Sociological Theory and Methods
Online ISSN : 1881-6495
Print ISSN : 0913-1442
ISSN-L : 0913-1442
Volume 28, Issue 2
Displaying 1-16 of 16 articles from this issue
Special Issue: An invitation to Experimental Social Sciences
  • Tatsuhiro SHICHIJO
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 163-164
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Tatsuhiro SHICHIJO, Mito AKIYOSHI, Hideki FUJIYAMA, Atsushi TANAKA, Em ...
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 165-186
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         The value of social network service is a function of the number of its users. As the number of users increases, it becomes more attractive. Newer SNSs are often faced with the challenge of getting this ball rolling because they typically do not have very many users at the outset. The present paper presents a point system designed to encourage users' active involvement with an SNS and demonstrates its effectiveness with mathematical modeling. We also tested our ideas with experiments in an SNS we developed. Our point system gives points to each user according to the level of their individual contribution, which is then converted into monetary rewards using an exchange rate set by the collective level of activity in the SNS. Our panel data analysis of experiment results reveals that the point system has significant and long lasting impacts on users' behavior that are sustained after the conclusion of experiments.
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  • Mobility Accelerates the Cycle, but does not Change Cooperation
    Jun KOBAYASHI
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 187-202
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         This paper sheds light on the role of mobility on cyclic processes in mobile social dilemmas. Olson argues that large groups will allow free-riders. Erhart and Keser's experiment revealed that people formed clockwise cycles of group size and cooperation when they can change groups. But they did not compare various levels of mobility. Thus, our research question is how mobility affects the cycle and the cooperative behaviors. We conducted a laboratory experiment (with 168 participants in 40 groups in 10 sessions). Three conditions (treatments) were introduced (immobile, high mobility costs, and low mobility costs conditions). We show the following findings. (i) Mobility did not change effects of size on cooperation (N=339 group-rounds). (ii) Still, mobility accelerated effects of cooperation on size (N=360 group-rounds). As people moved more easily, cooperative groups were more likely to expand. (iii) As a result, intergroup mobility accelerated the cycle (N=40 groups). Groups rotated faster when people moved more easily. (iv) However, mobility did not raise nor decline cooperation levels (N=40 groups). Therefore, to foster cooperation, first increase mobility to free cooperators. Then, restrict mobility to exclude free-riders.
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  • Experimental Evidence from Impunity Games
    Akihiro SUZUKI, Takehiro ITO, Peilu YANG, Kazuhito OGAWA, Hiromasa TAK ...
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 203-220
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         Comparing the results obtained in an experiment on the fixed matching impunity game with multiple rounds and those obtained in an experiment on the random matching impunity game with multiple rounds, we examine whether reciprocity under the condition of non-monetary punishment exists when proposers distribute money. The experimental results indicate that, in the fixed matching treatment, proposer participants offered more money to receiver participants when the receiver participants had accepted the offer in the last round than when the last offer was rejected, but in the random matching treatment, proposer participants did not. This result suggests that proposers can be affected by non-monetary punishment and act on a reciprocal basis.
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Symposium: Social Stratification and the Great East Japan Earthquake
  • Jun NAITO
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 221-222
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • A Survey of Futaba District
    Setsuko HASHIMOTO
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 223-246
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         This paper reports on evacuees a half-year after the nuclear plant accident in Fukushima in 2011. The survey focused on the evacuees' employment status, mental health, and desire to return home. Their divergence stems largely from gender and generation. In particular, elder men had the strongest desire to return home and to seek regional recovery. The divergent response stems in part from the differential risk to radioactive contamination but also from the different social cost of evacuation due to social status. Given the politically fraught nature of the meaning of “recovery,” we need to debate carefully the nature of support for disaster victims.
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  • Norihiro NIHEI
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 247-268
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         Is a model of vulnerability to disaster, which is that vulnerable people tend to be affected more severely by a disaster, suitable for the great East Japan earthquake? To answer this question properly, we firstly have to distinguish the tsunami disaster and the disaster caused by an accident of nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Regarding the tsunami disaster, we explore a question whether areas where more elder people and fishery workers inhabit tend to have been damaged more severely, by analyzing data of local districts in affected areas. Next, we focus on a case of Rikuzen-takata in Iwate prefecture which seems to be an exceptional case of the model, and analyze how people have tried to avoid risks of the attack of tsunami and isolation in temporary housing and what its conditions are. Additionally, the paper turns to a discussion of risk of radiation exposure. The most important point of the issue is the fact that the young and the aged face different risks of diseases caused by radiation exposure and a refuse itself. However, if people take a viewpoint that any possibility of low level of radiation exposure should be avoided, they would fail to recognize the difference of risks to various vulnerable people properly and also mislead discussion about how to avoid risks and how to "redistribute" them. With the findings mentioned above, the paper insists that risks and damages to various types of vulnerable people are highly differentiated according to areas, phases and issues.
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  • Focus on an Aspect of the Economic Life and the Peace of Mind
    Tetsu MUGIKURA
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 269-288
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         Of the tsunami-affected areas damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Otsuchi-cho sustained the most serious damage. The author examined the damage to recovery situation in Otsuchi from vulnerability and demographic attribute perspectives. For the examination, the author conducted an analysis based on various related materials, as well as on the results of a survey he conducted at temporary housing units. At the tsunami-affected areas, there were three dimensions of vulnerability and demographic attributes, as follows. First, the tsunami-effected areas, being situated in Tohoku, were vulnerable in terms of regional community's economic indicators, depopulation, aging society, and leaders in the local public sphere. Second, if one looks at the figures for the dead and missing, there is a high proportion of senior citizens. A specific class of people were vulnerable in terms of evacuation. Third, it became clear there was social stratification between the survivors. For the third point, the author did a more specific analysis using the results of his survey of temporary housing units. There are many factors involved, so the author did an analysis on two axes: economic life (material possessions and livelihood) and peace of mind (mental calmness).In the result of the analysis, it was found that hard live situations pre-disaster had an effect on post-disaster life. Due to the blow the disaster dealt, only 20% of respondents reported they were not experiencing lifestyle difficulty. In terms of peace of mind, only 1/3 reported they felt mentally calm. After combining the two axes, over half of respondents were having problems in terms of both lifestyle and peace of mind. Conversely, about 10% reporting having no problems with either lifestyle or peace of mind.
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  • Divisions of Social Awareness and Their Unintentional Results
    Kaorui ENDO
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 289-308
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         The Japanese society and the global world were badly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Then two and a half years already passed. Where is the Japanese society going to leave for now? In this paper, based on the result of the national survey of "the general social survey for the revival from the East Japan great earthquake" that I carried out in November, 2012 and the survey of the three prefectures of suffering, I analyzed the aspect of the divisions of the social awareness after the earthquake by areas, generations and social classes. And the result of analysis reveals that the divisions of the social awareness reproduce by themselves unintentionally.
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Invited Paper
Articles
  • Norio KÕNO
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 319-336
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         After critically reviewing two types of the traditional game theories, one originated with von Neumann and the other originated with Nash, a new game theory based on the maximin principle is proposed. A typical example having the rational choice based on the maximin principle, which is different from the rationality assumed in Nash's game theory, is so-called chicken game. In this game, a rational choice for each of the players is "cooperation." The rational choice leads to a better choice than the mixed Nash equilibirum, which is equivalent to the ESS (evolutionarily stable strategy). This logical consequence seems to rationalize the nuclear deterrence, which is one of the significant issues in sociology.
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  • Considering Relative Risk Aversion in Inequality of Educational Attainment
    Kazuhiro KEZUKA
    2013 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 337-354
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2014
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
         Relative risk aversion (RRA) hypothesis (Breen and Goldthorpe 1997) has been tested in various countries. However, a number of studies have rejected the hypothesis in Japan. In this paper, we propose a “simple entering model” as an alternative model of the RRA, and we test both models from macro and micro perspectives. In the simple entering model, it is assumed that individuals make their decisions about educational attainment based on the quota of students and their grades. We assume two types of the RRA model: Breen and Goldthorpe's model (the RRA model) and a “dual RRA model”, in which individuals intend to minimize the risk of downward mobility also in academic status. In the macro perspective, we derive the college enrollment rate from respective model and test them using data JGSS-2000 and 2001. In the micro perspective, we derive propositions about individuals' decision-making. Subsequently, we test them with the data using logistic regression model. In order to identify the models, we apply the probit transformation for some variable. Our results show that models including RRA hypothesis do not fit empirical data, and the simple entering model has the most explanatory power; the RRA model is rejected at the macro perspective.
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