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Governance by authorities has established order in large groups since the birth of civilization, and at the same time, it has sometimes led to dictatorships and tyranny, resulting in tragedy. In this study, we develop an experiment named the Kingdom Game (KG), which simply models the governance structure. Using KG, we aim to examine the factors that distinguish whether a governor is driven by self-interest and leads to tyranny or whether he or she leads a good government for the benefit of group members. In particular, by manipulating the profits when citizens leave the group, we expect that governors will be more likely to tyrannize when it is less beneficial for citizens to leave their group.

Scholars point out that beliefs in supernatural punishment, in which people falsely infer for an accidental misfortune that they are "punished" by supernatural existence, have a function in supporting group cooperation, but it has been difficult to examine the function of such beliefs in experimental settings. This study proposes an "Artificial Supernatural Punishment (ASP)" experiment. In this experiment, each participant in groups decides how much to cooperate in a Public Goods Game, and then some participants are randomly reduced from their earned points irrespective of their cooperative behaviors. Participants are assigned to either conditions: Random instruction condition in which they are told that the target of the reduction is randomly determined or ASP instruction condition in which they are told that the target selection of the reduction is either random or proportional to the cooptation level, that is, the uncooperative participants are more likely to be chosen as reduction targets. In the ASP instruction condition, participants can anticipate the linkage between low cooperation and reduction, which means that beliefs in the supernatural punishment is reproduced in the experimental situation. Note that the reduction is random for both Random and ASP instruction conditions and only the anticipation is manipulated in the experiment. This will allow us to examine the mechanism by which cooperation is promoted and maintained by beliefs in supernatural punishment.

Possessions of force at the national and individual levels, such as nuclear weapons possession and gun ownership, are important issues. Therefore, research is necessary to explore the determinants of such possession. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of the possession of force by conducting an experiment using a Preemptive Strike Game with Possession options. Specifically, this experiment focuses on the effect of possession probability by opponents. The participants can decide whether or not to possess the weapon, but the possession of their opponents is determined with a certain probability (90% or 10%). We investigate whether the participants would be more likely to choose to possess weapon when the opponent’s probability of possession is high (90%) than low(10%).

Possessions of force at the national and individual levels, such as nuclear weapons possession and gun ownership, are important issues. Therefore, research is necessary to explore the determinants of such possession. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of the possession of force by conducting an experiment using a Preemptive Strike Game with Possession options.

In Japan, there are pros and cons for holding the Tokyo Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who oppose holding the Olympics may think that they are unable to enjoy it. However, the studies of affective forecasting have shown that people cannot accurately predict their future emotions. Therefore, even those who oppose the Olympics are also expected to enjoy it more than they predict. The present study examines the differences between emotions forecasted before, actually experienced during, and retrospective reported after the Olympics, taking into account the pros and cons for it.