Differences in and associations between belief in just deserts and human rights restrictions over a 3-year period in five countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discrimination, which arose during the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak, is a global public health issue. This study aimed to provide fundamental knowledge in proposing control measures to mitigate discrimination. We focused on two psychological variables: belief in just deserts (BJD, i.e., the belief that the infected individual deserves to be infected), a psychological factor that potentially promotes discrimination and prejudice, and human rights restrictions (HRR; i.e., the degree of individuals' agreement with government restrictions on citizens' behavior during emergencies). Differences in these items, as well as their annual trends from 2020 to 2022, were examined in Japan, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Italy, and China. In addition, the associations between BJD and HRR by country and year and the direction of the associations between them in Japan and Italy were analyzed. Online surveys were conducted annually, with 392-518 participants per country and year. The BJD was higher in Japan and lower in the UK. BJD increased significantly from 2020 to 2021 in all countries, except in China. Meanwhile, HRR was higher in China and lower in Japan. The HRR decreased from 2020 to 2021 in Japan and decreased from 2020 to 2022 in the US, the UK, and Italy. There were significant positive associations between BJD and HRR in Japan and Italy. Cross-lagged panel models revealed positive bidirectional associations between BJD and HRR in Japan and Italy, respectively, indicating that the HRR declined among those with weak BJD and that the BJD increased among those with high HRR. In Japan and Italy, the dissemination of public messages targeting those with a high HRR in the early stages of an infectious disease outbreak could potentially mitigate the adverse impact of the BJD, eventually reducing discrimination, especially when the infection is not attributed to the fault of the infected individuals.

Is reading fiction associated with a higher mind-reading ability? Two conceptual replication studies in Japan.

Previous studies have revealed that reading fiction is associated with dispositional empathy and theory-of-mind abilities. Earlier studies established a correlation between fiction reading habits and the two measures of social cognition: trait fantasy (i.e., the tendency to transpose oneself into fictitious characters) and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; a test of the ability to identify others' mental states based on their eyes). Recently, experimental studies have shown that brief exposure to fiction enhances RMET performance. Nevertheless, these studies have been conducted only in Western countries, and few published studies have investigated these relationships in Asian countries. This research aims to address this gap. Study 1, which involved 338 Japanese undergraduates, conceptually replicated the previously reported correlations between fiction reading and fantasy and RMET scores (after statistically controlling for the effect of outliers). However, Study 2, which involved 304 Japanese undergraduates, failed to replicate the causal relationship. Participants read an excerpt either from literary fiction or from nonfiction, or engaged in a calculation task, before completing the RMET. Brief exposure to literary fiction did not increase the RMET score. In sum, this study replicated the associations of fiction reading with fantasy and RMET scores in Japan, but failed to replicate the causal relationship.

Belief in just deserts regarding individuals infected with COVID-19 in Japan and its associations with demographic factors and infection-related and socio-psychological characteristics: a cross-sectional study.

Prejudice related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a social issue worldwide. A possible psychological factor that promotes prejudice is the belief in just deserts (BJD) regarding individuals infected with COVID-19 (i.e., the belief that the infected individual deserves to be infected). The BJD is based on the belief in immanent justice. It is reportedly higher in Japan than in other countries. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the BJD among Japanese individuals and clarify its associations with demographic factors or infection-related and socio-psychological characteristics. To this end, we conducted an online questionnaire survey in Japan from August 7-8, 2020, with 1,207 respondents aged 20-69 years. We performed screening to exclude inappropriate responses. We investigated the association between the BJD and demographic factors such as gender and age. We also investigated the association between the BJD and infection-related and socio-psychological characteristics, including risk perception of COVID-19 infection and human rights restrictions (i.e., the degree of agreement with government restrictions on individuals' behavior during emergencies). Among the surveyed items, human rights restrictions showed a strong association with BJD, followed by risk perception of COVID-19 infection. Men had a slightly higher BJD than women. Our study is significant in that it is the first to investigate the items associated with the BJD, thereby providing foundational information for revising individual perceptions of justice related to COVID-19 and solving prejudice-related issues.

Genetic Risk Factors Associated With Antiemetic Efficacy of Palonosetron, Aprepitant, and Dexamethasone in Japanese Breast Cancer Patients Treated With Anthracycline-based Chemotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer patients often receive anthracycline-based chemotherapy, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) remains one of the most uncomfortable and distressing adverse reactions. Poor control of CINV reduces the relative dose intensity of chemotherapy agents, which has been associated with poor clinical outcomes and shorter survival. The aim of the present study was to identify genetic risk factors associated with anthracycline-based CINV. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We evaluated CINV attributable to anthracycline-based chemotherapy in Japanese breast cancer patients treated with an antiemetic regimen that included palonosetron, aprepitant, and dexamethasone. Furthermore, we investigated the associations between CINV and single nucleotide polymorphisms in 6 candidate genes. RESULTS: Emesis episodes were rarely observed in the 125 patients included in the present survey (7.2%; n = 9); however, significant nausea occurred in more than one half of the patients (52.8%; n = 66). In particular, acute significant nausea was not effectively controlled. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the ABCG2 (rs2231142) AA genotype is significantly associated with acute significant nausea (odds ratio, 4.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-23.60; P = .049). CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study provide significant insights for developing personalized antiemetic strategies for breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

[Job burnout: focusing on occupational differences of enthusiasm for job].

This study investigates characteristics of burnout, as related to job descriptions in mental hospitals and presuppositions of the concept of burnout (burnout is caused as a result of having enthusiasm for a job). The results of a questionnaire survey (burnout tendency, Japanese Burnout Scale, enthusiasm for a job in the past, modified Enthusiasm scale) with 781 workers at mental hospitals showed that burnout characteristics varied according to job descriptions. Specifically, psychiatric social workers, medical assistants, and nurses fell into the high-burnout category, whereas doctors, occupational therapists, and pharmacists fell into the low-burnout category. In addition, in order to compare enthusiasm for a job in the past with current burnout tendencies, factor scores for the respective scales were classified into a low group or a high group and were cross tabulated. The numbers in the cells of the groups indicating the opposite of the definition of burnout (low enthusiasm-high burnout tendency, high enthusiasm-low burnout tendency) were larger. This indicates that having enthusiasm for a job is not a direct factor for burnout, which is different from the presupposition about burnout.

[An autopsy of a case of pulmonary hypertension secondary to pulmonary embolization of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma].

A 70-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for one month because of progressive dyspnea. Her medical history included an operation for hepatolithiasis at age 47. She was a current smoker. Chest CT revealed emphysematous change and honeycombing in the lung and bilateral subpleural opacifications. Cardiac ultrasound examination showed pulmonary hypertension. Treatments with antibiotics, corticosteroids and heparin were unsuccessful. Despite mechanical ventilation, she died of respiratory failure. Autopsy revealed that intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma had spread via the hematogeneous route, formed multiple emboli into the pulmonary small arteries, and led to severe pulmonary hypertension and lung infarction.

[A case of interstitial pneumonia complicating RS3PE syndrome in which soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) proved useful for assessing symptoms].

The patient was a 70-year-old man who had been given a diagnosis of remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) syndrome and had been placed on low-dose steroid therapy in the Department of Orthopedics. During treatment, sudden fever, hypoxemia and chest radiography-confirmed interstitial shadows throughout the lung fields were noted, and the patient was referred to the Department of Internal Medicine. RS3PE complicated by interstitial pneumonia was diagnosed, and steroid pulse therapy and immunosuppressant therapy were initiated. In the present case, soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) proved useful for assessing symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, RS3PE syndrome complicated by pulmonary lesions and accompanied by severe acute respiratory failure requiring noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation has not previously been reported, and this rare case is discussed with reference to the literature.

[Social learning as an uncertainty-reduction strategy: an adaptationist approach].

Social learning is an effective mechanism to reduce uncertainty about environmental knowledge, helping individuals adopt an adaptive behavior in the environment at small cost. Although this is evident for learning about temporally stable targets (e.g., acquiring avoidance of toxic foods culturally), the functional value of social learning in a temporally unstable environment is less clear; knowledge acquired by social learning may be outdated. This paper addressed adaptive values of social learning in a non-stationary environment empirically. When individual learning about the non-stationary environment is costly, a hawk-dove-game-like equilibrium is expected to emerge in the population, where members who engage in costly individual learning and members who skip the information search and free-ride on other members' search efforts coexist at a stable ratio. Such a "producer-scrounger" structure should qualify effectiveness of social/cultural learning severely, especially "conformity bias" when using social information (Boyd & Richerson, 1985). We tested these predictions by an experiment implementing a non-stationary uncertain environment in a laboratory. The results supported our thesis. Implications of these findings and some future directions were discussed.