This study examined whether readers’ inferences about the protagonists’ goals changed according to the descriptions of the time frames of the goals and whether the degree of importance of each goal affected these inference processes. When placed under the same-time frame condition, protagonists had two goals within the same time frame. Under the different-time frame condition, they had two goals in different-time frames. A conflict between the two goals existed only in the same-time frame condition. Participants read stories in which the protagonist refused one of two goals and answered questions about the other goal. Results indicated that readers answered questions faster under the same-time frame than under the different-time frame condition. We found that the degree of goal importance did not affect inference processes. Herein, we contend that goal and time dimensions interact and we discuss the concept of independence among dimensions, as previously assumed by the event-indexing model.

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How one spouse addresses the other spouse predicts their couple communication. The present study focuses on the spousal forms of address with acknowledgement and investigates the link between the forms of address and couple communication patterns. The pilot study sampled 161 university students in Japan and surveyed semantic differences of the spousal forms of address. The main study sampled 76 married women and 55 married men in Japan. They answered the communication patterns questionnaire and their daily forms of address. Results showed that arrogant meaning of husbands’ forms of address for their wives was a significant negative predictor of mutual constructive communication and a significant positive predictor of mutual avoidance. On the other hand, wives’ form of address for their husbands did not predict couple communication patterns. Husbands’ arrogant forms of address with wives’ acknowledgement might predict negative couple communication patterns.

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This study assessed the extent to which happy and sad facial expressions displayed by infants and adults elicit motoric approach and avoidance responses in viewers. Participants were asked to pull a joystick toward (approach response) or put it away from (avoidance response) their body in response to facial stimuli (sadness and happiness expressed by infants, female adults, and male adults) presented on a computer screen. They also rated the degree to which they themselves would want to help/become involved with the stimulus person. The results showed that both sadness and happiness elicited faster approach than avoidance responses, irrespective of participants’ gender and whether the stimulus depicted an infant, female adult, or male adult. We also found that the motivation to help and become involved in response to infants’ sad expressions was linked to delayed avoidance. The different functions of the emotional expressions of infants and adults are discussed.

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The present study explores the effectiveness of essay reading and a letter-writing task for enhancing empathy toward Japanese-Brazilians as out-group members—specifically Japanese-Brazilians living in Japan who have lost their jobs due to recession. The goal of the study was to obtain insights and implications that can be applied to intercultural education in universities and colleges. One hundred and sixty-eight Japanese university students participated in the study. The results reveal that university students who performed the letter-writing task showed greater empathy enhancement than those who performed a control task. It was further found that the empathy enhancement effect did not decrease very much after one week had passed. As a perspective-taking task for enhancing empathy toward Japanese-Brazilians as out-group members, the letter-writing task is expected to be effective if utilized in intercultural education.

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This paper aims to investigate the role of emic cultural values and facework in sense of humor for the first time in Asia. Specifically it explores the relationships between humor styles, individualism, collectivism, and facework in mainland China. Measures of these constructs were administered to 148 female and 124 male Chinese university students (mean age 20.92 years, SD = 1.73). Results showed that uses of humor were generally related to dimensions of cultural values and facework. Specifically, the two potentially beneficial humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing humor) were positively related to horizontal collectivism and saving other-face. The two presumably detrimental humor styles (aggressive and self-defeating humor) were positively related to saving self-face. Cultural values and facework together could explain an average of 11.25% of the total variances for the four humor styles. Correlations between cultural values and humor styles in the present study were compared with those of previous research.

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