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Interpersonal difficulties are often observed in major depressive disorder (MDD), while the underlying psychological and biological mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. In the present case–control study, a PC-based trust game was conducted for 38 drug-free MDD patients and 38 healthy controls (HC). In the trust game, participants invested money in a partner (trusting behaviors), and also rated each partner’s attractiveness (preference for others). In addition, blood biomarkers including metabolites were measured. Both MDD and HC males exhibited more trusting behaviors compared to females. MDD males’ preference for ordinary-attractive partners (lay-person photographs) was lower than HC males, whereas their preference for high-attractive females (fashion-model photographs) was similar levels to HC males. This tendency in MDD males could reflect a “focused (narrowed) preference for females”. As for blood biomarker analysis, the levels of 37 metabolites including acetylcholine, AMP, GMP, nicotinic acid and tryptophan were significantly different between two groups. Interestingly, among male participants, acetylcholine and nicotinic acid were negatively correlated with the level of focused preference for photographed females. In sum, we have revealed some behavioral, psychological and biological traits of trusting behaviors and preference for others especially in MDD males. Larger studies should be conducted to validate our preliminary findings.

The effective utilisation of organisational knowledge may promote organisational success as knowledge is one of an organisation’s most important assets. However, existing literature tends to focus ...

Lower serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) have been suggested to indicate higher suicide risk and various psychiatric symptoms. Previously, we reported that lower serum LDL-C levels are associated with loneliness, social phobia, isolated life with little social support, and lower trust in others among young non-clinical females. Thus, we hypothesize that schizoid personality traits may be associated with lower serum LDL-C. We here verified this hypothesis using non-clinical data and clinical data with schizophrenia. Using the database from the Midlife in Japan (MIDJA), a cohort of residents living in Tokyo, we analyzed whether schizoid-related interpersonal characteristics were associated with LDL-C. In addition, we assessed the association between blood biomarkers including LDL-C and schizoid personality traits in 101 adult non-clinical volunteers. Finally, we evaluated the interaction between LDL-C and social decision making of patients with schizophrenia. In female non-clinical volunteers, serum LDL-C level was a predictive factor and negatively correlated with schizoid personality traits. Female patients with schizophrenia, whose serum LDL-C levels were lower, tended not to trust other females. The present findings suggest that LDL-C may influence schizoid personality traits in females, which provide a basis for further investigation into the biological aspects of schizoid personality disorder.

Aim Understanding premorbid personality is important, especially when considering treatment selection. Historically, the premorbid personality of patients with major depression in Japan was described as Shuchaku-kishitsu [similar to Typus melancholicus], as proposed by Shimoda in the 1930s. Since around 2000, there have been increased reports in Japan of young adults with depression who have had premorbid personality differing from the traditional type. In 2005, Tarumi termed this novel condition 'dysthymic-type depression,' and more recently the condition has been called Shin-gata/Gendai-gata Utsu-byo [modern-type depression (MTD)]. We recently developed a semi-structured diagnostic interview to evaluate MTD. Development of a tool that enables understanding of premorbid personality in a short time, especially at the early stage of treatment, is desirable. The object of this study was to develop a self-report scale to evaluate the traits of MTD, and to assess the scale's psychometric properties, diagnostic accuracy, and biological validity. Methods A sample of 340 participants from clinical and community settings completed measures. Psychometric properties were assessed with factor analysis. Diagnostic accuracy of the MTD traits was compared against a semi-structured interview. Results The questionnaire contained 22 items across three subscales, thus we termed it the 22-item Tarumi's Modern-Type Depression Trait Scale: Avoidance of Social Roles, Complaint, and Low Self-Esteem (TACS-22). Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity were all satisfactory. Among patients with major depression, the area under the curve was 0.757 (sensitivity of 63.1% and specificity of 82.9%) and the score was positively correlated with plasma tryptophan. Conclusion The TACS-22 possessed adequate psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy in an initial sample of Japanese adults. Additional research on its ability to support clinical assessment of MTD is warranted.

This chapter describes the appropriate methodology and method for the research in this book and provides the justification for such a choice. The first section begins with an overview of established research methods in the studies of trust, cooperation, reward, locus of control, and psychological contract in the disciplines of psychology, organizational behavior, and human resources management. Existing literature is reviewed to determine various commonly used qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods. The next section rationalizes the research design to answer the research questions and elaborates the procedure of the research.

This technical chapter provides empirical evidence for the first laboratory scenario-based experiment (Study 1) that addresses how individual differences in personality interact with excessive extrinsic rewards, leading to employee cooperation. As such, this chapter sets out to (i) dispel the conflict on the efficacy of excessive extrinsic rewards, (ii) decompose individual differences among employees in their interaction with excessive extrinsic rewards, and (iii) examine the theoretical basis of cooperation. Furthermore, we examine the moderating effects of locus of control and general trust that underscore employee expectations in the relationship between excessive extrinsic reward and cooperation.

A context-specific trust such as organizational trust could underlie employee intention to cooperate more, regardless of individual differences in personality. This chapter sets out to investigate how employers could develop trust to augment employee cooperation via the provision of excessive extrinsic rewards. A two-stage laboratory scenario-based experiment (Study 2) is performed to explore whether employees who receive excessive extrinsic rewards will trust their organization more and as a result will be more willing to cooperate.

We live and work in exciting times. The future workplace is bound to change rapidly with the fundamental transformation in the philosophy of work, i.e., the way work is viewed. The traditional view of life-long employment, central authority, and a fixed work schedule has been replaced by short-term contracts, decentralized management, and a flexible working schedule. Employees’ work views also change with the increasing diversity of the workforce, owing to higher mobility and globalization. This chapter explores three factors—cross-cultural differences, organizational diversity and inclusion, and individual self-reinforcing dynamics—that influence work views to improve cooperation and trust within the organization.

Excessive rewards are viewed as a means of eliciting the maximum potential trust and cooperation from employees by stimulating their motivation. By taking the management perspective, this chapter addresses the scant but conflicting behavioral studies of psychologists and economists and the existing presumptions in psychological contract theory about the provision of excessive extrinsic rewards to employees. To help readers contextualize the key concepts used throughout the chapter, we define the following terms: Trust in the context of business and organization, is defined as trusting behavior (Korsgaard et al., 2015) with the expectation of cooperation. Employee cooperation is defined as a cooperative behavior in terms of work outcomes or affective decisions, with employees being motivated and obligated to perform (Shore & Barksdale, 1998), committed to the organization (Gambetta, 1988) and willing to reciprocate (Falk & Fischbacher, 2006). Finally, excessive extrinsic rewards are defined as monetary rewards provided by the employer and perceived by the employee to exceed their own expectations or to exceed the employer’s initial promise.

This chapter explores how the decomposition of individual differences in personality provides theoretical and practical implications for employers. The key issues and findings of the causal relationship between excessive extrinsic rewards and cooperation are further examined.

This chapter reviews the psychological contract literature, covering three main aspects. The first section introduces the psychological contract theory. The theory introduction is followed by a discussion on the effects of reward on cooperation, trust, and the psychological contract. The chapter follows a contemporary view of psychological contract research, first by narrating the growth of interest in the psychological contract, followed by an understanding of its concept and theory. The violation and fulfillment of the psychological contract are observed in the context of job outcomes such as performance, motivation, commitment, and satisfaction, from employee perspectives. Finally, the chapter discusses the salience of promise to rewards in the psychological contract. The effects are evaluated in relation to the moderating effects of locus of control as a personality trait.

The main goal of the present research is to examine socio-ecological hypothesis on apology and compensation. Specifically, we conducted four studies to test the idea that an apology is an effective means to induce reconciliation in a residentially stable community, whereas compensation is an effective means in a residentially mobile community. In Studies 1, 2a, and 2b, American and Japanese participants (national difference in mobility; Study 1) or non-movers and movers (within-nation difference in mobility; Studies 2a and 2b) imagined the situations in which they were hurt by their friends and rated to what extent they would be willing to maintain their friendships upon receipt of apology or compensation. The results showed that compensation was more effective in appeasing residentially mobile people (i.e., Americans and movers) than stable people (i.e., Japanese and non-movers), while apology was slightly more effective appeasing residentially stable people than residentially mobile people (significant in Study 1; not significant in Studies 2a and 2b). In Study 3, by conducting an economics game experiment, we directly tested the hypothesis that mobility would impair the effectiveness of apology and enhance the effectiveness of compensation. The results again partially supported our hypothesis: In the high mobility condition, compensation increased one’s willingness to continue the relationship with the offender, when compared to willingness in the low mobility condition. The importance of socio-ecological perspective on the forgiveness literature is discussed.

日本の株式市場では株主優待（自社製品の提供や割引、株主特典など、モノやサービスによる株主還元）を行う企業が多いものの、欧米では同様の非現金による株主還元はあまり一般的ではない。本研究での仮想投資実験においては、日米ともに株主優待が投資判断の際重要な役割を果たすことが明らかになった。但し、株主優待への選好度は日本の方が高く、各市場や投資家の文化的背景なども影響を及ぼす可能性があることが示唆された。また、換金性の高いギフトカードの優待と、モノやサービスと言った優待では、投資判断に与える影響に大きな差異は観察されなかった。このことは投資家が必ずしも現金、または現金に近いもののみを株式リターンの一部として認識しているわけではなく、モノやサービスといった株主優待ならではのリターンも現金と同様に評価している可能性も示唆する。

Aim Internet addiction (IA), also referred to as internet use disorder, is a serious problem all over the world, especially in Asian countries. Severe IA in students may be linked to academic failure, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and forms of social withdrawal such as hikikomori. In this study, we performed a survey to investigate the relation between IA and ADHD symptoms among college students. Methods Severity of IA and ADHD traits were assessed by self-report scales. Subjects were 403 college students (response rate 78%) who completed a questionnaire including the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS)-V1.1. Results Out of 403 subjects, 165 were male, mean age was 18.4 ± 1.2 yrs, and mean total IAT score was 45.2 ± 12.6. One hundred forty-eight respondents (36.7%) were average internet users (IAT

Drawing on symbolic interactionism, this paper explores the nexus between tourism and national identity in China. Unlike current research's focus on the role of inbound heritage tourism sites in fostering national identity, this study uses symbolic interactionism to frame an analysis of how Chinese national identity is expressed and affirmed as a phenomenon of experiential consumption through the act of international outbound tourism. A multi-method approach guided the data collection from 28 Chinese tourists in two groups. Data analysis follows a constructivist grounded theory approach that is expressly suited to symbolic interactionism. The findings revealed that international tourism offers a platform on which to affirm and express Chinese national identity through the symbolic interaction between Chinese tourists and the world outside of China.

Although it has been argued that understandings of dynamic linkage between individuals (micro) and organizations (macro) is critical for explaining organizational phenomena, the traditional methods, such as survey and interview are limited in their ability to examine research questions to describe bottom-up effect by aggregating data. Here we propose agent-based modeling as a tool to elaborate theoretical and practical implications to understand organizational dynamics. Agent-based modeling is a computer simulation method that allows researchers to examine dynamic processes in which heterogeneous micro-level actors interact with other agents and environmental conditions, thereby giving rise to macro-level phenomena. This capability enables us to simulate coordination processes within organizations. In the current study, we show an example of such dynamics by applying the research setting of the evolution of cooperation to the organizational contexts. The results showed that the heterogeneity in capability is critical for the organizational effectiveness (or, high organizational performance). Further, a certain structural arrangement plays an important role to the coordination process to withdraw a high organizational performance. Implications for management research and practices are discussed.

Japan's prototype of depression was traditionally a melancholic depression based on the premorbid personality known as shūchaku-kishitsu proposed by Mitsuzo Shimoda in the 1930s. However, since around 2000, a novel form of depression has emerged among Japanese youth. Called 'modern type depression (MTD)' by the mass media, the term has quickly gained popularity among the general public, though it has not been regarded as an official medical term. Likewise, lack of consensus guidelines for its diagnosis and treatment, and a dearth of scientific literature on MTD has led to confusion when dealing with it in clinical practice in Japan. In this review article, we summarize and discuss the present situation and issues regarding MTD by focusing on historical, diagnostic, psychosocial, and cultural perspectives. We also draw on international perspectives that begin to suggest that MTD is a phenomenon that may exist not only in Japan but also in many other countries with different sociocultural and historical backgrounds. It is therefore of interest to establish whether MTD is a culture-specific phenomenon in Japan or a syndrome that can be classified using international diagnostic criteria as contained in the ICD or the DSM. We propose a novel diagnostic approach for depression that addresses MTD in order to combat the current confusion about depression under the present diagnostic systems.

We investigated whether well-known neural markers of selective attention to motivationally-relevant stimuli were modulated by variations in subjective preference towards consumer goods in a virtual shopping task. Specifically, participants viewed and rated pictures of various goods on the extent to which they wanted each item. Afterwards, participants had the opportunity to virtually purchase each item. Using the event-related potentials (ERP) method, we found that variations in subjective preferences for consumer goods strongly modulated positive slow waves (PSW) from 800 to 3000 milliseconds after stimulus onset. We also found that subjective preferences modulated the N200 and the late positive potential (LPP). In addition, we found that both PSW and LPP were modulated by subsequent buying decisions. Overall, these findings show that well-known brain event-related potentials reflecting selective attention processes can reliably index preferences to consumer goods in a shopping environment. Based on a large body of previous research, we suggest that early ERPs (e.g. the N200) to consumer goods could be indicative of preferences driven by unconditional and automatic processes, whereas later ERPs such as the LPP and the PSW could reflect preferences built upon more elaborative and conscious cognitive processes.

We examine how the timing of trust violations affects cooperation and solidarity, including trust and relational cohesion. Past studies that used repeated Prisoner’s Dilemmas suggest that trust violations are more harmful when they occur in early rather than later interactions. We argue that this effect of early trust violations depends on cultural and individual differences in generalized trust. A laboratory study from high- and low-trust cultures (the United States vs. Japan) supported our claim. First, early trust violations were more harmful than late trust violations, but only for Americans; the pattern reversed for Japanese. Second, these patterns were mediated by individual differences in generalized trust. Finally, generalized trust also moderated the effect of trust violations in the United States but not Japan. By demonstrating that generalized trust is not only lower but also less important in low-trust cultures, our research advances our understanding of how culture affects the development of solidarity in exchange relations.

Previous studies have argued that people feel regret more strongly when they act than when they fail to act (termed the action effect). This study investigated cultural differences in the circumstances under which the action effect occurs. Japanese and U.S. undergraduates played roulette games that determined either the participant's or a friend's outcome. After a computer randomly chose one of two roulettes, participants were asked to decide to change or not to change the roulette (i.e., action or inaction). Japanese participants regretted action more strongly than inaction under the friend condition, whereas U.S. participants showed the same pattern under the self condition. Additionally, those who regretted actions strongly were more likely to avoid actions. The authors discuss the functions of regret in culturally defined contexts.

We conducted a preliminary study to examine the effective index, which objectively indicates the development of the therapeutic process. It has been repeatedly reported that clients often insert silence in their speech when trying to focus on their feelings. This study quantitatively analysed the duration of pauses (i.e. silence) and utterances of a therapist and a client during Japanese psychotherapy sessions. Four, 50-minute sessions were analysed, including two low-evaluated sessions (low-evaluation cases) and two highly evaluated sessions (high-evaluation cases). Results indicated that the percentage and duration of clients’ pauses within high-evaluation cases were higher than those in low-evaluation cases. We discuss the implication of the use of silence during psychotherapy.

Punishment of non-cooperators—free riders—can lead to high cooperation in public goods games (PGG). However, second-order free riders, who do not pay punishment costs, reduce the effectiveness of punishment. Here we introduce a “leader support system,” in which one group leader can freely punish group followers using capital pooled through the support of group followers. In our experiment, participants engage in three stages repeatedly: a PGG stage in which followers decide to cooperate for their group; a support stage in which followers decide whether to support the leader; and a punishment stage in which the leader can punish any follower. We compare a support-present condition with a no-support condition, in which there is an external source for the leader’s punishment. The results show that punishment occurs more frequently in the support-present condition than the no-support condition. Within the former, both higher cooperation and higher support for a leader are achieved under linkage-type leaders—who punish both non-cooperators and non-supporters. In addition, linkage-type leaders themselves earn higher profits than other leader types because they withdraw more support. This means that leaders who effectively punish followers could increase their own benefits and the second-order free rider problem would be solved.

Many researchers have suggested that a sanctioning system is necessary to achieve cooperation in a large society. Sanctioning others, however, is costly, raising the question of what exactly is the adaptive advantage of sanctioning. One possible answer is that sanctioners get reputational benefit. While the reputational benefits accruing to punishers and nonpunishers have been compared in previous studies, in the present study we directly compared the reputational benefit of punisher, rewarder, and non-sanctioner. We conducted a scenario experiment in which participants were asked to play several games, such as the Ultimatum Game, Dictator Game, and Chicken Game with punisher, rewarder, and non-sanctioner. While in previous studies, punishers have gotten better reputational benefit as providers of resources than have non-sanctioners, we found that punishers received worse reputations than did rewarders or non-sanctioners in all games used in our experiment. These results suggest that reputational benefits change according to what kind of sanction individuals can exercise.

Humans must coordinate approach-avoidance behaviours with the social cues that elicit them, such as facial expressions and gaze direction. We hypothesised that when someone is observed looking in a particular direction with a happy expression, the observer would tend to approach that direction, but that when someone is observed looking in a particular direction with a fearful expression, the observer would tend to avoid that direction. Twenty-eight participants viewed stimulus faces with averted gazes and happy or fearful expressions on a computer screen. Participants were asked to grasp (approach) or withdraw from (avoid) a left- or right-hand button depending on the stimulus face's expression. The results were consistent with our hypotheses about avoidance responses, but not with respect to approach responses. Links between social cues and adaptive behaviour are discussed.

We investigated how information about others’ trustworthiness affects brain region activation in a functional MRI (fMRI) study. Participants were given statements about a person’s behaviors and were asked to judge whether or not the person was trustworthy while undergoing fMRI imaging. Participants read 32 statements, half of which were relevant to making judgments about trustworthiness, and half of which were irrelevant to making judgments about trustworthiness. We found that making trustworthiness judgments when reading relevant statements was associated with differential activation in five regions: the angular gyrus (AG), anterior cingulate (AC), left frontal lobe (LF), right frontal lobe (RF), and putamen/caudate nucleus (PU/CA). Previous studies using highly abstract economic game situations have also shown activation in these regions. These regions are also related to the learning process and to theory-of-mind processing. In addition, we found that people with high or low scores on a general trust scale showed less activation than did people with middle-range scores. These results suggest that we use trial-and-error learning to decide whether to trust others, and that this learning history (represented here as general trust level) influences automatic processing of new trust judgments.

The purpose of this study was to explore cultural similarities and differences in regret, focusing on distinctions between interpersonal and self-situations, and between action and inaction regrets. Japanese and American undergraduates were asked to describe regrets experienced in interpersonal and self-situations. We found that both situational and cultural contexts influenced the likelihood of regretting inactions over actions. Participants were more likely to recall inaction regrets in self-situations than in interpersonal situations, and that the likelihood of recalling inaction regrets was more pronounced for Americans than for Japanese. Furthermore, we examined the intensity of the regret. Whereas American students experienced regret as intense as that of Japanese students in self-situations, Japanese students experienced regret more strongly than American students in interpersonal situations. Detailed content analysis also showed that individuals experienced regret in ways consistent with cultural values. The situational and cultural grounding of regret is discussed.

How do people detect trustworthiness in others? Some researchers have shown that research participants trust smiling faces more than non-smiling faces. We examined cultural differences in this “smile effect.” We investigated whether three elements of a smile (smile intensity at the eyes, smile intensity at the mouth, and facial symmetry) would differently influence American and Japanese participants’ judgments of trustworthiness. In our experiment, images of 54 American and 69 Japanese male faces were initially rated for intensity of expression in the eyes and mouth, and for symmetry of the smile, by Japanese participants. The images were then presented to 142 American and 80 Japanese participants, who were asked to rate each face’s trustworthiness. The results showed that Japanese participants rated as more trustworthy faces with greater upper-half intensity and greater smile symmetry, but rated as less trustworthy faces with greater lower-half intensity. In contrast, American participants rated as more trustworthy faces with greater lower-half intensity, but there was no influence of upper-half smile intensity, nor of smile symmetry.