted as having suicidal desires, and the overall accuracy was about 80 percent. Congruence of adolescents’ and their parents’ time perspectives with respect to the adolescents’ educational stage and family SES were high on both indices of importance, among all variables used in this study that were considered important based on previous findings and theories. Therefore, the importance of congruent adolescent-parent time perspectives and family SES for the prediction of suicidal ideation among Japanese teenagers was demonstrated. Therefore, prevention specific to this developmental stage is necessary, keeping the aforementioned factors in mind.

The purpose of this study was to develop the Japanese version of the Personal Attitude Stability Scale (PASS-J) and examine its reliability and validity. Personal attitude stability refers to individual differences in people’s perceived attitude stability that predict the actual stability of their attitudes over time. Three web surveys were conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the scale. The results of confirmatory factor analysis of data from the three surveys showed that the PASS-J had the same factor structure as the original scale. Additionally, survey 1 and 2 established test-retest reliability over a two-week period. Furthermore, the results of the multilevel modeling indicated that in the case of people with high scores on the PASS-J, their Time 1 attitudes were more predictive of their Time 2 attitudes. This confirmed the scale’s predictive validity. Lastly, in survey 3, the correlation analyses between the PASS-J and existing scales confirmed its convergent validity. Thus, the PASS-J was confirmed as a useful measure of personal attitude stability.

Emotional crying has been described as the shedding of tears consequent to an emotional event, a universal and uniquely human behavior. The purpose of the present study was to develop the Japanese version of the Beliefs About Crying Scale (BACS), which assesses beliefs about whether crying is beneficial for gaining positive feelings in both individual and interpersonal contexts. In Study 1, we examined factor structure and re-test reliability. The results indicated that the factor structure of the Japanese version and original version of the BACS are similar and possess acceptable re-test reliability. In Study 2, we tested validity. The results revealed that the Japanese version of the BACS had theoretically reasonable correlations with assumed variables. These results suggest that the Japanese version of the BACS has similar properties as the original version and has acceptable validity and reliability.

This study was designed to clarify the process by which a favorable work environment before a disaster affects work stressors and stress responses of local government employees recovering from a natural disaster caused by an earthquake, heavy rains, or localized landslides. The results of a cross-sectional questionnaire survey conducted with 943 employees engaged in disaster response work in two disaster-stricken local governments indicated that 8.6 % of the employees were at high risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and 6.0 % were likely to have mood and anxiety disorders. A path analysis revealed that a more favorable pre-disaster work environment resulted in more positive engagement with citizens and less negative engagement after the disaster, as well as less work-related relationship difficulties. However, experiencing work-related relationship difficulties, heavier workloads, and a lack of a sense of self-control in their work led to stronger PTSD symptoms and mood and anxiety disorders. These results suggest that favorable work environments, as a pre-disaster preparedness measure, might mitigate the work stressors associated with recovery work and thus reduce stress responses.

In Japan, a married couple must use the same surname to comply with the civil code, and the wife takes her husband’s surname in more than 95 % of married couples. We hypothesized that ambivalent sexism, including hostile and benevolent sexism, is related to the preferred surname choice among unmarried men and women. We discovered the following results. First, men showed averseness to changing their surnames, while women showed acceptance. Second, individuals strongly endorsing hostile sexism were more likely to accept changing their surnames than those endorsing it weakly. Third, men strongly supporting benevolent sexism refused to change their surnames. The relationships between ambivalent sexism and surname choice in Japan were discussed.