The present study examined whether positive biased retelling changes one’s implicit valence. Participants completed the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT) to measure their implicit valence toward entrance examinations, before and after story retelling session. In the session, the participants in the biased retelling condition (n＝37) talked about their experiences preparing for university entrance examination as “happy” experiences, and the participants in the unbiased retelling condition (n＝36) talked about their actual experiences. After the session, implicit valence became positive in the biased retelling group, whereas it did not change in the unbiased retelling group. The result shows that implicit valence may be changed by biased retelling.

According to the 2021 amendment of the Juvenile Law in Japan, the ban on real-name reporting of “specified juveniles” (18- and 19-year-olds) was lifted in principle. In this context, the current study addressed the following research questions: 1) how real-name reporting of specified juveniles affects sentencing, and 2) if empathy mediates the relationship between real-name reporting and sentencing. These questions were investigated by ANOVA and mediation analysis using two crime types (forcible sexual intercourse and damage to property). Results from 944 respondents revealed the following: 1) when a vignette was read in a case regarding forcible sexual intercourse with the real name of a defendant (specified juvenile), a longer sentence was recommended than when a defendant’s real name was not reported, and 2) the indirect effect of real-name reporting on sentencing via empathy was not significant. We discuss practical implications and future research directions with special focus on the former.

Empathy is considered to be crucial not only for having a good interpersonal relationship in a daily life but also for comprehending our human society. Empathy in rodents is one of recent hot topics in the field of experimental psychology and neuroscience. This article provides a brief overview of the recent studies of emotional contagion and prosocial behavior in rodents, with a particular interest in its methodological aspect. Additionally, the article also introduces recent studies that investigate the neural mechanisms underlying these processes. Finally, I briefly discuss the significance of using rodents in research of an empathic process as well as more general mental processes.