Characters are essential factors in narratives. Several recent studies have suggested that sharing a perspective with a character in a narrative plays a critical role in narrative production. However, it remains unclear how information about a character influences the writers’ cognitive processes. This research focused on fictional character generation and investigated whether the relationship between the writer and character influences the perceived difficulty of character generation. The present study was based on reader-protagonist interaction research on narrative comprehension. Participants were asked to generate an extroverted or introverted character and describe the character’s personality traits (e.g., their hobbies, treasured possessions, etc.) and rate the perceived difficulty of character generation. The results showed that, in particular, the participants with low extroversion felt it was easier to generate an introverted character rather than an extroverted character. This suggests that writers performed a mental simulation of the characters; therefore, the relationship between writer and character plays a significant role in character generation.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the AARC-10 SF and to examine its reliability and validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on 898 valid respondents, and a two-factor structure (gains and losses) was confirmed. Multigroup structural equation modeling supported the partial metric invariance model for age groups and the factorial covariance invariance model for gender and education. Correlations with the validity scales showed generally the same pattern as in the original version. Furthermore, hierarchical multiple regression analysis confirmed that gains and losses measured new constructs different from the attitude toward aging and subjective age. These results indicate that the Japanese version of the AARC-10 SF is as reliable and valid as the original version.

In Western food culture, chocolate is the most frequently craved food. Given the risks associated with excessive consumption, an appropriate assessment scale for chocolate craving is needed, but a Japanese translation of the Attitudes to Chocolate Questionnaire (ACQ) does not yet exist. We developed a Japanese version of the ACQ and examined its validity and reliability. An online survey of 630 adults (272 men and 358 women, mean age 38.94 years) was administered. Further, an additional survey of 88 adults (47 men and 41 women) was conducted to assess the test-retest reliability. The results reveal that the Japanese version of the ACQ has a two-factor structure, as indicated by previous studies, and high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. These results suggest that the Japanese version of the ACQ has the same characteristics as the original, German, and Dutch versions, and is a valid and reliable scale to assess chocolate craving.

The perception of being unsafe leads to stress and negative outcomes. Measuring the perception of safety is important for investigating the influences of safety-related issues; however, no scale has been developed that comprehensively measures the perception of safety. The present study aimed to develop the Perception of Safety Scale and investigate its reliability and validity. I developed items based on free descriptions in a preliminary survey, and selected items based on exploratory factor analyses in Study 1. Consequently, I extracted eight factors. In Study 2, I confirmed the factor structure from Study 1 and tested its test-retest reliability. I confirmed that the bi-factor model is a better fit, and all factors showed sufficient test-retest reliability. In Study 3, I investigated the concurrent and construct validity. Almost all hypothesized correlations were significant and greater than the medium effect size; hence the concurrent and construct validity were confirmed. Although there are limitations to the robustness of the acceptance from others factor, the present study showed that the Perception of Safety Scale has sufficient reliability and validity.

The present study investigated the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and prosocial behavior differentiated by target (toward family, friends, and strangers) in Japanese lower secondary school students. The indirect effects through prosocial motivation (autonomous and controlled regulation) were also examined. The data were collected through an online questionnaire and included 996 participants aged 12－15 years (mean age = 13.14, standard deviation = 0.91). Correlation analysis demonstrated that SES correlated negatively with prosocial behavior. Using structural equation modeling, the mediation model revealed a significant indirect effect of SES on prosocial behavior toward all targets through autonomous regulation. This study is expected to serve as a basis for SES study in Japan and an implication for a teacher to consider in school education about prosocial behavior.

The two studies examined the effects of exposure to a romantic fairy tale on women’s pragmatic love styles and their benefactor interests. Female college students read either Cinderella or Helen Keller stories. The control group read no story. The results showed that the Cinderella group significantly increased their benefactor interests as well as their indirect power aspirations, including indirectly seeking economic rewards and social prestige from their romantic male partners, compared to the Helen Keller group. The Cinderella group also estimated that their future spouse would have a higher income than the Helen Keller group. In conclusion, women’s pragmatic love style could be socialized or cultivated within the social structure, including the media. Therefore, women’s pragmatic love style, as well as their benefactor interests, may vary according to possible changes in the future of Japan’s social structure, including the structure of the gender gap and the media.

In this study, we examined whether the name-liking measure, which measures the degree of liking of one’s own name, can be used as an indicator of implicit self-esteem in Japan. In six studies, 796 participants completed two self-esteem Implicit Association Tests (one IAT used general stimulus words, while the other used the participants’ own names as stimuli), the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, the Name-Letter Task (NLT), and name-liking measure. Meta-analysis showed that name-liking was positively correlated with the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and NLT but not significantly correlated with either of self-esteem IATs. The positive partial correlation between name-liking and NLT was also significant while controlling for the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. These results suggest that name-liking may measure a certain aspect of implicit self-esteem as well as explicit self-esteem.