The aim of this study was to investigate why certain youths identify with delinquent groups by examining specific factors that increase identification with them, such as intergroup relationships. Specifically, we hypothesized that the permeability of group boundaries would moderate the effect of group discrimination on identification with a delinquent group. In total, 96 male youths were recruited from four juvenile classification homes. The results revealed that youths who perceived group boundaries with lower compared with higher permeability cognitively identified with delinquent groups more strongly when perceiving group discrimination from teachers or the police; this finding supported our hypothesis. No other significant interaction effect was observed. Conversely, in terms of affective identification, we found an unexpected interaction between the permeability of group boundaries and group discrimination from peers. Overall, the findings did not support our hypothesis. However, some of the results suggest that delinquent youths may be able to decrease cognitive group identification by having friends outside of the delinquent group, even if they experienced discrimination from conformity groups such as teachers and the police.

Studies on anger have repeatedly assumed the existence of moral outrage, which is defined as the anger that results from witnessing a violation of a moral standard. However, recent research has found that more anger may be evoked by the unjustified treatment of one's self or a member of one's group, and not by the violation of a moral standard per se (e.g., Batson, Chao, & Givens, 2009). This is termed as personal anger. In our current study, we focused on justice sensitivity as a personality disposition and predicted that moral outrage would be a conditional emotional reaction that would be evoked only in individuals with high justice sensitivity. Japanese participants were asked to read a fictitious newspaper report describing an abduction case. For half the participants, the abducted victim was described as Japanese; for the remaining half, Slovenian. They were then asked to report their corresponding anger. Results indicated that even participants with high justice sensitivity reported more anger only when the victim of the abduction was Japanese. The finding that justice sensitivity did not lead to the evocation of moral outrage suggests that personal anger is an exceedingly prevalent and powerful emotion, which may be differentiated from moral outrage.

Anger at the violation of a moral standard has been called moral outrage. However, recent research found that only when the victim of a moral violation was oneself (or a member of one's group) did it evoke strong anger. This suggests that the violation of a moral standard itself does not elicit anger, and such anger may be evidence of personal anger evoked by harm to oneself (or a member of one's group). In our study, we assume that moral outrage may be evoked when the likelihood of restoring fairness (e.g., compensation) is expected. We conducted three experiments in which Japanese university students read a newspaper report (fictitious) depicting an abduction case. For half of the participants, the abducted victim was Japanese; for the other half, Slovenian. After reading the news story, they were asked to report the intensity of the feelings of anger and whether the abduction was morally wrong. We found that the report evoked considerable anger only when the abducted victim was Japanese, regardless of whether restoring fairness was actually expected. This indicated that the reported anger provided evidence only of personal anger, not of moral outrage; thus, the likelihood of restoring fairness is not a determinant of moral outrage. These findings imply that personal anger, rather than moral outrage, is more prevalent in social life.

A core relational norm regulating social interaction is the idea of responsibility for needs (RN). Assuming that anger is a signal indicating a violation of RN, we attempted to test the mediation model that the perception that one's needs are frustrated by a close other (romantic partner) would generate a perceived RN violation, which in turn would increase anger. Further, we attempted to examine whether mediation also works in relationships with friends. In a role-taking study providing participants with a series of scenarios depicting the other (either romantic partner, friend, or mere acquaintance) as responding or not responding to one's needs, we asked them to rate the intensity of anger and the perceived RN violation. The results showed that in the romantic partner condition, the frustration increased the perception of RN violation, which in turn intensified anger. Further, this mediation was also confirmed in the friend condition, suggesting that RN also operates within friend relationships.

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女子大学生を対象に，過去の接触経験と乳児の画像や音声の認知評価との相関を調べる調査をweb上で行った。全体を通じて性成熟後の接触経験がそれ以前の経験よりも相関が高いという傾向がみられた。ただし、泣き顔や泣き声は性成熟以前からの経験の効果も大きかった。この違いから、ベビーシェマなどの鍵刺激と泣きとの間の性質の違いを考察した。