Exploratory study to characterise the individual types of health literacy and beliefs and their associations with infection prevention behaviours amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: a longitudinal study.

Background: During a global infectious disease pandemic such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), individuals' infection prevention/risk-taking behaviours are likely to differ depending on their health literacy and beliefs regarding the disease. To effectively promote infection prevention behaviours, it is necessary to enable information dissemination and risk communication that consider individuals' health literacy and beliefs. In this study, we exploratorily characterised segments based on individual health literacy and beliefs regarding COVID-19 among the Japanese during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigated whether infection prevention/risk-taking behaviours and fear of COVID-19 differed among these segments. Methods: In this study, we conducted two web-based longitudinal surveys in Japan (PHASE 1, 1-30 November 2020, 6,000 participants; PHASE 2, 1-31 December 2020, 3,800 participants). We characterised segments of the target population using cluster analysis on health literacy and beliefs regarding COVID-19 obtained in PHASE 1. We further investigated the associations between the clusters and infection prevention/risk-taking behaviours and fear of COVID-19, obtained from PHASE 2. Results: Five clusters were identified: 'Calm/hoax denial', 'Hoax affinity/threat denial', 'Minority/indifference', 'Over vigilance', and 'Optimism'. There were significant differences in infection prevention/risk-taking behaviours and fear of COVID-19 among the five clusters. The belief in susceptibility to infection, rather than affinity for hoaxes and conspiracy theories, was coherently associated with infection prevention/risk-taking behaviours and fear of infection across clusters. This study provides foundational knowledge for creating segment-specific public messages and developing interactive risk communication to encourage infection prevention behaviours.

A systematic review of conference papers presented at two large Japanese psychology conferences in 2013 and 2018: did Japanese social psychologists selectively report p < 0.05 results without peer review?

We conducted a systematic review of conference papers in social psychology at two large psychology conferences in Japan: the Japanese Psychological Association and the Japanese Society for Social Psychology. The conference papers were effectively not subjected to peer review; hence, they were suitable for testing if psychologists selectively reported statistically significant findings without pressure from journal editors and reviewers. We investigated the distributions of z-values converted from the p-values reported in the articles presented at the 2013 and 2018 conferences. The z-curve analyses suggest the existence of selective reporting by the authors in 2013. The expected discovery rate (EDR) was much lower than the observed discovery rate (ODR; 7% vs. 76%, respectively), and the 95% confidence interval (CI) did not include the ODR. However, this does not mean that the set of studies completely lacked evidential value. The expected replication rate (ERR) was 31%; this is significantly higher than 5%, which was expected under the null hypothesis of no effect. Changes were observed between 2013 and 2018. The ERR increased (31% to 44%), and the EDR almost doubled (7% to 13%). However, the estimation of the maximum false discovery rate (FDR; 68% in 2013 and 35% in 2018) suggested that a substantial proportion of the reported findings were false positives. Overall, while social psychologists in Japan engaged in selective reporting, this does not mean that the entire field was covered with false positives. In addition, slight signs of improvement were observed in how they reported their findings. Still, the evidential value of the target studies was weak, even in 2018, allowing for no optimism.

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.

The impact of television on-air time on hand hygiene compliance behaviors during COVID-19 outbreak.

BACKGROUND: There is limited data to support the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hand hygiene compliance among hospital visitors. METHODS: We monitored hand hygiene compliance among university hospital visitors in Osaka, Japan by direct observation, from December 2019 to March 2022. During this time, we measured the amount of coverage time dedicated to COVID-19 related news on the local public television channel and the number of confirmed cases and deaths. RESULTS: Over 148 days, 111,071 visitors hand hygiene compliance was monitored. The baseline compliance was 5.3% (213 of 4,026) in December 2019. From late January 2020, compliance rose significantly to almost 70% in August 2020. It remained at a level of 70%-75% until October 2021, after which, the compliance slowly declined to the mid-60% range. The number of newly confirmed cases and deaths were not related to the change in compliance, but the association between the on-air time of COVID-19-related news and compliance was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Hand hygiene compliance dramatically increased following the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of television in increasing hand hygiene compliance was significant.

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.

Effects of Pathogen-Avoidance Tendency on Infection-Prevention Behaviors and Exclusionary Attitudes toward Foreigners: A Longitudinal Study of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Japan.

This study investigated the changes in public behaviors and attitudes following the spread of COVID-19 in Japan. Using a longitudinal approach that analyzes the movement of an unpredictable and real infection threat to explain and predict human behavior during the pandemic-a novel approach in behavioral immune system research-a panel survey was conducted on Japanese citizens. The results of the survey, conducted in late January, mid-February, and early March 2020, indicated that the influence of the interaction between the changes in situational infection threat and individual differences in pathogen-avoidance tendency on infection-prevention behaviors and exclusionary attitudes toward foreigners was not significant. Moreover, frequent contact with foreigners had a mitigating effect on exclusionary attitudes. The study thus provided a valuable contribution to the application of behavioral immune-system responses to problems associated with infection threats. Moreover, consideration of the aspects of adaptive reaction and social learning allowed us to observe the process of adaptive strategies in novel environments under conditions of high ecological validity and to accurately understand the psychological response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Recognizing Your Hand and That of Your Romantic Partner.

Although the hand is an important organ in interpersonal interactions, focusing on this body part explicitly is less common in daily life compared with the face. We investigated (i) whether a person's recognition of their own hand is different from their recognition of another person's hand (i.e., self hand vs. other's hand) and (ii) whether a close social relationship affects hand recognition (i.e., a partner's hand vs. an unknown person's hand). For this aim, we ran an experiment in which participants took part in one of two discrimination tasks: (i) a self-others discrimination task or (ii) a partner/unknown opposite-sex person discrimination task. In these tasks, participants were presented with a hand image and asked to select one of two responses, self (partner) or other (unknown persons), as quickly and accurately as possible. We manipulated hand ownership (self (partner)/other(unknown person)), hand image laterality (right/left), and visual perspective of hand image (upright/upside-down). A main effect of hand ownership in both tasks (i.e., self vs. other and partner vs. unknown person) was found, indicating longer reaction times for self and partner images. The results suggest that close social relationships modulate hand recognition-namely, "self-expansion" to a romantic partner could occur at explicit visual hand recognition.

Survey Satisficing Inflates Stereotypical Responses in Online Experiment: The Case of Immigration Study.

Though survey satisficing, grudging cognitive efforts required to provide optimal answers in the survey response process, poses a serious threat to the validity of online experiments, a detailed explanation of the mechanism has yet to be established. Focusing on attitudes toward immigrants, we examined the mechanism by which survey satisficing distorts treatment effect estimates in online experiments. We hypothesized that satisficers would display more stereotypical responses than non-satisficers would when presented with stereotype-disconfirming information about an immigrant. Results of two experiments largely supported our hypotheses. Satisficers, whom we identified through an instructional manipulation check (IMC), processed information about immigrants' personality traits congruently with the stereotype activated by information provided about nationality. The significantly shorter vignette reading time of satisficers corroborates their time-efficient impression formation based on stereotyping. However, the shallow information processing of satisficers can be rectified by alerting them to their inattentiveness through use of a repeated IMC.

[Expression of negative emotional responses to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake: Analysis of big data from social media].

In this article, we investigated the expression of emotional responses to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake by analyzing the frequency of negative emotional terms in tweets posted on Twitter, one of the most popular social media platforms. We focused on differences in time-series variations and diurnal changes between two kinds of disasters: natural disasters (earthquakes and tsunamis) and nuclear accidents. The number of tweets containing negative emotional responses increased sharply shortly after the first huge earthquake and decreased over time, whereas tweets about nuclear accidents showed no correlation with elapsed time. Expressions of anxiety about natural disasters had a circadian rhythm, with a peak at midnight, whereas expressions of anger about the nuclear accident were highly sensitive to critical events related to the accident. These findings were discussed in terms of similarities and differences compared to earlier studies on emotional responses in social media.

[Derogating victims and dehumanizing perpetrators: functions of two types of beliefs in a just world].

This study defined Belief in Just World (BJW) multidimensionally and investigated the effects of Belief in Immanent Justice (BIJ) and Belief in Ultimate Justice (BUJ) on victim derogation and draconian punishment of perpetrators. Study 1 tested the validity of the multidimensional structure of BJW and demonstrated relationships between BJW and other psychological variables. In Study 2, we measured the reactions to the victim and perpetrator in an injury case reported in a news.article, and evaluated the relationships of these reactions to BIJ and BUJ. The results revealed that BIJ was associated with a preference in draconian punishment of the perpetrator, while BUJ was associated with dissociation from the victim (a type of victim derogation). In addition, as hypothesized, we found that dehumanization of the perpetrator partially mediated the relationship between BIJ and victim derogation. We discussed relationships between the two types of BJW and just-world maintenance strategies in the situation where a victim and a perpetrator are both recognized.

Generativity and Interaction Between the Old and Young: The Role of Perceived Respect and Perceived Rejection.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: We examined the relationships among development of generativity, generative acts, and psychological well-being in old age and the possible mediating effects of perceived rejection and respect from younger generations. We hypothesized that generative action would not lead to well-being unless responding elders perceived respect from younger generations, and, further, that perceived respect would predict the development of generativity. DESIGN AND METHODS: In Study 1, we sampled 252 older persons to verify our hypothetical model in a cross-sectional survey. We assessed generative concern, generative action, perceived rejection from younger people, and psychological well-being. In Study 2, the same measures and a new scale to measure perceived respect from younger people were administered in a longitudinal survey. Four hundred older adults responded at 2 time points, 12 months apart. RESULTS: Path analysis showed that the effect of generative action on ill-being was mediated by perceived rejection and respect from younger generations. Perceived respect from younger generations at baseline predicted an increase in generative concern 12 months later. IMPLICATIONS: The results suggest that positive intergenerational interaction leads to generativity development and better well-being in old age.

Oncology nurses' recognition of long-term cancer survivorship care in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the knowledge of definition of cancer survivors among Japanese oncology nurses and their roles in long-term cancer survivorship care. METHODS: A structured self-administered and self-report questionnaire created by the study investigators was given to members of the Japanese Society of Cancer Nursing. The subjects were 81 female oncology nurses. RESULTS: Forty-nine nurses had 11 or more years of nursing experience, while 27 nurses had cancer-related nursing certifications such as, certification in oncology nursing specialist. This study population had rather rich experience in oncology nursing. Sixty-two nurses defined a cancer survivor from the time of diagnosis, while the nurses' recognition of long-term survivorship care was poor, compared with nursing care at the time of diagnosis, during treatment, and end of life. CONCLUSIONS: The nurses were aware of the needs to recognize and address issues faced by long-term cancer survivors and for nursing study, but very few put the effective patient education and interventions into practice. It is because oncology nurses have few chances to see cancer survivors who go out of the hands of healthcare professionals. In increasing the number of long-term survivors, long-term survivorship care is needed in addition to incorporating such education into undergraduate and graduate programs. Further study on the knowledge of long-term cancer survivorship care and nursing practices are required.

[Experimental investigation of intergenerational interaction and older adults' generativity].

This study examined the effects of the reactions of younger adukts toward older adults on the psychological attributese and behavior of elderly. Participants were 34 older male adults aged 60-82 years. They completed a questionnaire on generativity before and after the experimental condition, and were also observed taking flyers on different topics after the experiment. They were assigned to the younger condition or the same generation condition. In both conditions, the participants were asked to talk to recipients about experiences from their youth and the wisdom they have gained. The recipients responded to the participants in either a positive or a neutral way. The results showed that generativity was promoted most when the younger recipients responded in a positive manner, whereas the neutral reactions of younger recipients led to the inhibition of generativity. Younger persons' positive reactions promoted the participants' helping behaviors, as indicated by the flyers they took. The present study shows increases in the generativity of the elderly following positive reactions from younger recipients not only on questionnaires but also in an experimental setting.

Effect of decision confidence on the evaluation of conflicting decisions in a social context.

Conflicts with others about decisions are reflected in the medial frontal negativity (MFN), which is a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). The present study examined how decision confidence in a perceptual decision task modulated the ERP components elicited by decision conflicts with others. In a motion discrimination task, participants were randomly assigned to an easy or a difficult group that differed in coherence levels of the moving dots. Participants were paired with a confederate and presented the confederate's decision about the motion direction of the moving dots, which was either congruent or incongruent with the participants' decision. MFN was elicited by the incongruent confederate's decision and its amplitude did not differ between groups. A larger P300 amplitude was elicited by incongruent decisions in the easy group, whereas the P300 amplitude did not differ between congruent and incongruent decisions in the difficult group. These results indicate the functional dissociation between MFN and P300 in the evaluation of social feedback. It is suggested that MFN might reflect automatic detection of conflicts about decisions, whereas the P300 might detect the deviation from internal expectations regarding other's decisions.

[Relationship among weblog authors' target audience, contents, and types of interpersonal communication].

Weblogs are one of the most popular personal websites in Japan, where entries are made in journal style and displayed in reverse chronological order. This study examined the relationship between weblog authors' target audience (i.e., orientation) and the actual situations depicted in their weblogs by combining a questionnaire survey of the authors with an analysis of their weblog content data. Based on a questionnaire survey of 736 Japanese weblog authors, their target audience was divided into four clusters: (a) general public, (b) self, (c) self and offline friends, and (d) various others. To assess the actual situations depicted in their weblogs, the amount of happy and unhappy emotional expression in their writing and the frequency of interpersonal communication (comments, bookmarks, and trackbacks) were calculated from their log data. The results suggested that weblog authors wrote different types of content and used different types of communication depending on their audience, whereas the weblog content itself still showed the diary-like characteristic of personal daily-life records.

Patterns of searching for information on the World Wide Web: a pilot study.

The influences of task type on search of the World Wide Web using search engines without limitation of search domain were investigated. 9 graduate and undergraduate students studying psychology (1 woman and 8 men, M age=25.0 yr., SD=2.1) participated. Their performance to manipulate the search engines on a closed task with only one answer were compared with their performance on an open task with several possible answers. Analysis showed that the number of actions was larger for the closed task (M=91) than for the open task (M=46.1). Behaviors such as selection of keywords (averages were 7.9% of all actions for the closed task and 16.7% for the open task) and pressing of the browser's back button (averages were 40.3% of all actions for the closed task and 29.6% for the open task) were also different. On the other hand, behaviors such as selection of hyperlinks, pressing of the home button, and number of browsed pages were similar for both tasks. Search behaviors were influenced by task type when the students searched for information without limitation placed on the information sources.